Eddy’s Journey. How Balancing Monitoring with Report Writing has Helped UltramapGlobal’s AssetMonitor® Software Become World Number One. PART ONE.

This article is in two parts. Here’s Part One.

In UltramapGlobal’s world of subsea cable protection, there’s a difference between Monitoring and Report Writing.

Monitoring is big. Really big. Our AssetMonitor® software and our Monitoring Team monitor 100 million vessel movements around the world. Every. Single. Day. That’s one of the reasons why 100% of our customers experience fewer cable strikes after choosing us.

The Most Important Thing In Our Business.

And alongside Monitoring, is Report Writing.

Report Writing is different. To Monitoring. Because whilst Monitoring gives us forensic, always-on understanding, Report Writing gives us further analysis, reasoning, insight and learning. Which in turn gives us, and our customers, the most important thing in our business – better protection than anyone else can offer.

Meet Eddy.

To better understand how all this works, we chatted to UltramapGlobal’s Eddy.

Because Eddy has spent 5 years Monitoring for UltramapGlobal and has been exclusively Report Writing for a full year after that.

Eddy is expert at both.

Balance.

We spoke to Eddy in late 2023. Eddy says:

“As good as UltramapGlobal’s AssetMonitor® software is – it is the most used specialist subsea cable monitoring software in the world – it doesn’t quite give us everything we need. To protect customers as well as we can and do, I mean.”

“When I was part of the Monitoring Team, it required my complete focus. We now have 25 Monitoring Managers and Analysts, at 3 locations around the world, monitoring over 3 shifts. Monitoring is always on. Every second of every day. It’s intense!”

“Report Writing balances with this. It is the comfort blanket that wraps around the intensity of the monitoring. And Report Writing has become so important and valuable that, in recent years, UltramapGlobal has appointed more and more dedicated Specialist Report Writers.”

Awesome, Layered Protection.

The Reports that Eddy creates can be between 30 and 200 pages long.

In the early days, the reports were reactive rather than strategic. Reports were bespoke documents normally triggered by specific customer briefings or they captured a moment in time. Nowadays, in 2023, Report Writing is increasingly proactive and is an important part of service delivery for every customer.

“Reports give customers additional peace of mind. They are an expression of commitment and how much we care. We library them. They are many.”

Explains Eddy.

“The Reports that we create for clients each month are so thorough. The AssetMonitor software identifies patters and threats in a slightly different way to how I would as a Report Writer. The combination of both kinds of analysis – software and human – gives awesome, layered protection and insight. The best in the world.”

“I write dozens of reports each month one for each of my customers. As each month passes, we learn more and more. There’s a snowballing effect. We’re writing reports about cable, pipe and vessel activity on so many regions around the world.

Europe, America, Asia, the Middle East and Europe North, East West and South as four distinct European zones. Reporting is focused and forensic.”

What We Learn. And How we Improve.

We asked Eddy what kinds of things UltramapGlobal learns in this new era of AssetMonitor® checking 100 million vessel movements each day, plus Report Writing.

“I report on the number of events generated by zone, category and vessel type each month. That can be counted in the thousands within each report.”

“Then there are interventions. How many times the monitoring team is taking action to avoid cable strikes. Exactly what kind of intervention is recorded too. So we are constantly upgrading the effectiveness of the actions we take. This is all reported on by specific location and time, of course.”

In Part 2 of this interview, Eddy helps us to understand the importance of Situational Awareness in UltramapGlobal’s work, as well as how Eddy and his colleagues help to investigate and resolve Disputes. Plus how Eddy’s career has developed on a very personal level.