Greek ship operator Minerva Marine has installed new IT and communications systems across the majority of its managed vessels, including Inmarsat Fleet Xpress connectivity and Navarino’s Infinity Cube for onboard network management.
63 vessels in the Minerva fleet have now adopted Fleet Xpress, which connects with the Infinity system on board to manage ship-shore data transfers as well as crew communications.
Minerva now uses the system to carry out hourly application data syncs between all vessels and its offices, operating shared folders for shipboard data. The company is also making use of video calling with the ships to improve support from shore, or sends and receives video clips where necessary.
“The welfare of the crews of our managed vessels is one of our top priorities and thanks to the fixed fee and high-speed nature of Fleet Xpress we are able to offer them free internet,” said Eftihia Benaki, Minerva’s IT Manager and CySO.
“Thanks to the Infinity Cube we have onboard, we do not need to issue PINs, as crewmembers’ data allowance is linked to their registered user account on the Infinity. The way we have set up the Infinity with our crewing system also means that when a seafarer joins or leaves a vessel, their account automatically follows them, which saves a lot of administration.”
“Looking ahead, we want to continue to ensure that our managed vessels are equipped with the most cutting edge, reliable technology, so we are currently in the process of beta testing Navarino’s Spectrum service, which we believe can help us with the remote IT services, and we are also testing Angel, Navarino’s cyber security solution.”
