Wartsila launches Smart Support Centre for fast remote service

Marine technology company Wartsila has launched its global Smart Support Centre service to boost asset uptime using remote access.

The service is offered for its Voyage business customers, reducing the requirement for physical service attendance. Virtual service engineers provide operational support.

The Smart Support Service is designed to maintain the equipment of Wartsila Voyage such as ship handling solutions, simulation, training systems and ship traffic control solutions.

The service adds on to the current extensive remote monitoring and support capabilities offered by Wartsila.

The Smart Support Centre manages the system health, warns in case of system deterioration, updates software and assists system users.

The programme was tested along with Danish shipping company J Lauritzen.

Lauritzen Marine QA vetting and nautical manager Hans Elker Hansen said: “Firstly, the crew is aware that 95% of all errors can be rectified remotely and they do not need to arrange for a service engineer in the next port to solve the issue.

“This means that we have the equipment up and running at all times. Secondly, the use of emails to solve a technical or user-related problem is almost entirely eliminated, which avoids excessive communication.”

“The Wartsila Smart Support Centre connects our equipment and systems, for example, ECDIS, simulators and our Vessel Traffic System, allowing significant enhancement to our remote service capabilities.”

Wartsila Voyage managing director Torsten Büssow added: “It gives an opportunity to really establish the status of the systems, to carry out remote software updating and to enable the customer and Wartsila to work closely together on the systems.”

Earlier this month, Wartsila received a contract to upgrade an 11-year old Vessel Traffic Monitoring and Information System (VTMIS) at Cyprus ports.