Veson Nautical

May 2008

On April 15th we hosted a Webinar on ‘Cargo Matching’, a new and exiting add-on to IMOS. Attendance to the Webinar (a virtual conference where a Web site plays the host to other remote web sites for visual and audio presentations) was by invitation only to clients and it was hosted by Jamie Sheldon, Director of Product Management. Jamie spent almost half an hour to describe the functionality of the package and allowed time for questions and answers at the end of the presentation.

The type and kind of the questions as well as the feedback we received showed a keen interest and excitement for the package. The package has been released to a few clients this month.

April 2008

Veson Nautical had a booth at the Connecticut Maritime Association Shipping Conference and Exhibition last month. Over 2,000 guests packed the halls of the Stamford Hilton where the exhibition was held. We were truly delighted to have attracted so much attention. Many visitors to our booth were our clients who wanted to see and feel the new versions and innovations to our products.

John Veson hosted a seminar at the Conference with title “Visual Planning: Managing Dynamic Schedules using IMOS ‘Cargo Matching’". The seminar was very well attended and exiting. ‘Cargo Matching’ is a new add-on module to IMOS which we are planning to install at multiple client sites starting next month.

We thank all visitors and seminar attendees and we look forward to seeing you again next year!

March 2008

Veson Viewpoint: Issue 6

February 2008

We are pleased to welcome three new members to the Veson Nautical team: Andy Lee, Per Ostman & Sarah Taffee. View Full Announcement In addition to our new staff, we are in the process of physically expanding the Boston office. In less than 4 weeks, we will officially take over the 3rd floor at our Boston headquarters. In addition to accommodating our new staff, the space will allow our developers and technical staff to each have their own private offices, to reduce distractions, improve comfort and focus on creativity. Architect Belinda Watt of Studio Watt O'Keefe cleverly designed the expanded section to have natural light for everyone, generous private offices as well as several open meeting areas. We are in the process of planning an office-warming party to celebrate the expansion and hope that our nearby clients, partners & friends will be able to attend.

January 2008

We wish everyone a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year! 2007 wrapped up an eventful year for Veson Nautical. “We continue to experience dynamic triple digit growth, with a significant portion coming from expansion within our existing customer base,” remarked John Veson. In 2008 we are looking forward to additional growth as we strengthen our internal team with key hires and expand our customer care programs. We will continue to actively develop new products to increase efficiency for charterers and ship owners; offer new training initiatives; and meet face to face with our valued clients at our semi-annual user summits.

In 2007, the Veson Nautical team chose to contribute a share of profits to the following organizations:

Oxfam
Unicef
WWF: Marine Conservation

November 2007

Veson Nautical received positive feedback from its first release Webinar on November 14th on the newest features included in IMOS v5.7. The demonstration focused on Multi-Grade Bunker Support, Ad-Hoc Reporting, Seaweb Vessel Search, Distances v6 and the Fleet Map. We would like to thank everyone that was able to attend and your feedback was greatly appreciated. Please contact Lindsay Robbins at lrobbins@veson.com after November 15th for a recorded webcast of the discussion.

October 2007

Veson Viewpoint: Issue 5

August 2007

User Conference Highlights

Veson Nautical held its second user conference this year at the Taj Hotel in Boston, MA on July 12th & 13th. In keeping with the company’s user conference philosophy, the focus was on a single objective with a diverse group of customers who are interested in contributing their thoughts to this topic. These two day round table discussions were invaluable in setting the priorities for our proactive development of our IMOS roadmap. The plan is always to include a broad spectrum of clients from the dry, wet, parcel, liner, barge and trans-shipment areas. The result was a reprioritized feature and improvement list that will deliver platform wide benefits and positively affect the user experience for all of our clients.

It was a pleasure hosting our clients Alcoa, Bertling, ConocoPhilllips, Flinter, Moran Towing, Stolt Nielsen, Tesoro Petroleum, and Vroon BV in Boston – we greatly appreciate their input and support. We look forward to releasing IMOS v5.7 this September which will include some key requests derived from the conference. Veson will also be holding a Release Webinar for v5.7 to demonstrate new features and improvements as well as run a Q&A for advanced system users.

