How Ulstein uses an IoT platform to drive maritime innovation

Ulstein’s innovative ability was also the driving force behind one of its current projects: developing a digital IoT platform for ships. Essentially, they are just machines, even if they look more impressive and can float. But they also generate a lot of data. “Innovation has always been a key part of Ulstein, and data is becoming increasingly important to drive that innovation. So, we needed a new and more efficient way of working with data,” explains Johannes Volle, CFO at Ulstein.

To realize this, Ulstein Group has developed a so-called ‘Blue Box’, in which operating data from ships such as fuel consumption and other critical values are recorded. This data used to be dispersed across different systems and managed manually, making analysis time-consuming, error-prone, and resource-intensive. Ulstein therefore began looking for a solution to harmonize the data and enable efficient analyses, and sought an experienced partner who had already developed and implemented scalable IoT platforms.

“It was important for us to gain momentum and actually start using the data, rather than spend years building the underlying infrastructure,” adds Ulstein CFO Johannes Volle.

CFO Volle was advised initially by Geir Balsnes, an advisor from NTT DATA Business Solutions in Norway. He helped Ulstein Group’s management team to develop a data-driven digital strategy. A digital platform was then derived from this to support the project. Ulstein chose NTT DATA Business Solutions’ momenttum platform – a basis for collecting and processing a wide range of data, which had been tried and tested over many years.

The momenttum platform for ship data analytics

The technical project manager from the proof of concept in 2023 through implementation to go-live in 2024 was Emil Bekker from Norway, who has fond memories of the ambitious project. “Six people were involved in my project team, which was around half of our SmartX team,” he says. Their expertise covered the cloud infrastructure, the integration of customer data, engineering for the database and tables, and business skills for the dashboards. “It was a complete end-to-end project that demanded all of our skills.”

For Bekker, the project was a highlight because it consisted of a product business component and an advisory component – in other words, it represented the big picture for the customer. “In asset-based consulting, we develop a solution together and help the company implement it, use it, and ensure it remains future-proof.” The long-term focus is on enabling customers to prepare the ground for meaningful data-driven decisions – autonomously and independently on their own platform. Workshops, regular meetings, and extensive training for Ulstein employees therefore provided support, says Bekker. “Today, NTT DATA Business Solutions takes care of hosting and infrastructure maintenance so that customers can concentrate on their innovations.”

Data-driven insights for customers

According to Holck, a crucial advantage for the customer was that various data sources and AI systems had been integrated into the momenttum platform for many years. Therefore, the Ulstein project scope was no new challenge for the experts in the SmartX team. Added to this is the technical breadth of NTT DATA Business Solutions: “We always try to overcome team and national boundaries in the projects. Colleagues from Germany were also involved here.” The customer was initially interested in exploring AI, including machine learning capabilities. “With the solid technical foundation of momenttum, Ulstein is able to take the next steps in its data journey – including AI-powered analytics.”

The basis for data-driven decisions

The unified platform combines data from ships, ERP systems, and other relevant sources. It applies rules in order to standardize and harmonize heterogeneous data, from historical records to real-time inputs. All changes are automated and traceable, with full logging and documentation. This ensures transparency and supports data governance.

momenttum is based on Microsoft’s Azure Cloud and the Snowflake Data Cloud. This offers the advantage that AI models can be trained and applied directly in the database without leaving the platform. In addition, a combination of different data sources makes it possible to carry out more effective analyses of entire ship fleets, which shortens the time required for data-driven insights. The integration ensures a consistent structure and automation of data flows, eliminating manual processes and reducing the risk of errors.

“The advantage of our momenttum platform is that we are not tied to specific applications, services, or data sources,” says project manager Bekker. This includes, for example, data from tourism, smart cities and smart homes, machines, cameras, agricultural businesses, or ERP systems such as SAP – and even from ships or weather reports. In addition, says Bekker, the company is not fixated on certain sectors or specific projects: “This flexibility gives us the opportunity to think outside the box and generate new business for NTT DATA Business Solutions.”

momenttum’s pricing model consists of a low basic fee and consumption-based billing. “The price is scaled with the usage and the business value that a company generates with it.” This, says Holck, is part of the transparency when collaborating with our customers. According to CFO Johannes Volle, the new platform is the backbone for future activities: “The platform is becoming a driving force for innovation. It gives us a robust and scalable foundation for both developing external services and driving our innovation activities internally.”