Norway-based offshore operator joins list of leading companies choosing a GNS Bundle solution that delivers fixed cost on a per-vessel basis.

LONDON, MAY 16, 2018. GNS, one of the leading providers of maritime solutions has signed up Norwegian offshore service and supply shipping company, SolstadFarstad, to a fixed price bundle covering its complete digital and paper navigation requirements.

With the appointment of GNS, SolstadFarstad has consolidated its entire navigation requirements under a single supplier and, at the same time, simplified its purchasing dramatically with the transition from buying on demand to a fleet wide fixed price bundle. SolstadFarstad operates 145 vessels, including 32 construction service vessels, 50 anchor handling tug supply vessels and 63 platform supply vessels.

“Because we track ships worldwide and capture position data every 60 minutes, GNS can analyse a vessel’s trading history and calculate accurate fixed prices for ENCs, digital publications and other route-specific navigation products,” says Jon Folkedal, Country Manager Norway for GNS. “Our unique data intelligence and analysis system collects, stores and analyses millions of data points, allowing us to review the trading patterns and requirements of each individual vessel and identify areas for cost efficiencies and compliance vulnerabilities.”

GNS’s unique tracking based approach means that SolstadFarstad can buy their navigational products as a fixed price bundle and at the same time both manage navigation spend at an individual vessel basis and ensure that locally trading vessels do not end up unfairly subsidising ships in global trade using lots of data.

By switching to the GNS bundle, SolstadFarstad has dramatically reduced its administration and achieved much greater cost certainty and compliance assurance. Vessel budgets are easier to manage because all digital navigational purchasing is centralised under a single contract, a single Purchase Order and a single invoice.  GNS monitors compliance and automatically sends out new edition products and licenses when required.

“We expect to achieve significant savings and purchasing efficiencies by procuring all our navigational products through a bespoke bundle from GNS,” says Tor Inge Dale Chief Operating Officer in SolstadFarstad. “Sourcing our navigational data this way allows vessels to get very fast access to what they actually need and significantly reduces the administration time we spend on purchasing navigational products as well as remove the costs associated with processing large numbers of small transactions.”

Key to SolstadFarstad’s decision was GNS’s ability to offer a mix of conventional ENC supply and Pay As You Sail ENC options across the fleet all within the fixed bundle price, as well as GNS’s new VOYAGER Hub solution and 24/7 hour service and support.  The Hub provides access to VOYAGER planning station for route planning and navigation management as well as a range of other time and money saving services including weather planning, publications management, risk alerts, and training.