With more than 24,000 vessels equipped with VSAT today, the increased bandwidth is a significant driver for numerous shipping companies turning towards digitalisation.

New systems and software occupy more of the ship-shore bandwidth. Still, email continues to be the most efficient means of business communication, providing companies with a trusted, readily available and non-intrusive form of information sharing.

Read more: Why email is still business-critical in the shipping industry

The Dualog email solution as a strategic business driver

Let’s look at three key ways the Dualog email solution adds business value to your company.

1. Security that handles maritime-specific threats

Email is a source of constant threats targeting your vessels. According to the U.S. Cyber Command, over 90% of cyber attacks today start with email. That makes email the number one cyber threat vector.

As email per se is neither intrinsically secure nor reliable, a maritime-optimised email system with multilayered security is crucial to enable efficient and dependable business operations at sea.

At Dualog, we process a total of 110 million emails per year. Breaking down this number per vessel, we see that the actual email volume is relatively stable over the past few years. The number of phishing emails, however, is increasing.

Phishing is the act of sending emails to specific and well-researched targets while pretending to be a legitimate sender. The aim is to either infect devices with malware or mislead the recipients into handing over information or money.

Phishing is a very lucrative way of causing harm, and the numbers back it up. We saw phishing emails increase more than 300 percent in 2019 compared to 2018. and in March 2020 alone, Dualog blocked no less than seven million phishing attempts.

Phishing remains one of Internet users’ most frustrating and persistent threats – and your vessels are no exception.
Our service Dualog® Business Mail is built from the ground up to detect and block phishing and other malicious attacks. Multilayered cybersecurity prevents phishing and similar email-borne threats from disrupting vulnerable business communication between ship and shore. Resulting in fewer distractions and risks and, at the end of the day, sustained business and reduced costs.

Read more: How Dualog® Business Mail secures your fleet email

2. Continuous development of email and backbone services

Dualog has invested significantly in the shoreside infrastructure for service provision, especially regarding reliability, availability, and the increasingly important cybersecurity aspect. The service level agreement we offer our customers is business-leading.

Furthermore, Dualog’s R&D is entirely in-house, and we always focus on improvement and new features based directly on customer feedback. Dualog customers can present suggestions and requirements in the Dualog Ideas Portal and interact with our product management as ideas are discussed, refined, and scheduled for development and release.

Dualog’s email solution is in constant development. It ensures a robust and secure email service on your ships today, but it also adapts to your company’s evolving business model and continues to meet your operational needs.

This translates into cost savings and efficiency gains for you as a user. Moreover, it will help you stay competitive and deliver top-notch customer service.

Read more: Maritime-specific vs. generic IT systems – pros and cons

3. Platform independence creates strategic flexibility

Email solutions from generic software vendors aren't explicitly designed for maritime industry challenges. In times of increasing bandwidth and new airtime providers, it is imperative to avoid the lock-in situation that bundled email software creates. Dualog's platform independence gives you the strategic flexibility to choose the airtime and hardware best suited for current and future needs.
Dualog will continue to provide independent email to ensure strategic flexibility – a flexibility that gives you the leverage, power and possibility to challenge and change airtime providers.

5000 vessels and counting

As available bandwidth at sea steadily increases and modern shipping companies transform their business towards more and more digital operations, the role of email remains business-critical.

Considering email solutions is a careful decision with a long-term impact.

Dualog provides airtime-independent email solutions to shipping companies of all trades and types. Essential for 5,000 vessels relying on our services today is that we provide innovative software, proper 24/7 support, and rock-solid backbone infrastructure with industry-leading guaranteed uptime.

Key takeaways

Dualog’s email solution...

• is platform independent, which creates strategic flexibility when choosing airtime provider(s).
• is specifically developed to meet current and future maritime requirements.
• offers multilayered email security, usability and best-in-business 24/7 support, which are cornerstones in enabling uninterrupted ship-shore business communication.