Mariner

In 1839 Samuel Cunard created The British and North American Steam Packet Company, known as the Cunard Line, to deliver Royal Mail to Canada and the U.S. (Cunard, n.d.). Originally composed of 4 paddle steamer ships, it would not be until the late 1940's though that the Cunard name would be etched synonymously with superior quality transatlantic passenger cruises. By the 1950's, Cunard had a total of 12 cruise liners in service accounting for a total of one third of all transatlantic crossings (Cunard, n.d.).

With its greater speed and lower cost, air transit was quickly emerging as the preferred method of transatlantic travel during the 1960's (Wikipedia, n.d.). The Cunard cruise liners that clearly dominated the cruise industry a decade earlier were quickly becoming outmoded remnants of a bygone era. With the increased costs associated in operating the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, and faced with stiff competition from rivals like French Line's newly built SS France, Cunard was reluctant to capitulate entirely on the cruise industry (Wikipedia, n.d.).

Cunard found a winner in an $80 million gamble (Wikipedia, n.d.) through a replacement for the Queen Elizabeth called the Queen Elizabeth 2. On May 2, 1969, the Queen Elizabeth 2 made her maiden voyage from Southampton, England to New York City and instantly became the flagship for Cunard. Not only renowned as one of the fastest seagoing vessels for her size, the Queen Elizabeth 2 was cheaper and smaller to operate than her pre-war predecessors (Wikipedia, n.d.). Cunard managed to dynamically capitalize upon its lengthy historical brand recognition alongside the lowered costs associated with operating the Queen Elizabeth 2. The Queen Elizabeth 2 ultimately won a dire competitive advantage and reigned as the standard of transatlantic passenger crossings until 2004.

In spite of the notoriety of the Queen Elizabeth 2, Cunard gradually weakened in each successive decade and became a company with a fleet of old disparate liners by the 1990's. Carnival Cruises acquired the outstanding 32% interest in Cunard in 1999 (Cunard, n.d.). The acquisition represented a marriage between refined British sophistication and the American wanderlust spirit. The prosperous Carnival Cruise Corporation revived the ailing legacy of Cunard by selling off older liners and conducting needed overhauls on others.

Under the new leadership of Carnival Cruises, Cunard also began construction on a liner that was of unprecedented proportion. Dubbed the Queen Mary 2, at a cost of over $800 million and a gross weight of over 150,000 tons, she was the most expensive and heaviest vessel ever. Receiving much fanfare on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England to Fort Lauderdale, Florida on January 12, 2004, the Queen Mary 2 was celebrated as simply the grandest ocean liner in the world (Wikipedia, n.d.).

The Queen Mary 2 was designed to be an all-inclusive fully functioning entity unto itself, having the capability to function like a self-contained city (Datz, 2004). Providing every possible comfort available on land and without forfeiting modern technology, The Queen Mary 2 evokes the opulence of a previous era for the 21st century. Needless to say, the incorporation of the information technology infrastructure of the Queen Mary 2 is simply second to none.

From the moment that guests first arrive for their departure, they have the ability to have their photograph taken at the port's hotel, the terminal or the purser's office on board the ship. In addition, their credit cards and passports are also scanned into the ship's property management system. Their cards then in turn can be automatically used as their room key, a method of payment on board the ship, and identification for landing and boarding in lieu of carrying passports (Datz, 2004). All fall under the broad category of information technology as Transaction Processing Systems or TPS (Laudon & Laudon, 2006). According to Jeff Richman, director of business solutions and applications development at Cunard, the Queen Mary 2 is the first cruise liner to offer those capabilities in a smart card (Datz, 2004).

In every stateroom the Queen Mary 2 also contains a dynamic television system running Linux on set-top boxes from German multimedia company, IDF. These televisions enable passengers to send or receive email at $1.50 per transaction, order on-demand videos and select from a total of 11 functional areas of interests such as classes, restaurants and shore excursions. The stateroom television point of sale (POS) system enables passengers of the Queen Mary 2 to not only book reservations, but also to shop online and keep a running total of the amount of money spent onboard (Datz, 2004). The ability to shop via an interactive television integrates the TPS system to the Queen Mary 2's finance and accounting information system to track cash flow (Laudon & Laudon, 2006). This system ultimately benefits Cunard because it requires less people to maintain than would a traditional system of crew handling individual transactions and reservations. Also, the system creates the opportunity to generate additional revenue for the ship (Datz, 2004).

