Throughout 2024, Eddy Connelly will let us know how things are in his world. Eddy is an UltramapGlobal Report Writer. Part of the global team set on reducing the world’s cable strikes – to zero.
Eddy and his colleagues measure and report on over 100 million vessel movements around the world. Every. Single. Day. Using, amongst other things, the world’s most used subsea cable protection software – AssetMonitor®.
This chapter continues Eddy’s UltramapGlobal storytelling from the front line.
Eddy hello. How was March 2024?
March 2024 was great. We have good systems at UltramapGlobal that help us in the day-to-day of writing Monitoring Reports. However, because the reports I create rely heavily on the effectiveness of our own systems, I do like to slow down and take a look at the systems themselves from time to time. To make sure they are as good as they could be.
There was time to do this in March. So, this month, I’ve been Spring Cleaning, if you like. Checking systems.
I understand the need for systems at UltramapGlobal, particularly with regards to your software AssetMonitor. How automated are your systems? What’s the balance between automation and personalisation?
Some things are the same for every client, every month. Quality and structure for example.
In order to identify patterns, see trends and learn, the way data is collated and presented has to be very precise and consistent. So that we are comparing like-for-like. We learn by comparing successive months, successive years, different geographies and different clients.
This is where our ‘Better Informed Means Better Protected’ message comes from. UltramapGlobal’s cable protection software really does collect and permanently store more data than anybody else. But if we don’t collate, analyse, and present the data consistently and well, protection could be compromised. So as I say, we use automation to ensure quality and consistency – across everything.
Some things we can’t automate though. Because no two clients want to see exactly the same data in exactly the same way. All Monitoring Reports have a degree of uniqueness. That’s when personalisation comes in. Slowing down. Knowing the client really well. We get that right too.
What are you tweaking when you are improving systems that support the creation of Monitoring Reports?
Sometimes, I need to reconfigure software settings to change how many events the AssetMonitor software highlights in a particular region. I can never just sit and read screens. None of us can. Sometimes the software is too sensitive. Sometimes it is not sensitive enough. Sometimes the written and visual output from the data can be improved. I look at all of these things client-by-client.
I am always looking to improve the quality of the report output, both visually and written. I have to make sure that Monitoring Reports are easy to read, understand, learn from and react to.
Creating Monitoring Reports is not and could never be fully automated. I see so many vessel tracking maps and heat maps. I understand them, but customers may not. So I always have to be in-tune to the best way to interpret, translate and present what information is given.
March was a good month for this Spring Cleaning approach. Because I also had a little time to slow down and check that continual improvement had not destandardised quality across customers. What I mean by that is, if we improved something with customer A that would also improve how we look after customer B, we upgrade and improve across the portfolio. Best practice cascades.
And how are things personally?
I’ve started running again! 6-mile runs a few times a week. It’s hard because I’ve not run properly for 3 years.
It’s ironic isn’t it that, this month, I’m moving faster in my personal life, and slower in my work life. Balance. That’s the key!
See you again in April.
If you missed Chapters one and two, here they are:
The Diary of an UltramapGlobal Report Writer – Chapter 1. January 2024.
The Diary of an UltramapGlobal Report Writer – Chapter 2. February 2024.
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