July 2007

2007 Summer Internships

In June, Veson Nautical kicked off its first internship program. We have brought in talented software engineering students from some of New England’s top universities. The interns will be working on real projects that can be completed in a three month timeframe. This year, we have two projects – one is focused on further improving the context sensitive help functionality in IMOS and the other is an exciting new upgrade to a long-time product of Veson. We look forward to releasing the outcome of this development in September.

June 2007

John Veson discusses drivers and challenges surrounding FFA trading for The Baltic: The power of technology

Nor-shipping 2007 Wrap up

Nor-shipping 2007 was attended by nearly 20,000 exhibitors and visitors this year. Veson Nautical made a number of new contacts and had productive meetings with partners in the region. The results of which will be announced early this Fall.

May 2007

Veson Viewpoint: Issue 4

April 2007

New office in Singapore

Veson Nautical will be opening a new office in Singapore as of September 1, 2007. The office will be staffed by two of Veson’s US team members who will be relocating to Singapore for a period of 1 year in order to hire and train the permanently based staff. This arrangement will provide an immediate benefit to our clients in the region as very knowledgeable and experienced staff will be available from day one.

Windows Vista compatibility
Both IMOS v.4 and v.5 are fully compatible with Windows Vista.

March 2007

CMA Shipping 2007 Wrap up

CMA proved yet again to be one of the most exciting and interesting tradeshows for the commercial maritime community. Veson Nautical exhibited alongside nearly 2000 of the industry’s top leaders at the annual tradeshow held in Stamford, CT. Unlike many of the larger exhibitions, the CMA attracts a subset of elite maritime executives – the majority of whom attend every year. The organizers have successfully managed to maintain a professional yet friendly atmosphere to the show made up of many familiar faces. A highlight is the evening cocktails in the exhibition hall every night.

We were delighted to have so many of our clients stop by our booth and to make some new connections. Old friends and long-time clients were excited to see Michael Veson make an appearance at the tradeshow. Michael was one of the first pioneers to deliver customizable solutions to the maritime industry when he founded Veson Inc. nearly thirty years ago.

Our seminar “The Power of Managing Physical and Paper Freight Positions in a Unified System” was well attended as this topic is clearly resonating with the market and is one that we will continue to invest in. As the room filled to capacity, John Veson spoke about the advantages of managing FFAs within a commercial operations system and the highlights of our new FFA solution, IMOS Trading, which adds the paper trade management functionality to Veson’s flagship Chartering and Operations solution, IMOS.

We would like to thank everyone who was able to stop by our stand and we look forward to exhibiting next year at Shipping 2008!

February 2007

Veson Viewpoint: Issue 3

January 2007

2006 Success and Goals for 2007

We are pleased to announce that 2006 has been our most successful year to date. In addition to doubling our revenues, we have secured 30 new customers, doubled our staff, and opened another new office in Europe.

IMOS continues to be adopted by the world’s most elite companies including Stolt Nielsen, Neste Oil, Tesoro Petroleum and most recently the world’s leading agricultural processor, the world’s second largest producer of aluminum, and one of the world’s largest container companies.

With the release of IMOS v.5 on the horizon in Q1 2007, we are looking forward to continue to serve our clients with continued enthusiasm and proactive development. Some of the new features and improvements V5 has to offer are:

Support for Microsoft .Net 2.0
Interactive, filterable Data lists
New Report formats
Support for Inland barges and Lightering
Support for a variety of Financials Approvals processes
Reminders
Improved IMOS Onboard
Improved periodic bunker tracking
Improved Demurrage management
Improved Rebillables management
Integrated context sensitive web-based Help

In addition to IMOS, we are investing in several new product offerings, training initiatives, and services in order to provide our customers with the utmost quality and efficiency.

December 2006

Happy Holidays!

