Buyer's guide · migration
Fear of migration keeps operators on software they stopped liking years ago. The risk is real but it is entirely procedural: history, running hours and the certificate trail all survive if you export before you give notice, agree a single cut-off, and prove the new system at an audit dry run before switching the old one off.
Find the notice period, the auto-renewal date, and exactly what data return you are entitled to and in what format. Diary the notice date immediately. Most operators discover the renewal window has passed only after choosing a replacement.
Equipment register, job templates and history, running hours, spares, certificates, non-conformities and every attachment. Verify the export opens and that attachments are actually included — not just referenced by filename.
Migration is the one chance to delete duplicated equipment, retired machinery and job templates nobody has run in five years. Map the old equipment tree to the new one on the pilot vessel first and get the chief engineer to sanity-check it, not the office.
One date and time, fleetwide, for running hours and job status. Everything before the cut-off is history; everything after is entered in the new system only. Ambiguity here is what creates double-counted hours and missed jobs.
The old system remains the record of truth while the crew works in the new one. Compare overdue lists weekly; every discrepancy is either a migration error or a job the old system was hiding.
Internal audit dry run answered entirely from the new system: a critical job's evidence, a drill record, a certificate with its renewal trail. Export the audit pack. Then, and only then, serve notice and archive the legacy export read-only.
The migration mechanics are the same, but the export formats and contract habits differ.
The 30-day parallel review is enough to import a pilot vessel, run it offline for a leg and compare overdue lists against your incumbent — before any notice is served.
Not if you export before you give notice. Take a full export of the equipment register, job history, running hours, certificates and attachments while your licence is still active, and store it in the new system's evidence library. History that only exists inside a system you no longer pay for is history you have lost.
One full maintenance cycle, normally a month, and at least one complete voyage leg per pilot vessel. Retire the old system only after an internal audit dry run has been answered entirely from the new one.
Running hours must be carried across on a single agreed cut-off date and time, recorded in the changeover note. Class continuous machinery survey items should be re-linked to equipment in the new system and verified against the class survey status report before switch-off.
Auto-renewal windows that require notice months in advance, data export charged as a professional-services project, attachments excluded from the export, and support withdrawn the day notice is served. Check all four before you start the evaluation, not after.
Georgios Zografos
Chief Engineer · Technical Superintendent · Cyprus
Name the system you run today and the ship count; you get an honest migration assessment.
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