Enterprise Management News

Australia & New Zealand Banking Corp (ANZ) has agreed to sell its 20 percent stake in Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank (SRCB) for US$1.33bn. China Cosco Shipping Corp and Shanghai Sino-Poland Enterprise Management Development Corp had each agreed to acquire 10 percent of SRCB. The sale comes as the bank moves to shrink its business and scale back its presence in the region. ANZ said the sale will not have a meaningful impact on its balance sheet, with the price broadly in line with the value of the asset in ANZ's annual accounts. No comment was immediately available from China Cosco Shipping or Sino-Poland. State-owned China Cosco Shipping has amassed stakes in several Chinese banks and financial companies, says a report in FT.

Holland America Line has appointed Denella Ri’chard to the position of director, trade communication and engagement. In this newly created role she is responsible for supporting travel agent partners worldwide, with particular focus on the United States and Canada. She oversees trade communications, the PartnerShips website, HAL Academy and all other internal and external training programs. Ri’chard, who is based in Seattle, Washington, at the Holland America Line headquarters, will report to Joe Slattery, senior vice president, global marketing and sales. “Denella’s impressive sales and marketing credentials, combined with her outstanding presentation skills, will be a tremendous asset to the Holland America Line organization,” said Slattery.

PAO Sovcomflot (“SCF Group”), Russia’s largest shipping company and a global leader in seaborne energy transportation and offshore services, announced the completion of a major IT integration project with the support of SpecTec. The project provides SCF Group with access to the latest enterprise management systems, enabling organizational efficiency to be improved, costs to be reduced and facilitating compliance with the latest regulations impacting upon shipping companies. One of the most complex and advanced IT projects ever undertaken within the shipping industry, this project involved the databases of all 143 vessels within SCF Group’s fleet. Each deliverable under the project having to be deployed successfully on each of the Group’s vessels, requiring great attention to detail.

SpecTec will work with Mercy Ships to migrate its current system Business Suite to AMOS Enterprise Management Suite (EMS). Mercy Ships’ Africa Mercy, the world’s largest hospital ship, will receive a new update of the latest version of AMOS EMS, installing the Quality Management module. This will be followed with the migration of its existing modules from the current system. At the end of the project, the Africa Mercy will be fully integrated with new and existing modules. “Mercy Ships has used AMOS for many years…

SpecTec will work with long term partner Mercy Ships to migrate its current system Business Suite to AMOS Enterprise Management Suite (EMS). Mercy Ships’ Africa Mercy, the world’s largest hospital ship, will now receive a brand new update of the latest version of AMOS EMS installing the Quality Management module. This will then follow with the migration of its existing modules from the current system. At the end of the project, the Africa Mercy will be fully integrated with new and existing modules.

Profitability in shipping goes up and down in waves. 2012 wasn’t too bad, with annual operating costs shrinking by 1.8% on average versus 2011, when average costs rose 2.1%, but 2013 weighed anchor in the losses column for many. And 2014? So far the waters are choppy, with the overall mood up in May but dipping down in the quarter that ended in August, according to Moore Stephen’s quarterly Shipping Confidence Survey. Much of what worries the industry concerns issues over which it has little to no control – oversupply…

Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Holdings Limited announced that yesterday was a “momentous” for the group, as senior Chinese officials paid visit to Yangzijiang’s shipyard and the group’s chairman received the Outstanding Entrepreneur Award by the Chinese Enterprises Association. On the morning of June 18, Vice-premier of China’s state council, Ma Kai, and Minister of Industry and Information Technology Miao Wei visited the Group’s Jiangsu New Yangzi yard together with national departments, provincial and municipal leaders.

ABS Nautical Systems continually enhances its NS5 Enterprise software suite of products to meet ever-changing industry demands. Currently in development for release in 2013 are a mobility platform, a new warehouse and inventory management module, as well as a new Hull Inspection 3D module. The mobility platform supports portable devices including scanners, tablet PCs and smartphones. Features will include alert view notifications and mobile calendaring. Any customer with mobility support within the organization’s infrastructure can take advantage of this upcoming technology.

PortVision to host a TerminalSmart forum for marine terminal managers & Automatic Identification System (AIS) operators. The meeting will address key issues facing marine terminals, particularly marine operations associated with the petrochemical supply chain. This includes marine transportation managers challenged with chartering, scheduling, vetting, logistics, loss control and demurrage management, as well as operations managers responsible for front-line dock activities and dock management. Representatives from a number of major oil companies and leading terminal operators have already registered to attend. “These summits help us meet the evolving needs of our marine terminal customers and the maritime industry as a whole,” said Dean Rosenberg, PortVision chief executive officer.