We’d like to wish all our clients, consultants, partners and team members a wonderful holiday season, and we hope that the new year is filled with good health, happiness and prosperity for all.

At this time of year, we remind ourselves to give back to the community around us. Veson Nautical encourages philanthropy by giving each member of its team a grant to donate to one of several approved organizations. This year, Veson team members have chosen to support:

The Ocean Conservancy
Oxfam
Unicef
WWF: Marine Conservation

November 2006

Forward Freight Agreements

Forward Freight Agreements (FFAs) have clearly become an important trend in the shipping industry, and they are an integral part of many of our clients' business activities. The main terms of an FFA cover the agreed-upon route, the date of settlement, broker, contract quantity, and price. We recongize that FFAs are an important tool in hedging freigh cost risk exposure. As such, adding an FFA trade position module to IMOS is vital to get a complete picture of maritime commercial activities. This module will be an important tool for both Charterers and Ship Owners alike, allowing a consoidated long/short position to be generated on a daily basis with mark-to-market capability.

October 2006

IMOS Managing IMOS

The business of shipping is complex--the job of software is to make it easier. In its present state, IMOS v4 represents over twenty years of refinement and streamlining, a response to industry trends, users' needs, and technology's advancements. The eventual goal is to maximize clarity and simplicity in the end users daily work: IMOS managing IMOS. With every new development, partnership with third parties, and additional portal and onboard applications, the system moves closer to auto-importing all data and allowing users to focus their energies on strategic analysis and decision making. IMOS empowers our clients to make better decisions faster.

IMOS Onboard, our module that communicates between ships at sea and the home office, is one major step in this direction. The software allows ships officers to send reports directly to IMOS so that information entered at sea is automatically imported into the system, minimizing time spent on simple data entry. Onboard also automates position reporting via a GPS feed, streamlining procedures further and minimizing the users' role in the managing of IMOS.

Our partnerships with third-party providers also enable us to approach a self-regulating software solution; by joining up with best-of-breed partners, we are able to incorporate new features that would otherwise take years to develop. For example, our partnership with Lloyd's Register Fairplay of London allows us to provide our users with accurate port and vessel information, affording you insider knowledge and a competitive edge. Further, IMOS has the ability to seamlessly import Port Advance and Disbursement information electronically from third party services, so no re-keying is needed at the office.

The next step in achieving our goal is the creation of a new Agent Portal, a web-based application that will allow port agents to enter reports for direct importation into IMOS. By providing instant access to agents' reports within IMOS, we're able to further simplify and streamline your day-to-day processes.

Veson Viewpoint: Issue 2

September 2006

Build or Buy?

Many companies when evaluating options to handle their commercial maritime operations, weigh the decision whether to buy an existing "off the shelf" system or to build their own custom system in house.

At first glance, the advantages and disadvantages of each appear obvious: custom built software is labor intensive, expensive and time consuming, but the end product will have exactly and only the features desired by the client. Off the shelf software will be more cost effective (usually), have a shorter lead time, is routinely updated and offer on-going knowledgeable customer support but it may have too many unnecessary features, still lack some necessary features, and require expensive consultants to install and configure.

Here at Veson, we offer a way to benefit from the best of both worlds: modular, flexible and highly configurable software that offers the key features that commercial maritime organizations want without a million needless fields that were included at a client's request years ago. Our expertise is in designing and developing user friendly, graphical and highly analytical software systems for shipping. We partner with internal IT departments or independent consultants to add value to our proven platform so companies don't have to reinvent the wheel. Clients gain competitive advantage by staying ahead of the technology curve while focusing on what they do best-strategically managing their vessels.

The answer is clear: IMOS.

August 2006

Workplace Organization for a Growing Company

When we decided to start a number of new members of the Veson team at once, we planned for almost everything: selected the most qualified candidates; drafted detailed roles, responsibilities and performance goals; conducted extensive training; and threw weekly company lunches to bond and go over business objectives. The one thing we didn't have ready: the space to put them. It seems that, with our focus on best managing our growth, we have managed to overgrow our current office space. In order to accommodate our fast-growing group, we'll be relocating to a larger office in Boston in the coming months.

