29 Years Strong: Ugland & Mintra’s Strategic Partnership

Mintra’s long-standing partnership with Ugland is a testament to the power of digitalisation in streamlining operations, enhancing training processes, and improving efficiency. Over the past 29 years, Ugland has progressively adopted more of Mintra’s services, most recently integrating the Trainingportal Learning and Competence Management System in 2024.

Siren Berge, Chief Technology Officer at Mintra, shared, “We are proud to have supported Ugland’s journey since 1996, helping them strengthen their leadership in safety, quality, and operational excellence. Our partnership demonstrates how Mintra’s crew management solutions and expanding product range have evolved to meet the changing needs of our customers.”

Kicking-off with Competence Tracking

Ugland, a family-owned global shipping and offshore enterprise headquartered in Grimstad, Norway, has a proud legacy in the maritime industry. It has a fleet of 33 vessels, including tugs, bulk carriers and barges, and a workforce of nearly 1,000 on and offshore. Ugland is celebrated for its commitment to safety, high-quality services, and support for its employees, especially seafarers.

Since 1996, Mintra has been a strategic partner in Ugland’s journey, supporting its expanding business needs and modern ship management challenges. What began with competence-tracking software has evolved into a comprehensive multi-system solution, encompassing crew planning, payroll and most recently, a fully digital training matrix.

Welcoming Crew On Board

Ugland first adopted Mintra’s Crew On Board (COB) OCS module in 2012, integrating the system to enhance communication between vessels and shoreside operations. Initially deployed for offshore support vessels, it was later expanded to bulk carriers in 2023, optimising communication across the entire fleet.

Crew On Board is a key component of OCS, Mintra’s comprehensive crew management system designed to optimise HR processes for the maritime and offshore industries. It seamlessly integrates personnel management, payroll, training, competence tracking and crew planning, ensuring compliance and operational efficiency. By automating key tasks and enabling data-driven decision-making, OCS enhances workforce management through digital workflows and seamless system integration.

Customers can tailor OCS to their specific needs, choosing individual products or the full suite. Throughout Ugland’s partnership with Mintra, they have progressively expanded their use of OCS, adopting new solutions to support their growing workforce and improve operational efficiency.

At Mintra, the commitment to innovation is relentless, driven by evolving client needs and technological advancements. As a result, the product Ugland uses today is vastly different from what they first experienced in 1996, reflecting Mintra’s continuous drive for improvement and adaptation to industry demands.

Ugland's Senior Crewing Manager shared with us how positively this is received within the business: “Our relationship with Mintra has been a great journey. The support functions in OCS are constantly improving to make my team’s life easier. These days, whenever we have an audit, it is a great advantage to see that everything has turned green and is ready. We are reassured that we have the data and documentation at our fingertips, onshore and onboard.”

Consolidating Multiple Systems

The collaboration between Ugland and Mintra has been driven by Ugland’s commitment to empowering their seafarers, modernising systems and achieving digital integration. Known for its methodical, in-house approach, Ugland historically managed technical operations, crewing, payroll, and HSEQ independently.

However, as digitalisation became essential for supporting operations, the reliance on multiple standalone systems across departments led to inefficiencies, redundant data entry and increased risks of errors.

Ugland’s use of Mintra’s OCS and COB was working well, but the training matrix with another supplier had become unnecessarily large, leading to over-training and inefficiencies. The system did not allow for integration between training and competence management, causing crew members to lack visibility over their certifications and next steps. It was time-consuming, with seafarers and crew managers facing difficulties in managing and updating certifications.

Ugland's Senior Crewing Manager explained: "The existing system was becoming a barrier to growth. The time had come to modernise and search for a unified digital solution to streamline training and crewing operations and reduce the inefficiencies caused by relying on multiple services.

"Our goal was to work more effectively while empowering our seafarers with greater autonomy over their professional development."

Recognising the need for a unified digital solution, Ugland sought to consolidate its training and crewing operations.

Full-Service Adoption

Ugland turned to Mintra’s Trainingportal to provide the solution and complete a full adoption of Mintra’s workforce management systems. The multi-device compatible cloud-based platform securely provides maritime, energy and safety-critical workers with training at any time, any place. Unlike other platforms on the market, Trainingportal offers both Learning Management System (LMS) and Competence Management System (CMS) capabilities, and it can be integrated with OCS modules, such as Crew On Board.

To support the seamless implementation and deployment of Trainingportal, a Mintra Customer Success Manager (CSM) was assigned to Ugland. The CSM facilitated internal coordination with the deployment team through regular status calls, ensuring the project’s success and overseeing the smooth migration of all employees.

Collaborating closely with Ugland stakeholders, Mintra’s Deployment Consultant and the CSM designed a customised training matrix for each of Ugland’s roles by cross-referencing learning outcomes with training modules.

This ensured employees received precise, role-specific training. They also assessed Ugland’s historical training records, ensuring the accurate import of all previous employee training.

