Voyaging to perfection: The ongoing evolution of NavStation

How do you take the industry’s ‘ultimate planning tool’ and improve it? Giving users what they need, often before they know they need it, and staying ahead of evolving trends and regulations? 

“When you have products and services onboard over 18,000 vessels you tend to get a lot of feedback!”

Timo Essers may be grinning broadly, but he has a very serious point.

The Dutch-born e-Navigation chief at Norwegian-headquartered NAVTOR says he, and his global team, are committed to “making life easier” for both navigators and shipping businesses, but to do that you have to understand current and future pain points.

“It’s not up to us to dictate to users, but rather to have them dictate to us – sharing their experience so we can use ours, both digital and navigational, to come up with optimal solutions,” he says, adding:

”This industry is increasingly complex, with new regulations, guidelines, commercial considerations, reporting requirements, and risks emerging continually.”

By putting the customer at the absolute centre of everything we do, and understanding their challenges, we can help them navigate this complexity simply, efficiently and profitably.

“In that way we’re not really a supplier – more of a partner. Always onboard to deliver added value, translating demands into innovations.”

It’s a partnership currently pushing maritime planning capabilities to new heights with the upcoming release of NavStation 6.4.

Transforming efficiency

Launched in 2014 as the maritime industry’s first digital chart table, NavStation has spent the last decade cementing a position, in Essers’ words, as “the ultimate planning tool.”

Update after update has seen the software adding an increasing number of business- and operation-critical data layers and modules seamlessly over ENCs, putting “everything a navigator needs at their fingertips.”

“We may work in maritime technology, but the majority of the team here have extensive vessel experience,” says Essers, who is himself a seasoned navigation officer. “So, this is a platform made for navigators by navigators. We know the pressure our users are under. Thankfully, as we’ve shown with Passage Planning, we also know how to make things easier for them.”

It’s a process that, like the industry it serves, never stops.

Small steps, big advantage

Essers reveals that NavStation 6.4 sees a broad spectrum of enhancements, “taking functionality and futureproofing to a new level.”

In terms of functionality it has a vast range of “small but powerful” improvements, he notes, including better search capabilities, advances in auto-routing (such as automatically blocking waterways for certain vessels based on the latest AIS tracking intelligence), integrating port and trade statistics into the extended ports database, the ability to combine company regulations with environmental regulations, and much more.

NAVTOR’s ability to stay ahead of the curve and help customers navigate the future is shown in 6.4’s new S-100 compatibility.

“Much of the industry may not be aware of the scale of change ahead with the upcoming S-100 data standard,” Essers states, “transforming static charts into more dynamic, 3D, data-rich formats.

By making NavStation compatible, and giving users the ability to access data such as S-102 (bathymetric surface data) now, we can help them get to grips with this new navigational reality – understanding the benefits, honing skills, and easing future adoption.

“It’s a tangible example of how our approach delivers real added value.”

As is, arguably, the headline enhancement of NavStation 6.4, the integration of real-time Security Risk Data from Risk Intelligence as a new, flexible subscription offering.

By your side worldwide

“We’ve been working towards adding an up-to-the-minute risk layer over ENCs for some time,” Essers says, adding that it’s been, in his view, “a missing piece of the e-Navigation puzzle.”

Now, however, that piece is firmly in place, allowing navigators, and relevant shore-side teams, to plan and understand voyages with safety and simplicity, fully aware of maritime’s ever changing risk picture.

He explains: “From conflict and ongoing geopolitical unrest, to piracy, narcotics, and people smuggling – in addition to increasing navigational jamming and spoofing – today’s shipping companies face a complex and ever-evolving threat landscape. Navigators are, in many ways, on the front line, and as such are under immense pressure.

“However, with clear, customisable and relevant notifications layered onto ENCs – empowered by Risk Intelligence’s world-leading team of expert analysts – our users can now approach planning with informed peace of mind.

“We see this as a landmark development for our own product, but also for the industry – enabling safer, simpler and smarter navigation in a changing world of threat.”

Privilege and passion

Despite the major updates, level of innovation and ability to lead the way in e-Navigation, Essers insists “we’re not there yet, there’s more to come”.

“I’m incredibly proud of what we, in conjunction with our partners and customers worldwide, have achieved with NavStation,” he remarks. “We are delivering on our promise of developing smart solutions that make life easier for shipping companies, benefiting the whole industry.”

He smiles, adding, “I’ve always said we want to voyage towards perfection. But, in an ever-changing industry, that means perfection is shifting all the time – it’s a moving target.”

Although this could be somewhat of a depressing realisation – you put your heart and soul into a project only to find it’s never actually completed – Essers’ sees through an entirely different lens.

“I enjoy the voyage,” he says, with a beam worthy of any navigator planning the optimal route ahead.

Shipping is dynamic, that’s what makes it so interesting, and innovating to match evolving customer demands is both a privilege and, I think I can speak for the whole team, a passion. So, I’m looking forward to plenty more feedback, and developments, in the years to come.