Kongsberg Maritime in the News
• BRITISH COLUMBIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY SIGNS TO EXTEND SIMULATOR SUPPORT
The British Columbia Institute Of Technology (BCIT), a key Kongsberg Maritime simulation customer in North America has signed an agreement to continue and expand its Long Term System Support Program (LTSSP) with Kongsberg Maritime. The contract, for support of the full mission Polaris DNV Class "A" navigation/bridge simulator at BCIT, was signed at the recent Kongsberg Maritime 2006 Americas' Simulation User Conference in Orlando.
"From the student's point of view, as much realism as we can put forward in simulation, the better we are as a trainer. Take for instance the upgrade to the new R5 visual system. We factored in the supply of new computers to handle the highly realistic visuals it produces, as part of the LTSSP. In fact, doing it this way provided us with good savings on the standard costs."
A major goal of all training institutes is to ensure availability of its simulation systems at all times so Kongsberg Maritime has recently expanded its LTSSP offering to ensure that its simulation customers have flexibility both in costs and level of service. This is hugely important to the broad customer base using Kongsberg Maritime simulation, as every simulator is built exactly to meet the needs of the user.
The Kongsberg maritime LTSSP provides four levels of support, each of which can be customised to the customer's exact requirements. Operational benefits include fixed and predictable costs, SW and hardware updates and direct connection to system experts and the KM Helpdesk. The LTSSP is a precise match between the needs of the customer and Kongsberg Maritime's services, enabling equipment performance to improve over time and ensuring continuity of simulator availability.
"The key for us is to keep our simulators running, but also to ensure our budgets are manageable. We need to support our own customers, the students and the companies they work for, so if a simulator has a problem then we need to get it rectified quickly. With the LTSSP in place we can do this, but without it being debilitating from a budget point of view," says John Clarkson.
• KONGSBERG MARITIME BUYS SENSE INTELLIFIELD
Kongsberg Maritime has acquired 100 percent of the technology enterprise Sense Intellifield AS for approx. MNOK 290 on a debt-free basis. The purchase price may increase, depending on the company`s profit trend in 2007 and 2008.
Sense Intellifield delivers products and services in the field of Integrated Operations, or e-field, for the international oil and gas market. The company is engaged in the development, marketing and sale of highly advanced products, systems and solutions for real-time remote operation of drilling operations and production optimisation. Among other products, the company has developed software to retrieve, transmit, store and display data about well and drilling services on rigs.
In tandem with the acquisition of Fantoft Process Technologies earlier this year and Kongsberg Maritime`s own oil and gas activities, the acquisition of Sense Intellifield will reinforce Kongsberg Maritime`s position in the international oil and gas industry.
"The acquisition of Sense Intellifield gives Kongsberg Maritime a broader portfolio of products in the rapidly growing market for Integrated Operations," remarks President Torfinn Kildal of Kongsberg Maritime. "Integrated Operations are increasingly impacting the oil and gas industry in terms of exploration as well as production."
President Børge Kolstad of Sense Intellifield states: "With Kongsberg Maritime as owner, Sense Intellifield will significantly strengthen its position as the leading independent technology enterprise in e-field and Integrated Operations. The companies complement each other exceedingly well when it comes to products as well as markets, and this will further improve the range of products available to our oil and gas clients in future."
Sense Intellifield has seen strong growth since the company was founded in June 2003, and its sales in 2006 came to approx. MNOK 115. With about 70 employees at its offices in Stavanger, Kristiansand, Oslo, Trondheim and Houston, the company has established relations with several of the world’s leading oil and gas companies.
For further information, please contact: Kongsberg Maritime @ www.kongsberg.com