The comprehensive Training Matrix was then incorporated into Trainingportal, and a sandbox environment was created to test and review the system. This provided reassurance and transparency, addressing any potential issues and giving Ugland the ability to preview how Trainingportal would look, operate, and function before going live.

Trainingportal was integrated with Ugland’s existing data in Mintras’ OCS system, ensuring automatic data flow. As seafarers complete training, their records are updated in real time, simplifying compliance and significantly reducing administrative workloads.

Ugland Senior Crewing Manager stated, "Mintra were a natural choice to become our fully integrated digital service provider. They have been instrumental in streamlining our operations and enhancing our training processes. Their solutions have not only improved efficiency but brought us closer to our goal of seamless integration between shore and vessel systems. It's a collaboration built on trust, innovation, and shared growth."

Smooth Implementation & Tangible Results

Within three months, the Mintra and Ugland project teams successfully implemented the new digital training system, with 450 crew members across 13 vessels fully active on the platform. The benefits were immediate:

• Efficiency Gains: The streamlined system reduced repetition and improved training oversight, allowing seafarers to focus on essential tasks.
• Transparency and Empowerment: Crew members now have clear visibility of their certifications and next steps, fostering confidence and reducing stress.
• Enhanced User Experience: Training in native languages like Norwegian made sessions more engaging, particularly for older crew members.

Ugland noted the impact: “The shift to integrated digital training has been a game-changer for our seafarers, and they have appreciated having greater control over their certifications. Being able to train in their native language has been a particular highlight, and the offline portal has been invaluable, enabling uninterrupted training at sea.”

What’s Next for Ugland & Mintra

Looking ahead, Ugland is further strengthening its partnership with Mintra by migrating all 1,000 employees onto Trainingportal and integrating Mintra’s Appraisal Module into OCS HR. This will further enhance Ugland’s ability to manage employee development while maintaining its high standards for safety and operational excellence.

Ugland's Senior Crewing Manager concluded: "Our partnership with Mintra has already transformed how we manage training and compliance. With Mintra’s innovative platforms and support, we are excited to explore new ways to integrate technology into our operations and achieve our goal to enhance data quality, integrate third-party training solutions, and further strengthen leadership training and operational efficiency."

Ugland’s journey with Mintra underscores the value of a long-term partnership rooted in shared growth, collaboration and trust. Together, we demonstrate how tailored, scalable technology solutions can evolve with a business, ensuring continued efficiency, compliance, and success in an ever-changing industry.

As a business, Mintra prides itself on its agility and customer-centric approach, which involves listening, learning and growing to provide the solutions that its customers need. Whether it’s a small family-owned business or a larger, more complex operation, Mintra’s products are designed to evolve alongside the business, ensuring continued efficiency, compliance, and success.

1996 - OCS Competence Module software integrated with Ugland’s fleet, including OCS HR database, Personnel Information and Norwegian Payroll. Personnel Information Module stores employment records and contact information, competencies and certificates, visas, insurance, payroll data and supports emergency handling for personnel on board (POB). Norwegian Payroll supports multiple currencies and global setups, handling pay calculations and tax deductions, reporting with customisable pay scales, bank file generation, and ERP integration.

2006 - An additional package for the Norwegian language is added.

2009 - OCS Competence Module added, registering competence requirements by position, vessel type, flag state, and tracking compliance in real time, adapting to changes in flag, jurisdiction, or operations.

2012 - Self-Service with Travel Expense added, giving employees multi-device access to manage personal data, certificates, courses, career planning, working hours, and travel expenses. Sailing supervisors can handle crew evaluations, vessel compliance, and familiarisation programs.

2013 - Fleet Expansion - OCS Crew On Board (COB) added for two offshore support vessels, supporting vessel Masters by streamlining crewing, payroll, and admin tasks, allowing focus on operations and safety.

Operating offline with low bandwidth syncing, it manages work/rest compliance, emergency teams, POB lists, cabin setups, and port clearance.

2014 – Fleet expansion - further offshore support vessel added to COB

2015 – OCS Training Booking added, integrating crew planning with training management, ensuring employees are notified and receive the necessary training based on competence gaps and availability. It automates course scheduling, candidate selection, and travel booking while allowing seamless data exchange with training vendors.

2017 – Fleet expansion - further offshore support vessel added to COB

2023 – Fleet expansion - Ten cargo vessels added to COB, bringing the total to 14.

2024 - TrainingPortal added – including 2,600 courses and accreditations for essential certifications, managing training matrices, recording all training types, and ensuring compliance through centralised evidence review. Users can generate reports and gain full visibility of workforce competence and requirements, supporting safe and efficient operations.

2025 – Appraisal Module to be added, streamlining performance evaluations and ensuring skills are utilised effectively while identifying future recruitment, training and career needs. It enables organisations to manage appraisals efficiently with customisable workflows and templates.