Maersk to implement DNV GL ShipManager software

JULY 3, 2014—Danish container shipping giant Maersk Line has begun a pilot program to test classification society DNV GL’s ShipManager software on five of its ships for use in procurement, crewing, and quality, health, safety, and environmental compliance. The plan calls for the installation of ShipManager on Maerk’s owned fleet of 250 vessels next year.

Maersk chose DNV GL’s ShipManager system after a comprehensive selection process with 26 other shipmanagement software vendors globally. DNV GL says ShipManager will provide Maersk with increased process efficiency and improved access to and analysis of information.

The tender process included interviews with current ShipManager users, who gave feedback on the functionality of the software, the capabilities and support of DNV GL, best practices and the technical strength of the software, including replication, backward compatibility and minimal technical setup onshore and onboard.

“The implementation of ShipManager on the pilot vessels is a major milestone in the project,” says Are Føllesdal Tjønn, Managing Director at DNV GL – Software. “We have a full dedicated team working with Maersk Line on the implementation. All the configurations and settings have been agreed upon.” 

Sebastiaan Van den Wijngaert, Senior Project Manager at Maersk Line IT, says the feedback from ShipManager’s implementation on the 15,500-TEU containership Ebba Maersk “has been very positive.” Van den Wijngaert says, “The application is performing well, and the users have praised the application for its user-friendliness and the self-explanatory nature of the modules,” says.

“ShipManager will replace nine applications we use currently with one integrated, easier to learn, user-friendly and technically up-to-date application,” says Van den Wijngaert. “This will make the on-boarding of new people a lot easier,” he says.

Maersk Line will be using six integrated ShipManager modules: Technical, Procurement, Project, Crewing, QHSE and Analyzer. With ShipManager Analyzer, it is possible to extract data from all of the modules for analysis. “This will give our fleet managers a transparency they never had before,” says Van den Wijngaert.

 “We are very proud that our investments in our ship management software portfolio over the last five years stand up to the highest industry requirements,” says Tjønn. “The Maersk Line team is extremely professional and effective, and there is a lot of excitement about this project on both sides.”