There’s myriad vessel tracking companies competing for business these days. One new name, however, reckons it is offering something different. BigOceanData, which can trace its origins back to the 1990s, was officially launched this February and its chairman, Steve Jones, tells Maritime CEO the aim is to ensure the UK company becomes the “track and manage go to company.”
Formerly with the Royal Air Force (RAF), Jones then worked for the defence industries before creating what would eventually become BigOceanData in the mid-1990s.
“We were taking defence technologies to use for commercial purposes,” he recalls. The original system focused on the fishing sector, but latterly Jones and his team realised there was a niche to fill in on the commercial shipping side.
“We believe we are different,” Jones says, “as we did not come from an AIS direction. We look at what managers need to be efficient – the complete online portal for operators.”
Hove a mouse over a dot on the map of BigOceanData’s system and a wealth of information pops up. The platform has AIS, security alerts, intelligent routing, weather and plenty more besides. Where previously shipowners paid numerous entities for all these different services, BigOceanData has bundled them all together.
“Where we are particularly slick,” Jones says, “is that dot on the map is an entity, just one click away.”
The firm has just won a major contract with one of the world’s largest shipping lines, beating out 14 other bids in the process.
BigOceanData is exhibiting at this week’s SMM fair in Hamburg. You can find them in the UK pavilion at B1.OG.506.
