MARINELINK-Smart system updates: what are we doing and why?

How does the MARINELINK-Smart system currently work?

Every ship is different. Different data is available, different advice may be appropriate (ballast tanks for trim are only available on some ships, for instance) and different data gathering protocols may be necessary, depending on the age of the ship.

Whilst MARINELINK-Smart looks similar to the crew on every ship, each MARINELINK-Smart installation is actually a specifically developed piece of software.

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Each ship’s system is a complicated mix of data flows and calculations. The problems this creates are:

• Difficult to identify the sources of errors and bugs
• Only very limited information on-shore for MARINELINK-Smart team on functioning of system-board
• Time consuming to update each ship with new features

What are we changing?

To address this, we have separated the ship-specific elements from the rest of the MARINELINK-Smart system. The goal is to have as much commonality between each ship as possible.

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This standardised approach has the advantages of:

• Far easier to identify and fix errors and bugs, and then roll out this fix across all ships
• Rich stream of information automatically monitored on-shore by MARINELINK-Smart team on system performance
• Enhanced data on-shore for customer teams to view (e.g. journey summary statistics)
• Rapid deployment of new features to ships
• Much faster on-boarding of new ships and new customers

This process will take some time to complete. Our goal is have the new approach rolled out to all ships by the end of the year.

In the meantime, MARINELINK-Smart will continue to function as normal for the ship’s currently using the system (i.e. those not awaiting a draft sensor replacement), and we will continue to provide support and bug fixes as required.

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