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Veslink - What's New?

This page contains the latest Veslink® news. For more information, see Release Notes.

The following is a recording of the What’s New in IMOS and Veslink? webinar that was offered to clients on September 7 & 8, 2016. During these one-hour sessions, Veson Nautical’s Product Team presented and demonstrated highlights of IMOS v7.10 as well as recent Veslink enhancements.

  • Compare multiple itinerary options: In Distances, add Voyage tabs to view and compare up to three itineraries simultaneously.

  • View IWL/INL Zones: Adjust voyage plans based on the latest IWL/INL Zones, which can now be visualized on the map.

  • Create new forms based on existing templates: In addition to creating custom forms from scratch, you can now copy existing forms and modify to meet your needs. In one click, make quick changes to standard forms. The Veslink Form Designer is available with Veslink Optimum.

The following is a recording of the What’s New in Veslink webinar that was offered to clients on Thursday, March 17, 2016 and Friday, March 18, 2016. During these 30-minute sessions, Veson Nautical’s Product Manager presented and demonstrated highlights of Veslink.

Join Veson Nautical for a presentation on the latest Veslink product updates. This webinar is for Veson Nautical clients who use Veslink, and it is free to attend. To register, visit Veson.com.

During this 30-minute webinar, Veson Nautical will present and demo new features and enhancements, including:

  • Network enhancements: Experience even more flexible data sharing with partners. Configure default sharing for all vessels, share forms as PDFs, and automatically map partner fuel types to your naming standards.

  • New Voyage Instructions workflow: Veslink offers a faster way to prepare Voyage Instructions. Create Voyage Instructions templates that pick up the latest voyage information when submitted from IMOS.

  • Expanded Veslink reporting: Leverage new tools to run reports in Veslink.

Veson Nautical now delivers updates to Veslink.com on a rolling basis. This means that new features and enhancements are continuously delivered to clients, with minimal disturbance to users.

Veson Nautical will communicate Veslink updates to clients using:

  • Veslink Dashboard message banner: An orange banner at the top of the Dashboard broadcasts Veslink updates, scheduled downtime, and other news from Veson Nautical.

  • Monthly emails: Starting this month, a newsletter will be sent to client Notification Emails highlighting the latest Veslink enhancements.

  • Quarterly webinars: Client webinars provide a deep dive into the latest Veslink features. Webinar dates and times will be announced.

  • Knowledge Base:For complete information, see Veslink Voyage Reporting.

  • Veson.com and social media: Veson Nautical will continue to make major Veslink announcements on Veson.com, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

  • Veslink Maps now supports the revised definition the reduced Piracy Areas off the Somalian coast that is effective December 1, 2015. In addition to that new area, a High Risk Area off the Somalian coast is added as another Piracy Zone avoidance area.

  • If masters attach supplementary files to an offline submission in their email client, operators will be able to download attached files from each form.

  • There is now an option to Track ROBs on Statement of Facts and Delay/Off-Hire Notice standard forms in Veslink.

  • Form Designer can now calculate the total and average of an integer column.

  • The Market Inbox is now available. It does the following:

    • Recognizes vessel and cargo positions from email messages and uses built-in patterns to parse and extract market data.

    • Stores and standardizes market positions in a database that can be filtered, grouped, and sorted.

    • Enables you to manipulate and analyze the data through a shared web-based interface.

    • Integrates with IMOS Cargo Matching so you can quickly evaluate opportunities.

  • Operators can send back a rejected form to a Master with a reason for rejection. This does not apply to agent-submitted forms.

  • In the Form Designer, for Veslink users not paired with IMOS:

    • You can now create Other (Non-Voyage) forms and see them under All Forms on the Reports tab.

    • You can now add tooltips to form fields.

    • Validation can be set through conditions for individual fields.

    • In the ROB control:

      • Two Fuel Consumption categories have been added: Aux Boiler and Regas Boiler.

      • The Emergency field has been renamed Emergency Generator.

  • Extended ROB categories for Veslink Standalone

  • Noon Report support for In Port or At Sea reports in Form Designer

  • Configurable ROB thresholds for Veslink forms (and IMOS Form Approval)

  • Printable offline vessel forms from web browser

  • Greater field visibility choices in Form Designer based on a field setting by a user

  • Ability to leave use instructions on forms with Form Designer

  • Ability in Form Designer to define custom tables that support lists of fields to be captured as rows in forms  

The following is a recording of the What’s New in Veslink webinar that was offered to clients on Tuesday, July 21, 2015 and Wednesday, July 22, 2015. During these one-hour sessions, Veson Nautical’s Product Manager presented and demonstrated highlights of Veslink.