The way we organize our new space is very important as it will certainly affect our productivity and therefore our clients and bottom line. If we cram all of our developers into a tiny, New York City apartment-sized room, their productivity is sure to slip. If we station our Account Managers in earshot of the developers, no one will be able to concentrate. Fortunately, workspace planning seems to be a big topic this summer on several independent software vendor (ISV) web logs so plenty of advice was available:

Joel on Software - Bionic Office
Hello - A Software Engineer's Office
Possibility - The Ultimate Software Development Office Layout

After much debate, we decided to invest in the design expertise of an architect who has created very successful and attractive offices for other ISVs. It is our goal that this extra focus on creating a space which is both optimized for productivity and aesthetics will further add to the enjoyment our staff has in their everyday work. We'll include an update once the implementation is complete. If you're curious to see our new space, you'll have to make the trip out to Boston post October 1st to visit us: you're always welcome!

July 2006

Trade Shows: Worthwhile or Waste?

At 10 AM on June 5, the day that Posidonia opened, our booth was nowhere to be found. As five of us sat in our empty stand, agonizing over whether customs would release our crate, one thought played over and over in my head: Is this really worth it? Anyone who's been an exhibitor at a trade show and understands the stress, expense and planning that goes into an event has certainly wondered the same thing.

However, even with all of the trials and tribulations of our booth arriving one hour before the ribbon cutting ceremony, exhibiting at Posidonia proved to be a big success. Meeting face to face with a number of prospective customers, getting feedback from current clients, conversing with industry leaders, and becoming friends with neighboring exhibitors provided us with a perspective and connections that cannot be attained just by reading trade journals or individual meetings. Posidonia was also a rare opportunity to thank and entertain our clients and partners as so many were gathered together in one place.

Scenes from the Veson Nautical Posidonia Cocktail Party

The memories that we made at this year's Posidonia were great, and it's a good thing they were - only they (and the Greek nightlife) could make us forget the nightmare of getting there and look forward to attending the next trade show (look for us at the CMA and Nor-Shipping in 2007!).

June 2006

Partnerships Lead to Integrated Solutions

In late April, we announced our partnership with SolArc, Inc., a leading provider of enterprise supply and trade management solutions for global energy companies. Together we are developing a new product called MarineCenter, which is an integrated version of Veson's IMOS and SolArc's RightAngle. MarineCenter, the first offering of its kind, will enable global energy companies to manage their positions and vessel movement costs as commodities are shipped globally.

Working with best of breed partners such as SolArc, Q88.com and Lloyd's Register Fairplay is one of the cornerstones of our business approach. Building relationships with vendors that share a similar vision to our own means our clients have access to an entirely new level of capability with integrated solutions, real-time data feeds and a seamless exchange of information across a wide range of departments.

With Posidonia this month, it is a great opportunity for furthering these relationships. We will be exhibiting this year in Stand no. 240/1 and hosting a cocktail reception for clients and partners. If you will be attending Posidonia, please stop by and visit our team. We will have several new members there, and we all look forward to what is sure to be an exciting week!

May 2006

Welcome

On behalf of Veson Nautical, I would like to welcome you to our newly revised website. We've designed our site with our clients and prospective clients in mind, making it as easy as possible to learn about our products and latest news as well as access our expanded client resource center.

The Veson Viewpoint section is our forum to discuss issues affecting our industry; or a new technology or feature or application that impacts our markets. We'll analyze trends to maximize your profitability and take advantage of best practices in software. As an avid reader of technology web logs and online news, I find this medium a great way to share ideas and information that can add value to your business and ours.

Our goal is to update this section on a monthly basis so that we can provide you with our most current ideas and observations. If there is content you might wish to explore, please send us your feedback - we'd love to hear from you.

We hope you find our site easy to use and a constructive resource for decision making.

