December 16, 2010: SIS is pleased to announce the company has recently signed an agreement with Van Oord, a leading Dutch dredging and marine contractor. The contract, which covers Van Oord’s fleet of more than 90 vessels, represents one of the larger contracts in the marine software industry.

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

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. “We welcome the opportunity to work with Van Oord, a company with extensive experience managing big, complex projects,” he says. “The scope of the project represents a great opportunity for us to develop new services and software enhancements, and we are confident that by working in partnership with Van Oord, we can deliver on expectations.”

Henk-Jan van Dijk, project manager from the Ship Management department, explains:  “In 2008, we put out a tender to a number of fleet management software providers,” he says. “We ran a pilot programme on two vessels with SIS, and got a lot of positive feedback from onboard personnel about the quality of their solution.  In addition to meeting our software demands, we found that SIS software was more user-friendly and easier to upgrade than competing systems, which is critical for a project of this scale.” Furthermore the system is 100% maritime oriented and has class approval from the larger classification societies.

Ruud Lendfers, project manager from the IT department, says Van Oord sought a system which could improve efficiency in their maintenance, purchasing and transportation departments. “SIS software has good backward compatibility and is easy to integrate with some of our existing systems,” he says. “It’s a big job, but because SIS systems are intuitive, we expect training will go smoothly.” 

SIS CCO Martin Karlstad says that the size of Van Oord’s fleet required a different approach to the implementation process.  “One of our core strengths is providing structured, efficient and comprehensive implementation services,” he says. “We will provide this service to Van Oord on the first four vessels, then work to train their implementation teams, so they can complete the implementation process for the rest of their fleet.”

Karlstad adds that the two companies will also work together to develop new software enhancements, which will be integrated into SIS software solutions. “While developed in cooperation with Van Oord, these are not intended as bespoke solutions,” he says. “These new features will become a part of SIS standard software package, so Van Oord and our other customers will have access to improved functionalities, upgrades and support over time.”

In addition to the software and standard service package, which includes quality assurance and product management, SIS will also provide Van Oord with process mapping, help establish interfaces between legacy and operational systems, and develop conversion tools to facilitate a smooth transition of data from old to new systems. “The project enables SIS to expand our service offering, giving us critical experience to manage larger, more complex projects in the future,” says Karlstad. “It is a great opportunity for us to show what we can do.”

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