The FrontM platform connects people, machines, processes, and partner ecosystems to create seamless mobile experiences and services, on-ground, in-flight, at sea, or anywhere remote. In shipping, crew wellbeing and crew welfare are the two most important components which drive the industry.
Seafarers today are face expensive and intermittent onboard connectivity that hinders their ability to stay in touch with friends and family, keep up to date with current affairs, and easily access welfare services and support. As a result, feelings of isolation, disconnection, and loneliness are rife. In the aftermath of COVID-19, disrupting crew changes and repatriation have made connectivity and much more essential.
To curb this problem, FrontM has created onship, a secure seafarer welfare communications app designed to work over any satellite connectivity system. The app’s communication tools welfare services have been designed to provide support and services to any seafarer, crew member of mariner that relies on satellite connectivity to communicate with their loved ones. Let’s look at how onship serves as the most suitable solution.
The mobile-first approach: Semantically speaking “mobile-first” means to begin with a mobile phone. Any process, development, or any activity that is done over a mobile phone or by keeping a mobile phone as its first point of reference is called the ‘mobile-first approach’. In this context, the “mobile-first” refers to the fact that the application designing of onship keeps the mobile interface as the priority when designing an application.
It is all about optimisation – providing the best to everyone. According to recent studies, there are over 3.8 billion people who use a smartphone. It is this number that has led to the adoption of the ‘mobile-first approach’. As we are in a niche sector serving a set of the target audience who mostly use mobiles as their primary source of communication, giving priority to the mobile interface is the best way forward.
Welfare service consumption and entertainment – a far superior experience: In the service sector, a customer is the point of origin for every activity and in this case, it is the sailors away from home. Staying away in a static, bounded area for months can be very taxing – psychologically. It is therefore very important to have all-time access to welfare service consumption and entertainment. It is a superior experience because it lets the mind be more focused and alert.
Why have 10 apps when you can have one? That’s true! Why do we need to have multiple apps when onship can effectively address multiple needs? The crew welfare applications of FrontM have been designed to help shipping operators and enterprises take a people-first approach to digitising crew wellbeing. Provide your crew with easy-to-use tools via mobile and web interfaces that are optimised for satellite links. Be it communication, healthcare, entertainment, e-learning, and many more fronts, the onship platform has proven its mettle by creating a niche for itself.
Immediate usability and connectivity benefits to the seafarers: It helps focus much better because all your emotional needs are fulfilled. At work, all you are thinking is work because all other questions have been answered. It keeps a seafarer’s worries and apprehensions at bay. They now have one thing in their minds – the voyage and their work.
Benefits to the seafarer charity, welfare, and seafarer support services of joining a marketplace over developing their apps: onship is about the range of services. An app facilitates sector-specific services while a marketplace provides a wide range of services. At sea where the network is comparatively slow and data is limited, every download matters. In this scenario, a marketplace provides a wide range of services on one single platform making it very easy to use, have faster access, and economical.
User adoption of a single charity welfare app versus adoption of a super app: A single charity welfare app provides services like awareness and assistance in times of distress while a super app provides multiple services that include financial transactions which becomes an effective platform for all commercial and communication activities. The charity app comes to your rescue in situations while a super app is always with you for everyday assistance.
In a private conversation about onship, a seafarer on board said, “Out in the sea when I hear a voice of compassion, my strengths come back to me. This little mobile device and the application technologies have given me the much-needed anchor to be grounded through my sail.”