Veson Viewpoint: Issue 1


		13 May 2008
May 2008 On April 15th we hosted a Webinar on ‘Cargo Matching’, a new and exiting add-on to IMOS. Attendance to the Webinar (a virtual conference where a Web site plays the host to other remote web sites for visual and audio presentations) was by invitation only to clients and it was hosted by Jamie Sheldon, Director of Product Management. Jamie spent almost half an hour to describe the functionality of the package and allowed time for questions and answers at the end of the presentation. The type and kind of the questions as well as the feedback we received showed a keen interest and excitement for the package. The package has been released to a few clients this month. April 2008 Veson Nautical had a booth at the Connecticut Maritime Association Shipping Conference and Exhibition last month. Over 2,000 guests packed the halls of the Stamford Hilton where the exhibition was held. We were truly delighted to have attracted so much attention. Many visitors to our booth were our clients who wanted to see and feel the new versions and innovations to our products. John Veson hosted a seminar at the Conference with title “Visual Planning: Managing Dynamic Schedules using IMOS ‘Cargo Matching’". The seminar was very well attended and exiting. ‘Cargo Matching’ is a new add-on module to IMOS which we are planning to install at multiple client sites starting next month. We thank all visitors and seminar attendees and we look forward to seeing you again next year! March 2008 Veson Viewpoint: Issue 6 February 2008 We are pleased to welcome three new members to the Veson Nautical team: Andy Lee, Per Ostman & Sarah Taffee. View Full Announcement In addition to our new staff, we are in the process of physically expanding the Boston office. In less than 4 weeks, we will officially take over the 3rd floor at our Boston headquarters. In addition to accommodating our new staff, the space will allow our developers and technical staff to each have their own private offices, to reduce distractions, improve comfort and focus on creativity. Architect Belinda Watt of Studio Watt O'Keefe cleverly designed the expanded section to have natural light for everyone, generous private offices as well as several open meeting areas. We are in the process of planning an office-warming party to celebrate the expansion and hope that our nearby clients, partners & friends will be able to attend. January 2008 We wish everyone a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year! 2007 wrapped up an eventful year for Veson Nautical. “We continue to experience dynamic triple digit growth, with a significant portion coming from expansion within our existing customer base,” remarked John Veson. In 2008 we are looking forward to additional growth as we strengthen our internal team with key hires and expand our customer care programs. We will continue to actively develop new products to increase efficiency for charterers and ship owners; offer new training initiatives; and meet face to face with our valued clients at our semi-annual user summits. In 2007, the Veson Nautical team chose to contribute a share of profits to the following organizations: Oxfam Unicef WWF: Marine Conservation November 2007 Veson Nautical received positive feedback from its first release Webinar on November 14th on the newest features included in IMOS v5.7. The demonstration focused on Multi-Grade Bunker Support, Ad-Hoc Reporting, Seaweb Vessel Search, Distances v6 and the Fleet Map. We would like to thank everyone that was able to attend and your feedback was greatly appreciated. Please contact Lindsay Robbins at lrobbins@veson.com after November 15th for a recorded webcast of the discussion. October 2007 Veson Viewpoint: Issue 5 August 2007 User Conference Highlights Veson Nautical held its second user conference this year at the Taj Hotel in Boston, MA on July 12th & 13th. In keeping with the company’s user conference philosophy, the focus was on a single objective with a diverse group of customers who are interested in contributing their thoughts to this topic. These two day round table discussions were invaluable in setting the priorities for our proactive development of our IMOS roadmap. The plan is always to include a broad spectrum of clients from the dry, wet, parcel, liner, barge and trans-shipment areas. The result was a reprioritized feature and improvement list that will deliver platform wide benefits and positively affect the user experience for all of our clients. It was a pleasure hosting our clients Alcoa, Bertling, ConocoPhilllips, Flinter, Moran Towing, Stolt Nielsen, Tesoro Petroleum, and Vroon BV in Boston – we greatly appreciate their input and support. We look forward to releasing IMOS v5.7 this September which will include some key requests derived from the conference. Veson will also be holding a Release Webinar for v5.7 to demonstrate new features and improvements as well as run a Q&A for advanced system users. July 2007 2007 Summer Internships In June, Veson Nautical kicked off its first internship program. We