  • Performance Reporting: Make business decisions using up-to-the minute data reported by your fleet, using:

    • Dashboards with real-time data across all your fleet reports

    • Data visualization options, including charts, lists, and KPIs

    • Ability to analyze multiple dimensions, like distance, speed, weather, and fuel consumption

  • Form Designer: Automate data entry by capturing any data from your fleet; improve the quality of data:

    • Customize and create your own forms with drag-and-drop tools 

    • Add custom fields to capture data unique to your needs

    • Send forms to vessels and agents in one click

  • Advanced Maps: Use weather information to make decisions about itineraries, and compare live weather data with reported information, with:

    • Weather forecasts or historical data with many types of data that can be played on a timeline

    • More detailed nautical charts with pilot stations, ocean depths, and more zoom levels

  • Arrival Notices submitted to a non-consecutive uncommenced voyage will now automatically commence that voyage. This includes Arrival Notice submissions via the Vessel forms, the Agent Portal, and the Veslink API.

  • It is now easier for Agents to submit incremental/daily Statements of Fact through the Veslink Agent Portal. 
    1. The Agent can reopen a previous SOF (e.g., yesterday's SOF) from the set of links in the Agent Portal Port Calls grid.
    2. The Agent can add new activities (e.g., today's activities) to the bottom of the list of port activities. If the form was not yet approved by the office, the previous activities will also be editable. However, if the form has been approved by the office, the previous activities will be locked to edits by the Agent.
    3. After the Agent resubmits the SOF, the original SOF form will reappear in the Dashboard for the office user, who will have the opportunity to approve the form. All activities, including the previous entries, can be edited by the office user.

  • Form data can be shared with third-party partners, via email, on Receipt of form, on form Approval, or both. Previously, forms could only be shared on Approval. Sharing form data on Receipt sends the form data email to the third party regardless of the status of any IMOS or Veslink validation. Configuration of the 'trigger' for form data being emailed (On Approval and/or On Receipt) is per form and is defined in the Network Shared Information area in Veslink.

  • The standard Noon Report has two new fields:

    • Vessel Condition: This field can be set to Ballast or Laden or left blank. Its value is not passed to IMOS because IMOS has its own itinerary setting that captures ballast or laden.

    • Reference Port (optional): This field facilitates recording key data when the vessel passes certain points in the voyage. Data from the field is passed to IMOS and is available in the IMOS Activity Report.

  • The cargo handling line Location field in the Cargo Handling form will properly display the Tank Name for Dry Bulk Carrier type vessels that have holds defined.

  • The IMOS Voyage Manager Veslink tab has a new Submitted Date field that does not change when a form is approved and should be used to view or sort Veslink Forms.

  • There are three new Form Group settings:

    • Hide Voyage Number: If this setting is checked, the Voyage Number is hidden on all standard forms except the Delay form, and Veslink infers it from the form date. Custom forms must be modified to be able to hide the Voyage Number.

    • Upcoming Port is Mandatory: If the setting is checked, at least one Upcoming Port must be defined.

    • Hide Distance and Speed Columns for Upcoming Ports: If checked, distance and speed for each port in the Upcoming Ports table is hidden, and Veslink determines the Distance to Go from the entered ETA for the Port and the vessel's standard laden speed, as defined in IMOS.

  • Added ability to disable standard ports, which removes them from the list when selecting a port on any Veslink form.

  • Added ability to approve a Statement of Facts form without PS/PE functions.

  • Stowage on the Cargo Handling Form now uses Tank Name instead of Tank Number. 

  • In Veslink Distances, you can create a link to the itinerary and share it with colleagues and business partners by clicking 

     next to the Settings button. The link is copied to the Clipboard to be pasted into emails or anywhere appropriate.

  • Support was added for SOF form activity templates by IMOS Voyage template if specified. Note that IMOS version 7.5.1050 or later,  7.6.1580 or later, or  7.7.1073 or later is required.

  • The Bunkers ROB Control now has a Use Basic Consumption option under the Track Bunkers hierarchy. When enabled, the control will sum the Consumption categories in a single Total read-only field and hide the Adj. field. When the form is received in the office in approval mode, Veslink sets the total consumption as (Last ROB – Current ROB), and Adj. is available again. Veslink continues to highlight the Total consumption field in red if Veslink had to adjust it.

  • Improved UI for selecting Piracy and ECA Zones to minimize mouse clicks. Specific option for each region now accessed via hover menu from Piracy and ECA instead of via settings dialog.

  • Adds a Stowage Information section to the Veslink Cargo Handling form, mapped to the Stowage Information form in IMOS. Provides option to specify tank defined for vessel to be used to stow each specified cargo for port call. If tank specified, also requires cargo quantity and units to be entered. Stowage section only appears if vessel has 1 or more tanks defined.

