Cruise & Ferry Review - Autumn/Winter 2021

8 4 INTERV IEW Smart data delivery Les Shortall of Inmarsat talks to Michele Witthaus about the company’s solutions that are enabling a revolution in digitalisation for ferry operators B uilding on its long history of working with the maritime sector to improve the way fleets operate, Inmarsat has developed a digital platform that makes it easier for its customers to implement digital tools that increase efficiency and safety across their vessels. Condition monitoring is an important item in the digital toolbox, providing the ability to monitor all onboard assets. “Ferry operators who use digital solutions for their performance monitoring can see their maintenance records in the cloud any time they want to,” says Les Shortall, director of yachting and passenger sector development for Inmarsat. “They can also begin to collect information on the return on investment of minimising vessel outages. That also helps to give a spin-off benefit in terms of safety management.” The need to achieve fuel and emissions savings is a major driver for operators to consider digital solutions, says Shortall. “Fuel usage is one of the highest recurring costs for any vessel, so anything which can reduce fuel costs is a big advantage. Fuel savings are also important for the adjacent benefits around reducing emissions.” Smart vessels offer the opportunity to monitor fuel usage and emissions, so that owners can consider mitigation strategies such as slow steaming. “You can get to your destination port at the lowest cost and don’t have to rush to wait,” explains Shortall. “A fleet manager across multiple ferries can look at best practice to see if certain captains are operating vessels more efficiently than others or if certain ships are operating better on different routes.” The ability to conduct remote diagnostics is of growing interest to operators. “They can reduce the high costs of technical specialists having to travel to vessel locations because they can remotely access what’s going on and therefore it becomes a lot less expensive to diagnose and it’s quicker to do repairs and fix problems.” Automation of previously manual monitoring functions has the potential to improve safety on ships, says Shortall. “It’s about using technology in ways that The Inmarsat Network Operations Centre in London, UK