have brought in talented software engineering students from some of New England’s top universities. The interns will be working on real projects that can be completed in a three month timeframe. This year, we have two projects – one is focused on further improving the context sensitive help functionality in IMOS and the other is an exciting new upgrade to a long-time product of Veson. We look forward to releasing the outcome of this development in September. June 2007 John Veson discusses drivers and challenges surrounding FFA trading for The Baltic: The power of technology Nor-shipping 2007 Wrap up Nor-shipping 2007 was attended by nearly 20,000 exhibitors and visitors this year. Veson Nautical made a number of new contacts and had productive meetings with partners in the region. The results of which will be announced early this Fall. May 2007 Veson Viewpoint: Issue 4 April 2007 New office in Singapore Veson Nautical will be opening a new office in Singapore as of September 1, 2007. The office will be staffed by two of Veson’s US team members who will be relocating to Singapore for a period of 1 year in order to hire and train the permanently based staff. This arrangement will provide an immediate benefit to our clients in the region as very knowledgeable and experienced staff will be available from day one. Windows Vista compatibility Both IMOS v.4 and v.5 are fully compatible with Windows Vista. March 2007 CMA Shipping 2007 Wrap up CMA proved yet again to be one of the most exciting and interesting tradeshows for the commercial maritime community. Veson Nautical exhibited alongside nearly 2000 of the industry’s top leaders at the annual tradeshow held in Stamford, CT. Unlike many of the larger exhibitions, the CMA attracts a subset of elite maritime executives – the majority of whom attend every year. The organizers have successfully managed to maintain a professional yet friendly atmosphere to the show made up of many familiar faces. A highlight is the evening cocktails in the exhibition hall every night. We were delighted to have so many of our clients stop by our booth and to make some new connections. Old friends and long-time clients were excited to see Michael Veson make an appearance at the tradeshow. Michael was one of the first pioneers to deliver customizable solutions to the maritime industry when he founded Veson Inc. nearly thirty years ago. Our seminar “The Power of Managing Physical and Paper Freight Positions in a Unified System” was well attended as this topic is clearly resonating with the market and is one that we will continue to invest in. As the room filled to capacity, John Veson spoke about the advantages of managing FFAs within a commercial operations system and the highlights of our new FFA solution, IMOS Trading, which adds the paper trade management functionality to Veson’s flagship Chartering and Operations solution, IMOS. We would like to thank everyone who was able to stop by our stand and we look forward to exhibiting next year at Shipping 2008! February 2007 Veson Viewpoint: Issue 3 January 2007 2006 Success and Goals for 2007 We are pleased to announce that 2006 has been our most successful year to date. In addition to doubling our revenues, we have secured 30 new customers, doubled our staff, and opened another new office in Europe. IMOS continues to be adopted by the world’s most elite companies including Stolt Nielsen, Neste Oil, Tesoro Petroleum and most recently the world’s leading agricultural processor, the world’s second largest producer of aluminum, and one of the world’s largest container companies. With the release of IMOS v.5 on the horizon in Q1 2007, we are looking forward to continue to serve our clients with continued enthusiasm and proactive development. Some of the new features and improvements V5 has to offer are: Support for Microsoft .Net 2.0 Interactive, filterable Data lists New Report formats Support for Inland barges and Lightering Support for a variety of Financials Approvals processes Reminders Improved IMOS Onboard Improved periodic bunker tracking Improved Demurrage management Improved Rebillables management Integrated context sensitive web-based Help In addition to IMOS, we are investing in several new product offerings, training initiatives, and services in order to provide our customers with the utmost quality and efficiency. December 2006 Happy Holidays! We’d like to wish all our clients, consultants, partners and team members a wonderful holiday season, and we hope that the new year is filled with good health, happiness and prosperity for all. At this time of year, we remind ourselves to give back to the community around us. Veson Nautical encourages philanthropy by giving each member of its team a grant to donate to one of several approved organizations. This year, Veson team members have chosen to support: The Ocean Conservancy Oxfam Unicef WWF: Marine Conservation November 2006 Forward Freight Agreements Forward Freight Agreements (FFAs) have clearly become an important trend in the shipping industry, and they are an integral part