Features: - Tanker Operator

INDUSTRY - SHIPMANAGEMENT SOFTWARE
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User friendly system
continuously
enhanced
Leading software developer Ulysses Systems has continued to develop its fully integrated
system - Task Assistant - for both shipboard and shoreside use.
This system is claimed to be very
user friendly as it allows the user
to access the task to be undertaken
and information needed without
scrolling through pages of information, which
might be irrelevant to what was required at
the time.
There are around 50 plus functions
available for each role at present and once the
user has quickly learned how to navigate the
system, the task to be undertaken can be
speedily accessed, Ulysses claimed.
Task orientation is the key differentiation of
Ulysses: Task orientation is an activity based
way to organise information so that it appears
to the user not only when he or she looks for
it, but also more when they are involved in a
task that might need it.
This is extremely important in making the
system user friendly and even more important
in rendering a system that helps seafarers with
their jobs, Ulysses said. People learn when
they are given information, which they did not
know, that is relevant to what they are doing.
“
Structuring a system enabling that relevance
to be achieved is the key to usability and
value of an enterprise software system.
Only those authorised to undertake certain
tasks are allowed access to the relevant pages.
The delegated persons can have access to
either part or the whole system depending on
what the requirements are. Once logged on,
the system will show the user what he or she
has access to and an audit trail can if needed
automatically track the user's actions.
Also Task Assistant pre-emptively provides
the user with relevant information from
various sources within the enterprise that
could be needed for the task at hand. Since the
user may not be aware of information
contained in the system that may be needed
for the execution of a task, the task orientation
presents the user with all relevant information
at the right time in the execution of the task.
Maintenance
One example is maintenance tasks,
maintenance schedules and work to be
Task orientation is the key differentiation
of Ulysses: Task orientation is an activity
based way to organise information so that
it appears to the user not only when he or she
looks for it, but also more when they are
involved in a task that might need it.
”
undertaken can be seen, including specifics
such as sorting by ship by fleet by
machinery including work schedule, spares
orders etc. For a person in an organisation,
such as a fleet manager who gets involved
only when others call him in, a view of this
information can be very different from that
of a chief engineer who is involved with the
same ship every day. Ulysses role task
orientation ensures the right configuration
for the right role.
Ulysses had found that the marine
industry has neither the time nor the budgets
to train officers to use unintuitive software.
Hence the software has been specifically
developed for multi-tasking users with a lot
of logical indexing structure tailored to each
role and task, resulting in the ease of
navigation of the system which is of
prime importance.
Thus the common requirement that
information for a certain user only makes
sense if combined with other relevant
information is fully accounted for. A prime
example is a group purchasing manager who
needs to see spares ordering information in
such a way as to back up his subordinates and
ensure the vessels were supplied in time, as
well as to check whether pricing criteria had
been adhered to.
The problem today is that the number of
qualified seafarers is decreasing while the
number of tasks, which need to be
undertaken on board, is increasing. This
results in more risk assessments, KPIs and
other tasks, which all involve a certain
amount of form filling, including the recently
revised TMSA for tankers. This means that a
lot more information needs to be collected in
forms for the above tasks, and a lot more
relevant knowhow needs to be provided to
users at the time it is needed to ensure
TANKEROperator � August/September 2008