  • Added new View Dashboard security setting for a user. Now requires this setting to be checked for that user to be able to see and use the Veslink Dashboard tab.

  • Adds two new user security settings to better control user access to Veslink functions. Adds Edit My Profile and View Support settings. Users are granted both new permissions by default. Edit My profile permission allows a user to edit their own user profile. View Support permission allows access to the links on the Veslink footer for Knowledge Base, Give Feedback, About Veson, and Privacy Statement.

  • It is now possible to default the Shared Resources for an Agent or Third Party counterparty across all active Veslink vessels. On Veslink.com > Network > Shared Information > Edit Shared Resources, it is possible to create a template to use as the default list of forms that will be shared with a given partner. If that partner is appointed as the Data Submission Agent for a port call or added as a Contact in the IMOS Voyage Manager, the forms activated for sharing will be defaulted from the template. It is possible to override the defaults on a voyage by voyage basis.

  • A new field for ETD was added to the standard Noon Report (in-port) and the standard Statement of Facts form. Entering a value in this field will update the ETD of the linked port call in IMOS. New versions of the standard forms must be downloaded and distributed for this change to take effect.

  • A field for BL Draft has been added to the Cargo Handling grid on the Cargo Handling form. This field will populate the new BL Draft field in IMOS Cargo Handling, available from IMOS v7.7. New versions of the standard forms must be downloaded and distributed for this change to take effect.

  • It is now possible to sort the forms on the Veslink Dashboard by either Submitted Date (the date the form was sent) or Effective Date (the date for which the data on the form is relevant).

  • The email parsing logic for processing Vessel Forms has been enhanced to accommodate random malformations caused by onboard email clients. Specifically, Veslink will correctly process a submitted form even if spaces have been replaced by carriage returns.

  •  Distance to Go and Projected Speed are now mandatory non-zero fields for the first port entered in the Upcoming Ports control. 
    New versions of the standard forms must be downloaded and distributed for this change to take effect. 

  • All decimal GMT offsets (13.75, 9.50, -2.50, etc.) are now available on Vessel Forms.

  • The Dashboard now includes a field allowing you to search for forms by Vessel Name. The Dashboard also includes a calendar control to search for forms by submitted date.

  • The My Favorites functionality has been added to Veslink. You can now designate vessels as Favorites, either by clicking the star icon next to the vessel's name in the Voyages Map, or by selecting the vessel name in My Profile. Filters for My Favorites have been added to the Dashboard and the Voyages Map, allowing you to quickly filter on the most important vessels.

  • It is now possible to set a default CC email recipient for Vessel Form submission emails.

    • In Veslink, a new field has been added to Settings > System Configuration > Forms: CC Email Address for Receiving Submissions. It accepts a single email address or a comma-separated email list.

    • When you click Submit on a Vessel Form and an email is created with the form data for submission to Veslink, the CC field will automatically be populated with the email address specified in the CC Email Address for Receiving Submissions field.
       

  • It is now possible to update Standard Forms from Veslink without downloading form templates from the Client Center. In Forms & Vessels > Forms, a new button has been added to the top of the Forms list: Update Forms. Click this button to check if your Standard Forms are up to date. If new versions are available, they will be downloaded and updated automatically.
     

  • Several enhancements have been made to the behavior of the Upcoming Ports control on the standard Noon and Departure Vessel Forms, as defined by the Allow Upcoming Ports to Change Forward Ports in IMOS check box in the Form Group:

    • When Allow Upcoming Ports to Change Forward Ports in IMOS selected:

      • The ETA in the Upcoming Ports control will be used as the ETA for the next port in the IMOS itinerary.

        • If the next port in the IMOS itinerary is different than the port specified in the Upcoming Ports control, the port in IMOS will be overwritten with the port in the Upcoming Ports control.

    • When Allow Upcoming Ports to Change Forward Ports in IMOS not selected:

      • The ETA in the Upcoming Ports control will be used as the ETA for the next port in the IMOS itinerary, regardless of if it matches the port in the Upcoming Ports control.

    • In either case, the IMOS Activity Report will use the Distance to Go and Projected Speed values from the Upcoming Ports control.


  • It is now possible to specify a new Estimated Time of Departure (ETD) for a port call on the standard Bunkering form. New fields for Port ETD, including date, time, and GMT offset/Local, have been added to the standard Bunkering form. Upon approval of the form and import into IMOS, the date/time value specified in these fields will update the ETD for the associated port call.


  • When a Vessel Form is approved, all other pending forms for that voyage will refresh because the newly approved data may affect subsequent forms.
     

  • When Allow Upcoming Ports to Change Forward Ports in IMOS is selected for a Form Group, all P (passing) function ports on the IMOS itinerary between the current position and the next port will be preserved, and the Distance to Go will be split proportionally between the legs.
     

