The Royal Netherlands Navy has successfully executed the final contractual tests of its System for Hydrographic Information Processes – Part 2 (SHIP2) project. The SHIP2 project was implemented to produce a new production system for the Netherlands Hydrographic Office.
The project will deliver a solution for source and bathymetric data management with the production of paper charts and various digital products, and will also include geospatial web publishing capabilities.
CARIS was awarded the contract following a public tender. The contract contained project management, consultancy, training, and key components from the CARIS Ping-to-Chart workflow, including CARIS Bathy DataBASE for bathymetric data management and CARIS Hydrographic Production Database (HPD) for production of INT1 paper charts, ENCs, and AMLs. CARIS HPD will also allow for the production of Notice to Mariners and other publications; making the Netherlands Hydrographic Office one of approximately thirty hydrographic offices now using HPD.
In addition to the execution of the new production system, support for existing data has been fully maintained. Test conversions of existing databases have taken place to ensure existing data is migrated to the new system without any loss of information.
“The main supplier of the SHIP2 project is CARIS, as CARIS’ HPD is the core of the SHIP2 architecture.” said Marcel Busink, Test Manager SHIP2, TriOpSys BV . “In the planning of the project there were two big milestones. Those were the User Acceptance Test (UAT) of CARIS HPD and the Site Acceptance Test (SAT) of CARIS HPD. The communication, meetings and preparation for both the UAT and the SAT have been done as promised by CARIS, and can be described as an excellent accomplishment. The support during the execution of both the UAT and the SAT has also been excellent. The issues found during tests have been resolved in time as required by the SHIP2 contract and according to the contract plan.”
“In my opinion, CARIS is a fine and reliable supplier to work with in a project or services environment. CARIS is the company type for a long term relationship with their customers. I have a good experience and impression of CARIS,” he added.
The project, which implements commercial of the shelf and bespoke solutions from multiple suppliers, was initiated to ensure the hydrographic office can meet future needs and requirements. With demands for more products that are reliable, quick and accurately updated for existing maritime customers – including the introduction of new (IHO) standards and increased demands for data from new (non-maritime) customers – the Netherlands Hydrographic Office has decided not to wait, but to act and prepare.
[mappress] Subsea World News Staff , March 27, 2012; Image: Defensie