of many of our clients' business activities. The main terms of an FFA cover the agreed-upon route, the date of settlement, broker, contract quantity, and price. We recongize that FFAs are an important tool in hedging freigh cost risk exposure. As such, adding an FFA trade position module to IMOS is vital to get a complete picture of maritime commercial activities. This module will be an important tool for both Charterers and Ship Owners alike, allowing a consoidated long/short position to be generated on a daily basis with mark-to-market capability. October 2006 IMOS Managing IMOS The business of shipping is complex--the job of software is to make it easier. In its present state, IMOS v4 represents over twenty years of refinement and streamlining, a response to industry trends, users' needs, and technology's advancements. The eventual goal is to maximize clarity and simplicity in the end users daily work: IMOS managing IMOS. With every new development, partnership with third parties, and additional portal and onboard applications, the system moves closer to auto-importing all data and allowing users to focus their energies on strategic analysis and decision making. IMOS empowers our clients to make better decisions faster. IMOS Onboard, our module that communicates between ships at sea and the home office, is one major step in this direction. The software allows ships officers to send reports directly to IMOS so that information entered at sea is automatically imported into the system, minimizing time spent on simple data entry. Onboard also automates position reporting via a GPS feed, streamlining procedures further and minimizing the users' role in the managing of IMOS. Our partnerships with third-party providers also enable us to approach a self-regulating software solution; by joining up with best-of-breed partners, we are able to incorporate new features that would otherwise take years to develop. For example, our partnership with Lloyd's Register Fairplay of London allows us to provide our users with accurate port and vessel information, affording you insider knowledge and a competitive edge. Further, IMOS has the ability to seamlessly import Port Advance and Disbursement information electronically from third party services, so no re-keying is needed at the office. The next step in achieving our goal is the creation of a new Agent Portal, a web-based application that will allow port agents to enter reports for direct importation into IMOS. By providing instant access to agents' reports within IMOS, we're able to further simplify and streamline your day-to-day processes. Veson Viewpoint: Issue 2 September 2006 Build or Buy? Many companies when evaluating options to handle their commercial maritime operations, weigh the decision whether to buy an existing "off the shelf" system or to build their own custom system in house. At first glance, the advantages and disadvantages of each appear obvious: custom built software is labor intensive, expensive and time consuming, but the end product will have exactly and only the features desired by the client. Off the shelf software will be more cost effective (usually), have a shorter lead time, is routinely updated and offer on-going knowledgeable customer support but it may have too many unnecessary features, still lack some necessary features, and require expensive consultants to install and configure. Here at Veson, we offer a way to benefit from the best of both worlds: modular, flexible and highly configurable software that offers the key features that commercial maritime organizations want without a million needless fields that were included at a client's request years ago. Our expertise is in designing and developing user friendly, graphical and highly analytical software systems for shipping. We partner with internal IT departments or independent consultants to add value to our proven platform so companies don't have to reinvent the wheel. Clients gain competitive advantage by staying ahead of the technology curve while focusing on what they do best-strategically managing their vessels. The answer is clear: IMOS. August 2006 Workplace Organization for a Growing Company When we decided to start a number of new members of the Veson team at once, we planned for almost everything: selected the most qualified candidates; drafted detailed roles, responsibilities and performance goals; conducted extensive training; and threw weekly company lunches to bond and go over business objectives. The one thing we didn't have ready: the space to put them. It seems that, with our focus on best managing our growth, we have managed to overgrow our current office space. In order to accommodate our fast-growing group, we'll be relocating to a larger office in Boston in the coming months. The way we organize our new space is very important as it will certainly affect our productivity and therefore our clients and bottom line. If we cram all of our developers into a tiny, New York City apartment-sized room, their productivity is sure to slip. If we station our Account Managers in