The Queen Mary 2 has its operations center divided among three discrete sites that back each other up within the ship. Individual systems of the ship are connected to the primary organization operations center housing many servers, a PBX communications system and a public address system that serves as the ship's principal safety system (Datz, 2004). The core of the Queen Mary 2's information technology system is the property management system which deals with both crew and passenger information. The property management system controls the ship's credit based invoice system in addition to the boarding and disembarking manifests. Each individual onboard information technology system ultimately links to the property management system (Datz, 2004). The property management system lets the ship forward crew and passenger rolls to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which involves airliners and cruise liners to submit that data prior to leaving and following arrival (Datz, 2004). This enterprise system or enterprise resource planning (ERP) system enables a lone data structure serving business wide incorporation and synchronization of important business procedures (Laudon & Laudon, 2006).

Aboard the Queen Mary 2, Cunard also offers a system called AVO for Avoid Verbal Orders. The ship's crew is able to record matters aboard the ship without having to pick up a phone or physically track someone down. Using individual personal computers, crewmembers can report faulty machinery aboard the ship directly to maintenance. Passengers also have the ability to inform maintenance of any troubles they might be encounter via their stateroom televisions. From either, it is directly assigned to a maintenance worker where he or she can examine a schedule of repairs that must be done for that day. Repairs are completed in the order in which they are received, and afterward customer service personnel can directly contact passengers to see if problems were solved to their satisfaction (Datz, 2004). Once again this aspect is an example of a TPS onboard the Queen Mary 2, due to the inputting of events into the system and the coordination of operational level actions (Laudon & Laudon, 2006). The AVO system on board the Queen Mary 2 is also connected with the ship's planned maintenance and purchasing system. Supervisors can determine from the data which repairs must take precedence over others (Datz, 2004). This aspect of the AVO system therefore serves as a Decision Support System or DSS due to its utility in allowing managers to make critical decisions (Laudon & Laudon, 2006).

The AVO system would not function without the integration of a wireless computer connection infrastructure. The Queen Mary 2 also uses Wi-Fi to link passenger orders in the restaurants from waitstaff terminals to receptors in the ceilings. They are then transmitted through cables directly to the galleys where the chefs view the orders on large monitors. In addition, at some of the bars the waitstaff use handheld computers to take orders that are wirelessly broadcast to the bartenders (Datz, 2004). At the operational level of taking orders from passengers, here the waitstaff use another form of TPS to transmit orders (Laudon & Laudon, 2006).

Finally and most importantly, the Queen Mary 2 also has a system for dealing with problems that may arise in any of her shipboard systems. Every cruise has a total of three computer support officers to handle technical problems. Yet if they encounter a problem that they simply cannot handle, satellite links can provide instant communication directly to the IT department at Cunard headquarters. Here the problem can be handled distantly and does not require the cost and time associated with sending an expert directly to the ship (Datz, 2004). This is an example of Cunard's ESS capabilities that can be used remotely to solve for a wide range of problems that could occur on the Queen Mary 2 (Laudon & Laudon, 2006).

Perhaps the main challenge faced by the IT designers of the Queen Mary 2 was the unprecedented scale of the vessel. No cruise liner of this magnitude had ever been built and therefore no prior strategies could be used. Critical concerns such as cable drops had to be planned from scratch by the IT designers. Typically new ships are built into preexisting classes that already have designated plans for cable drops, but the Queen Mary 2 did not fit into any preexisting class. She had a total of nearly 2,500 data links located in individual cabins and approximately 40 wireless points that all had to be planned down to exacting detail. The high degree of precision is due to the need to torch, weld, and cut into steel, then to fireproof the cables (Datz, 2004).

