Riding the waves safely with enhanced data

“The Coast Guard needed comprehensive situational awareness of all the vessels around the Francis Scott Key Bridge [Baltimore bridge]. Within five days, we created a digital platform which aggregated the live automatic identification system tracking all the vessels within a 30 nautical mile zone of the bridge,” says Captain Steve Bomgardner (pictured), vice president of commercial markets at maritime intelligence technology provider Pole Star Global.

More usually, maritime software providers are on hand to assist shipowners with keeping on top of areas such as fuel efficiency and regulatory compliance which are now central to most fleets’ daily operational activity. The Motorship spoke to two of the largest providers in the sector, ABS Wavesight and Pole Star Global, to hear more about this emerging sector.

RegTech is a phrase to describe software companies involved with assisting in remaining compliant with the evolving regulatory framework in many sectors but does the phrase apply to those companies in the maritime sector? “RegTech is just one piece of it. Enterprise resource management is about operationally running the entire business, driving operational efficiencies. My Digital Fleet help’s operationally shipowners and operators get more efficient, reduce fuel, drive down costs from a macro view,” says Staci Satterwhite, CEO of ABS Wavesight.

Bomgardner says that given his company aids with LRIT conformance and flag state compliance, RegTech is a term that Pole Star Global “would fit into”.

Maritime software is a growing industry due in part to the tsunami of regulation hitting the sector but is it a big enough market to accommodate all the players active in it? “Are there competitors? Yes, but I think the competition is fragmented. There’re companies that that have sanctions and compliance [solutions] that would be a competitor for us in that space, – but,[they] would not have the tracking, and few, if any, would have access to Sat-C data for a hybrid tracking approach,” says Bomgardner.

He adds that there is also competition in vessel optimisation and weather routing software providers although says for the aforementioned LRIT and flag state compliance “there’s really no one [else] that does that”.

ABS Wavesight’s Satterwhite points to another of the company’s products, Nautical Systems, which she describes as a “gorilla in the space” given it has nearly 5,000 vessels using it. This fleet management software offering was established in 1998 and is “very deep, very broad” according to Satterwhite who adds there is a newer version which lives on the cloud.

Pole Star Global has been on the acquisition trail fairly recently, last year buying vessel tracking software provider StratumFive after acquiring a majority stake in sustainability risk screening company Vasanda in 2021.

ABS Wavesight has not been involved in any M&A although Satterwhite, only taking the helm of the company earlier this year, does not rule it out. The company does benefit from its association with classification society ABS though, including its 162-year history and all the knowledge that comes with it.

Recently another maritime software provider, France’s Opsealog, won a contract with its compatriot subsea operations company Bourbon. The contract, awarded after a 25-vessel trial, will see Opsealog’s fleet monitoring and data-driven optimisation software deployed across Bourbon’s global marine and logistics fleet.

It seems maritime software providers need a USP to stand out in what may be a fragmented market but one that is growing steadily busier each year. ABS Wavesight has its association with a class society while Pole Star Global, as well as its LRIT and flag state specialisms, looks to be on hand when disaster strikes.