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2023, Autumn Events Calendar is an early report of our activities this fall. Firstly, the 6th Mare Forum Mykonos, and Isalos.net – HELMEPA, Maritime Sustainability Camp, Oinousses (September 1 and 3). The event we especially recommend is, the Vessel performance Digital Tools Webinar, 14th September 2023. The first of three webinars about composable and model driven development for the dynamic integration of performance monitoring software. Don’t miss them 🙂
Digital Ship Athens is a prominent bi-annual conference and event. Among the discussions at this year’s Spring conference, ‘Digital Integration in Shipping’ stirred up interest. And panelists Theodore Ioannou (Bernard Schulte), Dimitris Marselos (COSCO Shipping Lines), Georgios Tsivgoulis (Thenamaris) and Dr. Antonios Lalechos (TMS Dry fleet) brought their experience and insights to the afternoon debate. While Dimitris Lyras, founder of Ulysses Systems, moderated.
Happy to share news from the Digital Ship Hamburg Conference 2023! Actually, the first panel of the day was moderated by Dimitris Lyras, our founder. And Johann Meyer of Columbia Shipmanagement, Jan Solle of Fraunhofer CML, Giampiero Soncini of Oceanly Srl, and Nils Aden of Harren & Partner were the panelists. More about the panel discussion here
Then, scroll down the page and read the 2022 Review: our new contracts and funding, and R&D. Maybe the term leading technology surprises our readers, but there is a reason why we use the term. Because we care. And at the heart of our new technologies lies the passion for solving shipping domain problems.
Events in 2022, also included involvement in the cyber-security concerns of the European Union. In this context, Ulysses Systems contributed to the cyber-security awareness discussions initiated by dedicated EU forums. Do check out the video on this page.
Among last year’s events we particularly cherish was our Chios user conference and our Transit Party during Posidonia. Scroll down to click through slides.
2023, Autumn Events Calendar
Not unusually, at the end of the summer with its harvest moons, the autumn events calendar gets busy. Ulysses Systems attended two conferences on the very first days of September, taking place in Mykonos and Oinousses respectively. And 14th September was an exciting date as Ulysses participated at the Digital Ship/Vessel Performance Webinar on new technology tools. We will be reporting on this discussion soon. Then, on September 28, Dimitris Lyras speaks about UI renderings and human cognition at the CHIGREECE 2023 International Conference. Most importantly, on the 3rd and 4th October we meet with our honoured clients for our Annual User Conference.
2023, Annual User Conference, October 3-4
This year our annual user conference event will take place in Athens. At the foot of Lycabettus with the tiny church of St George perched on the top. The occasion is the launch of the Task Assistant R11 Release. We can’t wait to introduce the Task Assistant Inspection Module and the Corroborating Events System Alerts. This year we will run open workshops for prospects interested to test Task Assistant Shipping Modules, Analytics, and Enterprise Search Solution for Marine Procurement Process
Supported by a grant from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the EEA Grants in Greece 2014-2021, in the frame of the Business Innovation Greece Programme
CHIGREECE 2023, Second International Conference, 27 & 28 September
The 2nd International Conference of the ACM Greek SIGCHI Chapter CHIGreece 2023 “Connect. Engage. Inspire” takes place at the Eugenides Foundation.
The goal of this eminent forum and bi-annual event, is to present innovation and break-throughs in human and computer interactions. CHIGreece 2023 invites the Greek research community and other researchers from Greece, Cyprus and abroad, to present and disseminate their work.
At the CHIGREECE 2021 Conference, Dimitris Lyras, Founder of Ulysses Systems presented the cognitive and usability aspects of user intefaces. At this year’s event, he will speak about relating user interfaces to modelling. And also about how abstracted renderings can suit abstracted processes.
The question is “Can generalized renderings describe generalized processes?”
Also, “Can workflows provide more meaningful visuals to distinguish a simple sequential action from a high consequence action”
Then, “Can we generalise high consequence actions in workflows in a visual sense by providing dynamic decision support”.
Most importantly, “Can we generalise the visuals of high level decision support and not depend on laborious configurations. Nor depend on customisations of workflows?”
And no less importantly, “Can we compare workflows and group them according to generalised business criteria?”
Vessel performance Digital Tools Webinar, 14th September 2023
The first of three webinars exploring what can be achieved through a composable and model driven approach to developing digital technology. Compos-able in the sense that experts can develop models that are flexible with traceability that is guaranteed. With the goal of easing essential Vessel Performance best of breed applications into an integrated enterprise IT ecosystem.
