CASE STUDY CUSTOMER
Solution Summary
OneOcean needs a reliable partner for duplication, printing and distribution of USB flash drives to over 15,000 commercial, cruise and superyacht vessels worldwide. Cardwave provides this service for up to 200 different vessels and software variants per day, including bespoke, per vessel printing to flash drives, with a 24 hour turnaround time.
Key Benefits
- End to end service: duplication, printing, packaging, distribution
- Bespoke, high quality printing on USB drives and packaging
- 24 hour turnaround
- Secure servers for data storage
Introduction
OneOcean Group Ltd is the largest global supplier of voyage solutions for the maritime industry, providing digital navigation and regulatory compliance solutions for over 15,000 commercial, cruise and superyacht vessels worldwide. Its products connect ships and shore-side teams, and link owners, managers and crew with everything from port information and regulations, to safety and environmental requirements.
The global maritime regulatory and compliance picture is constantly evolving. To ensure information held by its customers is accurate, OneOcean must issue frequent updates. It needs a delivery partner which can accept data updates, provision flash memory frequently and accurately, and distribute at speed. Failure on any of these aspects is not an option.
Challenges
Because the data sets OneOcean works with are very large, over the air distribution to vessels is not practical, and most types of storage media lack the required capacity. Flash memory is ideal because it does have the capacity, and is available in robust and reliable variants suitable for high-demand uses. The USB drive format is preferred over others such as SD or microSD because USB is a common interface on computers, and ships are more likely to have an accessible USB port than any other format.
While its base software is updated on a quarterly bases, additional software updates are issued on a a weekly basis and, taking into account the various versions of software and the geographies OneOcean serves, there are around 200 different variations which need to be kept up to date, duplicated and distributed.
OneOcean needs to ensure that vessels recognise their product and are well informed about versioning. USB drives and their associated packaging might need to be printed with identifying information like a specific vessel name and data that identifies a bespoke software update.
‘Industrial strength’ USB flash memory is of a high enough quality to ensure 100 percent accurate duplication every time, and to have an extremely low failure rate. For OneOcean the challenge is not so much in deciding that flash memory is the appropriate storage medium, as in finding a delivery partner who can guarantee the grade of ‘industrial strength’ flash memory being used, can handle the number of software variants required, and has the capability to provision and distribute flash memory at speed with appropriate printing on both drives and packaging.
Solution
OneOcean selected Cardwave to handle duplication, printing, packaging and dispatch. The very latest version of OneOcean’s software is directly uploaded to Cardwave’s secure servers, where it is safely stored and processed for writing to USB flash drives. This allows new USB flash drives to be produced in the quantity required on demand.
Cardwave uses its global network of flash drive manufacturers, built over 30 years of expertise in the field, to ensure that it can obtain memory products in the required quantities and at competitive prices. This means it is always in a position to fulfil orders from OneOcean, and lack of flash memory product does not lengthen turnaround time.
Using its in-house specialist printing technology, Cardwave can easily print bespoke content onto any USB flash drive and onto its packaging. Printing can be unique to one particular drive and its packaging, so that OneOcean can serve its product bespoke to just one vessel, or it can be replicated on any number of cards and their associated packaging.
Cardwave can turn an entire duplication job around in 24 hours from the placement of an order to shipping out the duplicated product with bespoke printing, for up to 200 different vessels and software variants per day.
Results
OneOcean can now deliver updates of its software to vessels, including on a per vessel basis, with the frequency it requires, and with entirely bespoke packaging delivered to the high quality standard that is appropriate for a business to business service.
USB drives are robust and reliable, and Cardwave provides an end-to-end service comprising duplication, printing, packaging and distribution.
OneOcean can focus on the development of its software and ensuring its data is up to date, leaving Cardwave to focus on provisioning and distribution.
