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In addition NMM will; support GENMAR’s global industrial relations stratedgy, provide accounting, payroll and banking services, crew travel services, crew training and development services and provide GENMAR with NMM’s industry leading IPPS (Intergrated Personnel and Payroll System). IPPS will be deployed globally across GENMAR’s regional crewing centres and will support GENMAR’s multi-national crewing operations.

GENMAR are one of the world’s largest operators of Aframax and Suezmax crude oil tankers and are listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

NMM provides a range of services that include technical management and provision of personnel, purchasing, accounts and consultancy to ship owners and operators in Stena Sphere Shipping divisions. Its diverse fleet includes bulk vessels, passenger, freight and container vessels and dedicated offshore support vessels.

With a rapidly expanding fleet, NMM felt the need to re-evaluate its less efficient business processes such as client reporting. Its clients—the other divisions within the Stena Group and third parties —regularly required access to reports, such as schedules, crew lists, and technical certification, which they accessed via the company’s Web site. But according to Sharon McLaughlin, IT Manager, NMM, they were forced to drill down through many different Web pages to find the reports they were looking for. “It was time consuming and frustrating for clients who needed to find the relevant information quickly.”

The existing client reporting Web site was HTML-based and required advanced technical knowledge to manage content. The IT department was forced to allocate its valuable time and resources to daily updates and maintenance. “We wanted to push the management of this site onto the users as we were losing more than three days a week in IT time to look after it,” says McLaughlin.

Using this technology, NMM developed an easy-to-use extranet for use by its clients, to replace the existing client reporting site. The site provides them with a single point-of-access to critical information, such as reports and certificates, previously accessed through various systems. SharePoint technology also offers powerful document searching functionality, and when new information is posted on the site, or documents are changed or updated, SharePoint notifies designated groups of any changes. “Clients can view technical certificates, for example, and are warned if they are out of date or in need of review,” says McLaughlin.

IT professionals have taken advantage of familiar tools such as Microsoft Visual Studio® .NET to develop the solution. As a result, the client reporting area of the site took just two weeks to generate. “It took the best part of four months to do the original site just for one client,” says McLaughlin.

SharePoint Portal Server 2003 lowers training costs and speeds user adoption by using a familiar browser interface. Site content and user activity is easily managed and updated without the need for special technical skills. “Our previous Web site needed HTML experts to update it. Now, there is little need for technical input and we can get on with more important IT tasks rather than administration,” says McLaughlin. “Everyone has the ability to prepare information for update on the new site.”

With non-technical users updating and maintaining the sites, NMM’s IT department has seen productivity savings of around 83 percent. “What used to take to up three days of our employees’ time each week, now takes less than half a day,” says McLaughlin. “And that half a day is only needed because new services are being launched and we are training users and providing key support. I expect it to reduce even further.

“Our IT members are thrilled by the way in which the technology enables us to redeploy our resources. Those that used to manage the client reporting site are now working on developing the invoice process. They don’t have to chase up bits of paper or dig through files of invoices in their spare time.”

The SharePoint solution enables clients to have more control over their own content and processes. Previously, NMM managed user access to the client report site. Now, each client has a master account and they make their own decisions about access.

Clients have welcomed this new management responsibility. “It means the ship managers have more control over the information that is important to them. They no longer have to rely on our department for all their needs, such as setting up new IDs and passwords, ensuring their processes are also more efficient,” says McLaughlin.

In addition, clients can access the certification documents, which determine a vessel is equipped to carry a particular cargo, for example. McLaughlin says: “In the past, each vessel would have to carry the certificates or we’d send them by fax. Now, they can download the appropriate documentation without delay via their own browser.”

Half way through the rescue, the Captain of FREEDOM fell in the cock pit and had seriously hurt himself on a winch. PRINCE WILLIAM’s crew arranged for the transfer of a Doctor from another vessel 6 nautical miles astern. For four exhausting hours Bosun Fliss and her team kept the RIB steady, transferring crew and supplies, relaying radio messages and stood by ready to evacuate the crew. On board PRINCE WILLIAM, the wardroom had been turned into a triage centre and the galley prepared emergency food. Eventually FREEDOM managed to repair their bilge pump and limped slowly into port.

However, PRINCE WILLIAM’s eventful voyage was still to continue. Having just crossed the finish line of the race the crew responded to a second emergency call from the ketch, JENS KROUGH, who had fouled her propeller and was drifting. PRINCE WILLIAM steamed back for five hours to find the ketch, passed a rope around her main mast and towed her over 100 miles, through high seas and worsening conditions, back to Travemunde in Germany.

Both rescues were an outstanding example of seamanship and bravery by all the crew on board PRINCE WILLIAM who battled high seas, strong winds and difficult conditions. The young trainees on board were given an unparalleled lesson on how to care for other seafarers and rescue those in trouble by a crew who acted well above and beyond the call of duty.

PRINCE WILLIAM has recently been registered as an Auxiliary Coastguard Vessel in recognition of her ability to help those in danger, even in bad conditions and when others may not be capable or prepared to undertake such a rescue. The courage of the crew was a great reflection on the Tall Ships Youth Trust, whose voyages are designed to encourage teamwork, determination and leadership in a challenging environment.

Accepting the Certificate on behalf on the Tall Ships Youth Trust was Ian Caruthers, Trustee, Tall Ships Youth Trust, Captain Derek Fett, Master of PRINCE WILLIAM and Fliss Green, Bosun during the rescues.

“Management of the previous infrastructure was a real headache for me as an IT Manager,” says McLaughlin. “I wanted to improve the experience for users and offer them better services, or at least a better interface for accessing e-mails. The licensing costs are also very high for the specialist ship-to-shore e-mail systems we have to use on some of our vessels, so we needed to see if there was any alternative to these systems too.”

NMM had already worked with Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Capito to upgrade its operating system from NT4 to Microsoft Windows Server™ 2003, in addition to implementing a group-wide Active Directory, which enables the company to share network resources and enhance security.

The migration to Exchange 2003 has not adversely affected system availability. McLaughlin says: “I can’t stress how important e-mail is to the company in terms of