The webinar guests speakers are Dimitris Lyras, Founder & Managing Director, Ulysses Systems, Peter Mantel, COO, Theyr, and David Levy, Chief Marketing Officer, OrbitMI.
So, if you have the time, take the opportunity to learn more about a model driven approach to integration. Meet friends and make new ones at these highly recommended webinar events.
Isalos.net – HELMEPA, Maritime Sustainability Camp, Oinousses, September 1-3
Isalos.net and HELMEPA Maritime Sustainability Camp bring together three generations of Shipping Industry experts in beautiful Oinousses. The goal is to promote the sustainability of the environment, of the seas and of business. Making a living in a sustainable way does not necessitate the downgrading of our living standards. Rather we need to approach shipping and sustainability with caring and common sense.
6th Mare Forum Mykonos, September 1
Mare Forum, the round table conference that is a cross-section of the marine industry. Shipping Executives, Ship-owners, Ship-managers, Charterers, Traders, Capital providers, Energy Executives, Regulators, Maritime Lawyers, Consultants, Shipbuilders and repair managers, Classification Societies, Press, Shipping services providers, and Entrepreneurs.
AI without the hype. All the professionals mentioned are stakeholders who are keen to realistically assess the contribution of AI in Shipping.
Parenting Shipping. Those of us who are parents know how important it is to instill social skills in our children. And we realise our task is to promote their individuality and unique talents within a community. So perhaps this aspect of parenting is a good way to approach the shipping enterprise’s needs in today’s world.
Digital Ship Athens Conference
Digital Ship Athens Conference takes place twice a year and the recent conference, Thursday 27th April, was the Spring Event. An exciting one it was, with lively exchanges on digital integration during the afternoon session. We were glad to be there, taking part and enjoying the debates.
Integration in Shipping
Due to the interest in integration shown at the recent DS Hamburg Conference, a panel discussion was dedicated to integration in shipping. Panellists Theodore Ioannou, Dr. Antonios Lalechos, Dimitris Marselos, and Georgios Tsivgoulis provided valuable insights on the topic.
We are happy to present a brief report of the main takeaways from the various discussion threads.
Integration is far more fundamental than is widely discussed
The basic consensus that emerged was summed up by Dimitris Lyras, Ulysses Systems founder, and panel discussion moderator. “The discussion revealed that the problem of integration is far more fundamental than is widely discussed”.
An abundance of small software applications
The experts on the panel referred to an abundance of small software applications. The marine enterprise uses far more small software applications than we are currently aware of. And these specialized applications cover processes that warrant special attention. They, especially, apply to machinery monitoring, voyage fuel consumption monitoring. Other solutions are positioned between PMS and Condition Based Maintenance, and others relate and service commercial operations. However, they are not properly integrated into the enterprise IT ecosystem, and this is a huge problem. Dr. Antonis Lalechos (TMS Dry fleet) mentioned how lack of integration makes users biased towards some software at the expense of other software. The reason for this is that managers prefer the tools that serve them best. Integration, then, would solve the problem by helping them use the software they need without neglecting other software the enterprise needs. George Tsivgoulis (Thenamaris) very interestingly touched upon how the user interface can combine integrated information and present it to the user.
Is digitization achievable?
Is digitization without integration achievable? All the panellists agreed that we cannot achieve the vision of digitization or digital transformation without integration. And that “Silicon Valley” and the technology giants there and elsewhere have no actual stake-holding in integrations.
In effect, they prefer to sell entire systems rather than to join their clients’ applications.
The highest natural stakeholders in software integration
Consequently, the highest natural stakeholder in software integration is the ship manager/operator owner. And the expertise lies with the applications builders that sell software integration to the marine industry.
The natural response, then, is to assist the ultimate stakeholder to manage the complexities of integration. Rather than leaving it to individual vendors, who may not have a rooted interest in making integration a success.
Studying integration
Subsequent to the above conclusions, was the thought-provoking discussion regarding the study of integration and the serious need to bring it to the same level of importance that software development has.
Commitment
Theodoros Ioannou (Bernard Schulte) stressed the importance of the commitment and mind set of companies trying to achieve digital transformation. He maintained that it is a key issue, and this was discussed at length. He also drew attention to the fact that class, charterers and ports need to be involved. Comparably, George Tsivgoulis explained how integration is a strategic decision.
Machine learning
Dimitris Marselos (COSCO Shipping Lines) suggested how machine learning, if properly prepared and developed, could help verify varying values.
