We are happy to announce we have signed a 5 years contract with Orbcomm

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We are happy to announce we have signed a 5 years contract with Orbcomm, a Nasdaq listed company and one of the world's biggest global AIS coverage providers. We are now receiving updated AIS positions from more than 600 satellites and terrestrial AIS senders on more than 65 000 vessels. That is a lot of AIS data.

How will this agreement benefit you as a user of Maritime Optima?

• Real-time AIS position on more than 65 000 vessels 
• Access to all the vessels voyage history
• We will also be able to develop new cool features with high accuracy and quality, based on our users' input and feedback.

However, AIS has known weaknesses and will be only one source for data input. Still, we have a strong technical team with a combination of young and experienced developers, headed by our CTO Pål-Robert Engnæs, ex Kongsberg Maritime, who has been working with the AIS protocols for years.  

High quality and frequently updated AIS data are costly and hard to achieve. So we are very proud we have been able to sign this agreement securing our users and team frequent and reliable AIS data. Based on this agreement and our investments in:

• A system for sorting all vessels into segments and sub-segments,
• A comprehensive vessel data center where each vessel has a machine-readable questionnaire template attached, letting you be the owner of your vessel's data so you can decide how and with whom you want to share /exchange the vessel data with. 
• A structured and indexed port database easy to expand
• A weather map and ECA, Load lines, INL, Polar Code as data layers
• A map layer tool where you can create your private decision-making map
• an advanced route planner 
• A highly technical skilled team.
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We have sketched a roadmap, and we are committed to invest where we need to invest, showing we aim to be a stayer and a long-term partner for you and your team.

Being an early phase start-up during this Covid year has been tuff. However, the personal property of not giving up in combination with hard work usually pays off. We already have close to 1700 registered users, we have many active users using Maritime Optima every week, and we have started to see users upgrading to standard plan.

I think all of you have heard through many sources that:

• DATA is king. 
• Digitalization will change the maritime industry, also the way we organize our office work and the way we connect with the vessels

However, the sad news is there are no "low hanging fruits, no quick (smart) fixes at no costs" to obtain long term sustainable digital advantages. The wave we are facing now is a DEEP digitalization, and maybe you also need to replace or reshape the old rigid software systems, which determines how you structure your work. 

The wise man Albert Einstein once said: "If you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got."

So, here is my advice to you: 

Start looking for people who understand technology, software companies' products, and their business models, and train these people to understand your company's business model and to help them understand the"drivers for value creation" in our industry. These people have the essential keys you need to unlock your company's sustainable digital advantages.

We have sketched a roadmap and are committed to invest where we need to invest, showing we aim to be a stayer and a long-term partner for you and your team.

We are genuinely looking forward to 2021 and to develop and launch new features based on input and feedback from our users.

We are looking forward to developing Maritime Optima further together with you in 2021 💪