Ship management software use growing

The Inmarsat Communications at Sea Report which surveyed 338 companies in 46 countries with control over 5,000 ships showed wide-spread use of ship management software. The company predicts that data will soon replace telex as the standard for ship to shore satellite communications.

The survey also showed that three quarters of ships already have modern PCs on-board and that many companies say that they will be prepared to allow their ships to access electronic chart web-sites, provided that there is a reduction in cost.

Scandinavian companies lead in the use of ship management applications (SMAs) while Japanese companies have the least take up of SMAs.

The sector where there is the highest use of SMAs is in the ship management business (mainly for third parties), with the majority of those surveyed using such applications. The least developed sector is the dry bulk market, with only one-third using SMAs.