March 19, 20101 -- Spatial is delighted to announce the delivery of ship counter-piracy software to Pole Star Space Applications Limited (UK) to form their new ‘Ship Security and Reporting System’ ( www.ssrs.org).

The current form of the ‘Ship Security Alert System’ (SSAS) regulation (SOLAS XI-1/6) requires ship security alerts to be routed only to the shipping company and the Flag. However, one or both of these organisations may not have an effective 24/7 monitoring operation in place or have only manual escalation procedures to communicate the piracy attack to the relevant naval coordination centre (e.g. MSCHOA / UKMTO), which are all subject to common out of hours, weekend, and timezone problems. As a result, a critical delay may be introduced before the relevant naval forces operating in the area are informed of a piracy attack (e.g. EUNAVFOR).
For the Master and crew of a vessel during the confusion, stress and surprise of a piracy attack, it may be difficult to follow exactly the published Best Management Practice escalation guidelines directing the Master to contact various multiple telephone, fax and emails addresses. Any delay in transmission of an Alert reduces the ability of the associated naval force to respond effectively.

The SSRS continuously and automatically monitors security alerts transmitted by subscribed ships using any SSAS and compares the location with pre-defined Areas of Operations (e.g. Gulf of Aden / Horn of Africa). The system then routes the associated SSRS alert, enhanced over the original SSAS alert with other relevant details such as freeboard, speed and communication terminal details, to the relevant naval coordination centre in a digital format the related agencies involved can use. The system thus provides Naval forces with immediate knowledge of the location of a piracy attack and other relevant ship specific information.

SSRS, which is e-commerce enabled, is a practical and effective method for Flags and ship owners to extend Best Management Practice and offers a straightforward way to improve the effectiveness of its SSAS obligations and improve operational efficiency without adding extra resources.

This project was delivered under the partnership agreement between 1Spatial and Pole Star and follows the successful delivery in February 2009 by 1Spatial of an ‘Advanced Geospatial Analysis Subsystem’ (GeoZone), part of Pole Star’s MarVTS LRIT-DC offering.

The partnership is an exciting mutually beneficial collaboration that sees Pole Star’s expertise in the provision of highly successful commercial marine asset tracking services, complimenting 1Spatial’s digital spatial data handling and associated operational software development expertise. In the future, and in addition to the continued evolution of Pole Star’s MarVTS LRIT-DC offerings and their Ship Security and Reporting System, 1Spatial will be working with Pole Star to enhance the spatial data management and web mapping services in other Pole Star commercial tracking services and products, through the application of geospatial data management and access standards.

Julian Longson, Business Development Director of Pole Star, commented:
“It has been a pleasure to partner with 1Spatial again in the development of the SSRS service. At the commencement of the project Pole Star placed great emphasis on the need for rapid specification, design, and implementation of a robust system to meet the immediate need and security-critical requirements demanded of the service. 1Spatial delivered on all that was asked of them, and we look forward to working with them in the future on related geo-spatial products and services.”

Richard Proud, Managing Consultant for 1Spatial added:
“This has been a very exciting project for us to work on and one that will hopefully have a positive and rapid impact on reducing incidents of ship piracy. We very much appreciate the opportunity to work again with Pole Star on the delivery and launch of another of their operational location-based services. The whole process of inception through to transfer on this project has been achieved in true partnership style.”