Support that comes in through the front door
Getting help should not mean leaving a permanent way in. First Mate turns supplier access into something with a reason, an approver, a time limit and a recording.
Who has been inside your camera system in the last six months?
On most vessels the honest answer is a reconstruction: a remote tool installed during the build, credentials shared with a yard, a contractor who left two years ago, and no record of any of it.
It is rarely negligence. It is the only way the industry has had of getting an expert to a system that sits in the middle of an ocean. The tool stays because nobody has a better alternative, and because taking it away would mean waiting even longer next time.
What standing access actually costs you
The owner asks, and you reconstruct
There is no page to open. There is a search through memory and email.
Access outlives the reason
An account created for a commissioning job in 2023 is still valid tonight.
Nobody on board approves anything
The vessel is not asked. It finds out afterwards, if at all.
Cyber sits in the safety management system
Since 2021, cyber risk belongs in the vessel's safety management under IMO resolution MSC.428(98). Standing supplier access to a recording system is difficult to describe there in a way anyone is comfortable with.
Access follows a reason, a person and a clock
The same principle we apply to our privacy governance software, turned towards intervening rather than watching.
We ask
A support session starts with a request that names the reason, the scope and the time it needs. Not a login attempt, a request.
You approve
Someone on board with the authority to do so approves it, by name. Nobody ashore can approve on your behalf, and a refused request is simply refused.
The clock runs
The session carries its own expiry and ends by itself. The panel shows it live while it is open, and you can end it at any moment without asking anyone.
It is recorded
What happens during the session is captured and stays with the vessel, so the record does not depend on our word.
It closes behind us
When the session ends, the way in ends with it. There is no account left over and no tool waiting in the tray for next time.
It lands in your logbook
The request, the approval, the reason, the duration and the outcome, in the same append only log as everything else, exportable and verifiable.
Showing access is version one. Granting it is next.
In version one the Access screen reports the truth and promises nothing: no standing access exists, and nobody at DZ Technologies can reach the system unless you set that up yourself. The session broker described above is in development, and it is what turns the Connect edition into a live product.
We are saying that here rather than in a footnote, because a governance promise you cannot yet keep is worse than no promise. Governed vendor access is not a new idea either. It exists in industrial environments from several vendors. What is missing is a version that fits a vessel: approved by the person on watch, understandable in one screen, and working when the link to shore does not.
What changes for each person on board
| Role | Today | With First Mate |
|---|---|---|
| ETO or AV/IT officer | Remote session with administrator rights, or a call and a wait. Afterwards, no record of what was touched. | The common faults are on the panel with a safe procedure behind them, and the rest escalates with the diagnosis already collected. |
| Captain | An honest answer to "who has access" is not available. | One page that answers it, exportable, and not editable by the supplier. |
| Management company | Access is arranged per vessel, differently each time, and audits land differently on every ship. | The same approval pattern on every vessel, with the record kept on board. |
| Yard or integrator | First line during the warranty year, largely handling operational questions rather than defects. | The crew handles the operational layer themselves, and what remains arrives with a diagnosis attached. |
Fleet wide aggregation ashore is on the roadmap without a date. Version one is per vessel, and we would rather say that now than have you discover it later.
Start with a survey of your Milestone system
Half a day of reading your environment: what runs, what keeps breaking, and what your crew should be able to fix without calling anyone. You get the findings whether or not you ever install First Mate.