Z. & G. Halcoussis Co Ltd has a fleet of 7 bulk carriers equipped with Fleet Xpress (FX) and Infinity Plus from Navarino. The company has recently also added Navarino’s Spectrum service, its dedicated toolkit for maritime IT managers, and in this feature, Dimitris Garefalakis, IT Manager for Z. & G. Halcoussis Co Ltd and John Kapaklis, Operations Manager, discuss how Navarino’s solutions help them in their day to day work.

‘Having researched the marketplace for smart box solutions, we quite quickly realised that Infinity is the benchmark’ says Mr Garefalakis, ‘Put simply, it is much more developed and feature-rich than any of the other options out there. It has an easy to use interface which I work with daily – it allows me, for example, to logon to any of the computers in our fleet remotely and to make any required changes. I can also use the virtualization capabilities of Infinity Plus to create virtual machines to test new software or to act as the ship’s server which saves me a lot of time and allows me to roll out new things smoothly.

Spectrum is the perfect complement to Infinity as it is an excellent tool to monitor all the devices onboard our ships including PCs, CPUs, RAM usage and certificates. It lets us update them quickly whenever needed and we can schedule large updates, such as Windows updates, at times when the vessel’s network traffic is low. Especially during the pandemic, when visiting vessels can be difficult, Spectrum is a great way to ‘virtually visit’ and ensure that all onboard devices are in optimal condition – a task which is not easily explained to crews who may not have the IT literacy needed to perform these task themselves, even with telephone assistance. Spectrum also alerts us if anything changes on our onboard devices, stops responding or goes offline, which allows us to quickly investigate, respond and remedy any such issues.’

Mr  Kapaklis added ‘Navarino has provided our fleet with a range of connectivity and technology solutions that have really helped us to upgrade the way our vessels operate. Fleet Xpress has proven to be a very reliable service and the connectivity that it enables has opened the door to several new functionalities, like Infinity and Spectrum, that make our daily operations more streamlined, cost effective and improve the way we do business.

Some of the installations were in difficult locations, but everything went well. The installing engineers were well trained and in direct contact 24/7 with Navarino’s Field service team which was something we really liked, and in most cases the FX service was brought online within 12 hours. We appreciate the speed and responsiveness from Navarino’s After Sales team – whenever there are connectivity issues onboard, their expertise really shows in the way they are quickly resolved, which is important because of course it is a top priority for us to ensure our fleet can operate seamlessly worldwide. FX is well known for the high speeds it offers and we feel that with the addition of the 5^th GX satellite, the speeds have improved even more across the Middle East and Europe . We are very satisfied with our partnership with Navarino and we enjoy working with a company that is constantly innovating for its customers.’

Ioannis Brougiannakis, Navarino’s Account Manager for Halcousis said ‘At Navarino we strive to offer a 5-star customer experience and I am very pleased to hear that Mr Kapaklis and Mr Garefalakis are satisfied with both our services and our support.

As a very modern, advanced ship operator, Halcoussis needed solutions that can help them maintain a cutting edge approach to their business and this is what Navarino has helped them to implement on their fleet. I look forward to continuing to work closely with them and to keep serving their vessels’ needs with as much efficiency and dedication as we offer all our partners.’