Conclusion
The conclusions of our panel discussion on integration in the shipping enterprise were concordant. Clearly, something needs to be done about it. Essentially, integration is part of a longer revision of the shipping enterprise mindset towards successful digital transformation.
Ulysses Systems, bronze sponsor at Digital Ship Athens Conference, 27 April. We thank EEA Grants for their support.
Enterprise Search Solution For Marine Procurement Process. Ulysses Systems integrates enterprise emails and documents with procurement. Supported by a grant from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the EEA Grants Norway 2014-2021, in the frame of the Business Innovation Greece
Digital Ship Hamburg 2023 Event
The Digital Ship Hamburg Conference 2023 Event took place Friday 30th March. And Dimitris Lyras, founder of Ulysses Systems moderated the first panel discussion of the day.
Two key technology questions set the panel theme: ‘What do shipowners most want to see from digital technology?’ And the follow-up question:‘Can we purchase digital tools which will last us at least 15 years without being replaced?’
Certainly, we were privileged to have consummate domain experts from the marine or software industry presenting their stand point. Namely, Johann Meyer of Columbia Shipmanagement, Jan Solle of Fraunhofer CML, and Nils Aden of Harren & Partner. Among them, our good friend Giampiero Soncini of Oceanly Srl, a person of great accomplishment, experience and humour. So, we came away buzzing with thoughts about the long term view of shipping software, continuous improvement and integration. For this thanks go to our panelists and the lively interactions from the audience. Special thanks to Digitial Ship for an excellent article giving us the Shipping Industry’s view of software concerns. The article is on page 10 of the current Digital Ship issue, which you can download here.
Digital Ship Conference Hamburg is a prominent bi-annual event bringing together “shipping companies and maritime digitalisation leaders since 2003”.
Ulysses Systems was a promotional sponsor at the Digital Ship Conference Hamburg 2023. Panteleimon Pantelis, Ulysses Systems Chief Operation Officer and Dimitris Glossiotis, Ulysses Systems Product Director attended the conference with Dimitris Lyras.
2022 Review
“We are happy to share our 2022 Review with our clients and wider community in the Marine Industry, and with our partners in the Software Industry. Last year, Ulysses brought many developments close to finalisation. The most important being the separation of data and logic from the technology which hosts it.”
Dimitris Lyras
Leading technologies
Our leading technologies are based on the separation of data and logic from the hosting technologies. This key step in continuous improvement contributes immensely towards our clients’ ownership of a fully integrated and hassle-free IT ecosystem. Furthermore, planning enterprise digitization developments and implementing them will seem painless.
These are:
- Our unique co-ordination facilities
- Our continuous improvement of use cases to improve user experience
- Our first integration of e-mail with applications
- Our even greater use of parametrisation to ensure configurability and reduce the need for customisations
And we already looking forward to next year where we will be sharing many more developments based on our core technology.
New contracts
Also in the course of 2022, we signed new contracts, news we are grateful to share.
So, we extend a very warm welcome onboard to the new members of the Ulysses Systems Client Community:
Modion Maritime Management S.A., Protank Management S.A., Polsteam POLSKA Zegluga MORSKA, New Kronos Star Maritime CO S.A., Holger Navigation CORP, Flynn Ventures LTD.
Meeting our clients
Meeting our clients is a practical and bonding experience. Practically speaking, it includes important new information about products. And clients showcase applications they have build on Task Assistant® Platform. All in all, a very enriching experience.
The setting is also an important part of the experience. And last September our user conference took place in Chios, a meeting that left all participants with happy memories.
EEA Grants and Innovation Norway
In 2022 Ulysses achieved new funding contracts from EEA Grants and Innovation Norway: “Enterprise Search Solution for Marine Procurement Process” and in collaboration with VesselMan, “Crew Experience without Taxonomies”.
Supported by a grant from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the EEA Grants Norway 2014-2021, in the frame of the Business Innovation Greece
Supported by a grant from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the EEA Grants Norway 2014-2021, in the frame of the Business Innovation Greece
R&D
Ulysses continues in R&D, contributing to the Canada ORF project “Continuous Development, Maintenance, and Evolution of Cyber-Physical Systems”. The project brings together the Canadian Universities of Toronto, York, Queen’s, Ottawa and the companies: IBM Canada, Ulysses Systems, London Hydro, CircuitMeter, I-EMS, Société de transport de l’Outaouais.
Patents
USA Patent citations by Dell, IMB and Yale:
US20220171606A1 – Microprocessor Including a Model of an Enterprise – Google Patents.