  • Improved logic for TCO Cargo Handling:

    • If a voyage in IMOS is **TO and there are no Cargo Handling lines for a given port call in the voyage: 

      • A Cargo Handling/Statement of Facts form submitted by Veslink will not cause validation errors in Approval mode.

      • An approved Cargo Handling/Statement of Facts form will create the necessary cargo handling lines in the voyage.

    • If a voyage in IMOS is **TO, and if the port function is D, IMOS will use the Cargo Handling form to create the Cargo Handling lines, if necessary. An error will appear if the cargo on the form does not match the cargo in the L lines.

      • Note: If the Statement of Facts is submitted after the Cargo Handling form, an error will appear if the cargo name does not match the cargo name already included in the Cargo Handling lines for a given port.
         

  • It is now possible to record Received Bunkers within the standard ROB control in the Vessel Forms. When defining a Form Group in Veslink, a new check box is available when Track Bunkers is selected: Record Received Bunkers on Noon and Departure Reports. When selected, you can enter a recieved quantity (positive or negative) by grade within the ROB control on Standard Forms. This value will map to the Received Qty field in the associated IMOS Activity Report and affect the forward bunker calculation. 

  • The standard Port Disbursement form now supports alpha-numeric values in the Invoice No. field.
     

  • It is now possible to automatically send an appointment email to Agents through Veslink. After mapping an agent's Veslink account to your IMOS Address book account for the same agent, entering the agent as the Data Submission counterparty on the IMOS Agents and Notices form allows the agent to submit forms on behalf of the particular vessel/voyage via Agent Portal. Now, when this appointment is made in Agents and Notices, an email is automatically sent to the notification email address associated with the agent's Veslink account. The details of this email (standard text, Cargo/Vessel information) is configurable in Veslink in Settings > System Configuration > Agent Portal.

  • On the Port Disbursement form, the Cost Item grid in which port expense line items are entered has been simplified. Form submitters (e.g ., agents) can still select from the full list of line item descriptions but no longer have to select a Ledger code first.
     

  • The Port Disbursement form has been enhanced to automatically force a direct link between an Advance and a subsequent Final/APR.

    • If the form is set to Status Advance, the Reference field is dynamically set to a unique string.

    • If the form is set to Status Final or type APR, a new Adv. Invoice Number field appears, with the following options:

      • None (used if there was no Advance for the port call)

      • The list of Invoice Numbers from Advances previously submitted for the port call.
        Selecting an Invoice Number matches the Final/APR to the Advance, and the Reference field is set accordingly. This action provides the link necessary for IMOS to consider the invoices together and to calculate the correct amount due to the agent.
         

  • On the Port Disbursement form, the text, objects, and grid have been realigned to present a cleaner look and feel.
     

  • The Port Disbursement form has been enhanced to show the default list of Cost Items for input based on the related IMOS defaults. If an Agent record in IMOS includes a list of Cost Item defaults in the Agent Expenses form, these line items will be used as the default items in the Cost Items grid on any Port Disbursement form the agent opens via the Agent Portal for that IMOS company.

  • In the Activities grid on the Statement of Facts form, the Activity field selection list now includes the Action Type code, making it easier for form submitters and approvers to correct validation errors related to paired activities.

  • From the Veslink Forms list in IMOS, multiple Veslink forms can be selected and approved or rejected at once. A check box column has been added at the far left; approvers can select the check box next to each form they want to approve or reject and then click the Approve or Reject link at the top of the list.

    To present the critical form information to the approval user, the following columns have been added to the list, allowing batch approval without opening each form individually:

    • Next Port

    • Next Port ETA

    • Start of Sea Passage

    • End of Sea Passage

    • Bunkers ROB [columns, by type] 

  • Both the port call notification XML and the port call webservices have been enhanced to provide the following information about Agent records nominated at a port call in IMOS:

    • Agent Types:

      • Charterer's Agent

      • Owner's Agent

      • Protective Agent

      • Other Agent

    • For each Type:

      • Full Name

      • Short Name

      • Address

      • Currency

      • Country

      • Company No.

      • Phone

      • Email

      • Main Contact

  • Veslink can be used as a stand-alone web application, without an IMOS connection. This simpler implementation means less validation, fewer forms, and less master data–which is entered directly into Veslink. Veslink takes very little time to set up, so you can quickly share forms with partners who use Veslink, other email recipients, and third parties, such as weather-routing services.

  • You can restrict vessel access to specific users or groups on the User Security page.

  • Veslink supports IMOS custom ports and port aliases.

  • On the Voyage Reports page, you can export an Excel spreadsheet of all forms that were submitted for a particular vessel's voyage or for all voyages.

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