Major technical fleet management software order for SIS

Under the terms of the contract, SIS will provide a suite of software solutions to manage all aspects of the technical management of the 90-strong Van Oord fleet, including maintenance planning, purchasing, logistics and asset management. Van Oord has also contracted SIS to develop additional functionalities, which will be integrated into the SIS software and made available to other customers.

According to SIS CEO Per Anders Koien, the contract is the largest ever won by the company, and is among the biggest ever awarded in the fleet management software industry, measured by value.

SIS and Van Oord will be working together in development of the enhanced version of the standard SIS package, which will form the basis of the next commercial release of the SIS suite, planned for September 2010. This will then be gradually rolled out to the Van Oord fleet and shore operations, with all locations and ships fully equipped, and commissioning and staff training completed some time in 2013. Among the major enhancements will be a closer integration of the shore-based and shipboard maintenance functions, and improvements to the logistics planner to help save spare parts costs.

At the same time, SIS announced that the company and its original had now acquired the 34% shareholding in SIS previously held by rival software producer BASS. The situation had come about as a result of a holding in SIS by Barber Ship Management which had been transferred to Barber’s IT subsidiary, which subsequently became BASS and was bought by its management, resulting in a major competitor having a strong influence on SIS’s day-to-day operations and future development.

The Van Oord contract has provided an injection of funds into SIS which, in part, allowed it to acquire the BASS holding, but this was a difficult procedure under Norwegian company law and was only possible after a long legal process.

According to SIS, with the company now fully under the control of its own original shareholders it will be free to grow in the future; either organically or through acquisitions. With over a one-third part held by a competitor, such plans had previously been thwarted.

SIS can now make full use of its close links with major Scandinavian research organisations Sintef and Marintek.