SpecTec and Gungen Maritime and Trading A/S recently announced the signing of a contract for the migration of their AMOS BS system to the latest version of AMOS2 Enterprise Management. After a series of fruitful meetings, last June the two companies renewed their long term mutually beneficial collaboration through the agreement which will lead the Turkish Shipping Company to the acquisition of the latest product of the AMOS Suite for its offices in Ankara and Istanbul as well as onboard the Vessels of the fleet. The provision set into the contract will be then extended to the two newbuildings soon to be delivered. The contract will see the two parties involved in the activities for implementing the AMOS2 system for the management of maintenance operations…

BassDrill Management Inc. (an American company formed to design, fabricate & operate safe & efficient drilling equipment) has recently opted to use AMOS2 Enterprise Management Suite software and have SpecTec provide many of the general application activities that might be provided by a typical AMOS Administrator. With their use of AMOS in the office going strong, BassDrill has made the strategic decision to implement AMOS 2 on  tender unit drilling  ‘BassDrill Alpha’ (Classification: ABS +A1 Barge), delivered on January 2010  and currently committed to Perenco. BassDrill Alpha has been working with Perenco in the Republic of Congo since October 2010.

“Shipbuilding enterprises must be able to handle any strong waves that come their way, and their ships must be solidly built yet be able to move flexibly. Since 2008, the Chinese shipbuilding industry has experienced many ups and downs. The first was the big increase in shipbuilding steel material prices in 2008, with the prices at some steel producers reaching 10,000 RMB per ton, resulting in price increases of 21% to 30% over four months. The next challenge was the slump of the international shipping market in 2009 as impacted by the global financial crisis…

SpecTec is happy to announce a new contract signed with Oceanex Inc for the implementation of AMOS2 Staff Management for crewing services. As part of this project, SpecTec will implement the AMOS2 Crewing Database and configure the system identically to the existing AMOS2 Staff Management database currently being used by Oceanex Inc. both onshore and onboard the company’s three vessels, M/V Oceanex Avalon, M/V Cabot and M/V Oceanex Sanderling. Recent projects to assist Oceanex…

The SpecTec Group has opened their newest office in Rio de Janeiro: officially, AMOS Brasil Sistemas de Gestão de Recursos e Consultoria de Software Ltda., or SpecTec Brazil, will serve as region headquarters. SpecTec’s new local team has been formed and includes professional technical consultants to provide project management and customer support, as well as a business development team. The region is managed by David Reyes, Managing Director, Latin America. In its 26 years of existence, AMOS has become the "de facto" standard Asset Management software in shipping, and a major player in oil & gas and energy sectors; moreover several Navies worldwide are implementing AMOS as a Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) software to cover their Integrated Logistic Systems aspects.

The new AMOS2 Enterprise Management Suite (AMOS2EMS Maintenance Module) version 5.1 has been type approved by Lloyd's Register following successful completion of the Software Conformity Assessment (GENPMS). The assessment criteria are aimed at establishing that the software product, intended for use as part of a computerized planned maintenance scheme, has been developed and tested according to acceptable standards of software engineering practice. It is aimed at establishing that a manufacturer has satisfactory controls in place for the design, development, verification testing of its performance and functionality, version control, configuration management and maintenance to provide confidence in the software product.

One of the most important improvements in ship production has been the introduction of CAD/CAM. The initial use of computers for drafting, lofting and automation of steel cutting has been extended from the design office and the mold loft throughout the shipyard and beyond by integrating the Internet, sophisticated database applications and enterprise management software to radically improve the entire shipbuilding process. However, the result of this, the Integrated Ship Product Model, is poised to revolutionize ship management and maintenance throughout its lifecycle. Boats and ships differ from most other objects because they are formed of arbitrary curved surfaces instead of well-defined assemblies of geometric shapes.

The U.S. Navy is awarding indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity multiple award contracts to 391 contractors that will provide for their competition for service requirements solicited by Naval Sea Systems Command, Naval Air Systems Command, Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, Naval Supply Systems Command, Military Sealift Command, Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Strategic Systems Programs, and the United States Marine Corps. The 22 functional service areas within the scope of the contracts include 1. Research and Development Support. 2. Engineering System Engineering and Process Engineering Support. 3. Modeling, Simulation, Stimulation, and Analysis Support. 4. Prototyping, Pre-Production, Model-Making, and Fabrication Support.