earshot of the developers, no one will be able to concentrate. Fortunately, workspace planning seems to be a big topic this summer on several independent software vendor (ISV) web logs so plenty of advice was available: Joel on Software - Bionic Office Hello - A Software Engineer's Office Possibility - The Ultimate Software Development Office Layout After much debate, we decided to invest in the design expertise of an architect who has created very successful and attractive offices for other ISVs. It is our goal that this extra focus on creating a space which is both optimized for productivity and aesthetics will further add to the enjoyment our staff has in their everyday work. We'll include an update once the implementation is complete. If you're curious to see our new space, you'll have to make the trip out to Boston post October 1st to visit us: you're always welcome! July 2006 Trade Shows: Worthwhile or Waste? At 10 AM on June 5, the day that Posidonia opened, our booth was nowhere to be found. As five of us sat in our empty stand, agonizing over whether customs would release our crate, one thought played over and over in my head: Is this really worth it? Anyone who's been an exhibitor at a trade show and understands the stress, expense and planning that goes into an event has certainly wondered the same thing. However, even with all of the trials and tribulations of our booth arriving one hour before the ribbon cutting ceremony, exhibiting at Posidonia proved to be a big success. Meeting face to face with a number of prospective customers, getting feedback from current clients, conversing with industry leaders, and becoming friends with neighboring exhibitors provided us with a perspective and connections that cannot be attained just by reading trade journals or individual meetings. Posidonia was also a rare opportunity to thank and entertain our clients and partners as so many were gathered together in one place. Scenes from the Veson Nautical Posidonia Cocktail Party The memories that we made at this year's Posidonia were great, and it's a good thing they were - only they (and the Greek nightlife) could make us forget the nightmare of getting there and look forward to attending the next trade show (look for us at the CMA and Nor-Shipping in 2007!). June 2006 Partnerships Lead to Integrated Solutions In late April, we announced our partnership with SolArc, Inc., a leading provider of enterprise supply and trade management solutions for global energy companies. Together we are developing a new product called MarineCenter, which is an integrated version of Veson's IMOS and SolArc's RightAngle. MarineCenter, the first offering of its kind, will enable global energy companies to manage their positions and vessel movement costs as commodities are shipped globally. Working with best of breed partners such as SolArc, Q88.com and Lloyd's Register Fairplay is one of the cornerstones of our business approach. Building relationships with vendors that share a similar vision to our own means our clients have access to an entirely new level of capability with integrated solutions, real-time data feeds and a seamless exchange of information across a wide range of departments. With Posidonia this month, it is a great opportunity for furthering these relationships. We will be exhibiting this year in Stand no. 240/1 and hosting a cocktail reception for clients and partners. If you will be attending Posidonia, please stop by and visit our team. We will have several new members there, and we all look forward to what is sure to be an exciting week! May 2006 Welcome On behalf of Veson Nautical, I would like to welcome you to our newly revised website. We've designed our site with our clients and prospective clients in mind, making it as easy as possible to learn about our products and latest news as well as access our expanded client resource center. The Veson Viewpoint section is our forum to discuss issues affecting our industry; or a new technology or feature or application that impacts our markets. We'll analyze trends to maximize your profitability and take advantage of best practices in software. As an avid reader of technology web logs and online news, I find this medium a great way to share ideas and information that can add value to your business and ours. Our goal is to update this section on a monthly basis so that we can provide you with our most current ideas and observations. If there is content you might wish to explore, please send us your feedback - we'd love to hear from you. We hope you find our site easy to use and a constructive resource for decision making. Veson Viewpoint: Issue 1	"We believe that the IMOS today is by far the most comprehensive and flexible tool for commercial operations. In fact, we have decided to use IMOS for our other commercial management companies because we know it will deliver. Veson′s software should be utilized by as many shipping companies as possible." —Captain Eugen Adami, Managing Director, Intership Navigation Co. Ltd.
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