Thanking our client community, friends and website viewers
We could not close our 2022 Review without thanking our community of clients, friends, partners and followers for your support and encouragement. It’s of great value to us and renews our resolve not only to meet but also to do our best to exceed your expectations with our products and services. Finally, we welcome your feedback because it can only serve to improve our offerings and your benefit from these.
So do get in touch with us through company members you are connected with on LinkedIn. You are also most welcome to contact us through our contact page.
About Cybersecurity
Theat & Vulnerabilities Management - Taking Away The Complexity
The featured video stresses the common sense factor inherent in humans that helps us separate cyber-security concerns. This, then, helps promote cyber-security awareness, a concern high in EU priorities.
Ulysses Systems is a Maritime software specialist and member of ECSO work groups within ENISA European Cybersecurity Skills Framework.
Currently, Ulysses Systems is pioneering methods for fast development of new annexes to existing software. Also, recent work includes methods for monitoring underlying systems for compliance. https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7023371345065353216
About Task Assistant®
The Chios Connection
Chios is not only a beautiful location for hosting events. This year, in fact, Chios was the venue for our annual user conference. On the subject of our connection with Chios, without a doubt, we admit it is a deep one. It informs our approach to software, and it keeps you, the stakeholders in the marine enterprise, utmost in our minds. We could sum it up thus:
"Ulysses Systems Task Assistant® is anchored on the solid rock of common sense and our Chios culture focuses on caring for the marine enterprise"
Our claim is not marketing or hype but the simple truth. We care enormously about our clients and about industry pains. And the common-sense aspect is an integral part of our caring and of our core differentiation. Clearly, from inception, we have respected how the stakeholders in every marine enterprise have an intuitive way of indexing events. And how they solve problems based on past experience, i.e., on stories.
As a result, we have engineered common sense as a design concept through “case-based reasoning” and story-based reflection. And these we have incorporated into our original knowledge management design. We continue this direction, which persists the continuous improvement of our software through flexible configuration of customisation needs. And our technology is geared on keeping our customers up to date with industry trends and innovations.
Task Assistant®
The Task Assistant® Solution Platform was not a pre-existing software app that was later adapted to ship management. Nor is it a narrow process software solution looking for wider justification in shipping. In fact, Task Assistant® was designed, from the start, as an underlying solution platform able to address the core issues of the marine enterprise. Not for one year, not for 5, not for fifteen. The goal was to build future-proof platform solutions. And if solutions are future-proof, it also means our customers can look forward to low-cost software.
We are serious about technology
We have been proving for decades that we are serious about technology. So, we started with Task Assistant® integrated platform, which provides unified data across applications. And we continue to prove it with our unique integrations approach and our pledge to provide small and large enterprises a hassle-free digitization experience. We, in fact, commit to our competitive advantage. In short, to provide flexible upgradeable, asset management solutions adapted to your way of working. https://www.ulysses-systems.com/blog/task-assistant-integrated-reporting/
Future-proof solutions
What typifies future-proof? Well, flexibility, for a start. Future-proof solutions are flexible, and this is important since no enterprise remains static. So, a flexible software system that adapts to process variation and optimisation is a system no enterprise can do without. Yet, flexibility is a design challenge which application-based software, fixed in nature, has great difficulty with. But Task Assistant® building blocks are expressly designed to enable an organization’s efforts for continuously improving operations. So, with a platform designed for continuous improvement, you will feel confident your software will support you now and going forward.
2022 Chios Conference
2022 Chios Conference
Our user conference this year took place in Chios. And Chios town waterfront provided the particularly feel good atmosphere of the event and delighted everyone. The conference sessions followed later by discussions over dinner and walks around town were most constructive and fun.
Moreover, during sessions, our clients shared ways in which they have used Task Assistant® to build their own tools, leveraging the unique data integrity of the software and flexibility in process building. We are gratified our clients get value out of Task Assistant®. In fact, nothing could please us more than to have our clients happy with the software solutions we provide 🙂
Finally, as the conference ended many participants came up with desire for a repeat. So, can Chios become a permanent venue for our User Conference events? What do you think?
TRANSIT @ Posidonia 2022
Ulysses Systems Party, Tuesday 7, June 2022
Marianna Lyra’s work, Transit, resonates with Ulysses Systems view that software is transitioning into becoming significantly more situationally aware. In actual fact, by emulating how humans understand the world rather than how computer languages manage data relationships. Thus, we are transiting towards expecting data to give us the story within the bigger picture.