ClassNK acquires Helm
Japan’s ClassNK have announced the acquisition of Canadian maritime software company Helm Operations. Since 1999 Helm Operations (formerly Edoc Systems Group) has been developing operations software for the tug and barge and OSV industries.
Helm Connect is the flagship product of Helm Operations, designed to manage safety and compliance, preventive maintenance work, billing, or jobs. According to Helm, ‘it is the workboat industry’s first app-based, web-based, workflow-based software system designed through user experience principles, which makes it intuitive for use by everyone in a workboat company, from the crew right down to the CEO’.
Tokyo-based ClassNK is one of the world’s largest classification societies, providing safety and certification services for more than 8,600 ships, representing about 20% of the global merchant fleet. Founded in 1999, Helm Operations has grown to become a leading provider of manning, maintenance, dispatch, and HSQE software to the workboat and offshore industries, and Helm software is currently used on some 1,000 vessels belonging to some of the most respected workboat companies in the world, including Svitzer, Seaspan, Blessey Marine and Florida Marine Transporters.
ClassNK acquired another maritime software company, NAPA, earlier this year.
By Jake Frith
