“Our strategy for China has paid off well,” says Øystein Goksøyr, DNV Software’s Regional Manager for Greater China, who is expecting to grow revenue in the region more than 100 per cent compared to 2004.
DNV Software established a regional office in Shanghai in March 2005 to best meet the needs of the growing markets in Greater China. Since then, there has been a substantial growth in business as well as an increased demand for local support in Mandarin. Early the same year, DNV acquired the Taiwan-based software company Primalux and its Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) system. The company is now an important strategic part of DNV Software’s organisation.
The Sesam software for strength assessment and hydrodynamic analysis of offshore structures has been in especially high demand this year. China’s quest for oil and gas has accelerated the exploration and development of domestic oil and gas reserves. This increased activity has resulted in a high workload for the domestic offshore design and engineering companies, and attracted international engineering companies to establish offices in China. “Sesam is well known for its unique engineering capabilities, and the Chinese oil and gas industry is willing to invest in quality,” says Goksøyr.
2005 was a busy year supporting the Chinese shipbuilding industry with the Nauticus Hull software for the new IACS Common Structural Rules (CSR). DNV Software currently has more than 40 Nauticus Hull evaluation licences in the Chinese shipbuilding market for testing and design development for the new rules.
DNV Software has continuously upgraded Nauticus Hull during the development of the new rules and is now offering the most comprehensive software solution for CSR in the market. “We expect a high activity level on Nauticus Hull due to the new rules coming into force on 1 April 2006. We are therefore enhancing our sales and support organisation in Shanghai to serve existing and new customers,” continues Goksøyr.
The reaction of the Chinese authorities to the chemical plant explosion in Jilin on 13 November, with the resulting contamination of the Songhua River, illustrates how committed China is to addressing challenges in health, safety and environmental issues in the oil, gas and process industries. There is an increasing acceptance of risk-based assessment methods to avoid or minimise consequences of accidents.
Says Goksøyr: “We are expecting the demand for DNV Software’s risk management tools such as Phast, Safeti and Neptune to continue its growth in the future due to the trend towards quantitative risk assessment methods in the industry.”
DNV Software’s new software house in Taiwan represents a milestone for DNV in the region, facilitating software development closer to the markets and customers.“Our customers are typically investing in the new Orbit+ Inspection Database System to integrate our risk-based inspection (RBI) and reliability-centred maintenance (RCM) software with their existing software systems,” says Goksøyr.
“This is the new IT reality in the process industry. Oil and gas companies are requesting integrated asset management systems to address their health, safety and environmental policy hands on. Our growing sales pipeline indicates that Orbit+ is filling an important gap in our customers asset management strategy,” concludes Goksøyr, who is looking forward to an equally successful 2006 for DNV Software Greater China.