Development of an IT system was also compounded by the fact that it had been over three decades since the last Cunard cruise liner was built. The relative lack of familiarity with designing an entire IT system for the Queen Mary 2 was underscored by the lack of a distinct IT department for shipbuilding as many competitors do (Datz, 2004). Nearly every facet of IT production aboard the Queen Mary 2 had to be designed literally from the ground up which presented designers with a unique opportunity to develop creative solutions.

Another problem associated with developing the IT infrastructure of the Queen Mary 2 was a matter of geographical distance. As the actual ship was being constructed at the Chantiers de l'Atlantique shipyards in France (Wikipedia, n.d.), Cunard developed the IT system at its Miami headquarters. There the entire system was set up, incorporated and checked then dismantled and shipped directly to France to be fully completed aboard the ship within three months, without the benefit of a working lift (Datz, 2004).

First, among the most important stakeholders for Cunard would be the passengers aboard the Queen Mary 2. This individual group absolutely must be considered a top priority due to their ability to literally keep the Queen Mary 2 afloat. If their needs and concerns are somehow not fully addressed, then they will most likely look elsewhere toward the competition. This is primarily the reason why I think that the Queen Mary 2's IT infrastructure was designed with their needs in mind. Everything from selecting activities to reporting repairs to maintenance to ordering room service was planned with ease of use. The operation of user-friendly touch screen stateroom televisions to cover all aspects of their voyage increases the likelihood that they will enjoy their trip and return as repeat customers, recommending the experience to their friends.

Second, another vital stakeholder group for Cunard would be the employees aboard the Queen Mary 2. They are an integral component in ensuring that passengers are completely satisfied with the service they receive and will return. This is why I think such painstaking detail was paid to the development of the AVO and other TPS infrastructure aboard the Queen Mary 2. The AVO system enhances the overall quality of the passenger's experience on the Queen Mary 2 by addressing maintenance issues almost immediately and resolving them expeditiously. The TPS infrastructure creates ease of ordering anything from a bouquet of flowers to a bottle of scotch directly from the comfort of the passenger's stateroom. I think that the employees of the Queen Mary 2 take great pride in being aboard the standard for transatlantic cruises and pay great attention to the detail involved in their daily work.

Lastly, a third stakeholder group that was integral in the success of the Queen Mary 2 would have to be the Carnival Corporation. Often times when individual organizations have differing strategies, mergers and acquisitions can help leverage the strengths so that the sum is far greater than their individual parts. This is what apparently happened in the synergistic union between Cunard and Carnival. Prior to the acquisition by Carnival, Cunard was an organization that was mired in its past. Carnival not only managed to breathe new capital into Cunard but also new life into Cunard's business strategy. Carnival enabled Cunard to transform itself from a stodgy British organization steeped in tradition into a vibrant team ultimately focused on the needs of the customer. I think that the organizational philosophy behind Carnival was instrumental in the development of not only the Queen Mary 2 but also her superior IT infrastructure.

The design of information technology aboard the Queen Mary 2 has shown that IT has no longer become a secondary part of the shipbuilding business. Now more than ever, the 21st century has brought forth technological breakthroughs to focus on enhancing the customer's experience. The customer experience is ultimately what propels an organization to profit and to sustain its viability.
Long gone are the days when organizations could afford to have IT come as an afterthought or worse yet, not at all. The successful implementation of superior IT capabilities must be a dynamic process that operates congruently with other divisions of the organization. Individual organizations must fully realize that they are ultimately doing a disservice to themselves and their clientele by not focusing deserved attention on developing IT.

As in the case of the Queen Mary 2, sometimes seemingly insurmountable obstacles can stand in the way of successful implementation of an IT infrastructure. Yet the creativity and tenacity of the IT designers did not let this become an obstacle. No previous designs were made on the scale of the Queen Mary 2. The IT designers improvised. The testing facilities in Miami were thousands of miles away from the shipyards in France. The IT designers had to make absolutely certain that the infrastructure would be compatible with the actual Queen Mary 2 in France. Ingenuity prevailed. The Queen Mary 2's IT infrastructure was a resounding success and a model for the entire cruise industry.

Royal Caribbean is one of Cunard's chief competitors in the cruise industry. The Queen Mary 2's intricately woven IT infrastructure has raised the benchmark by which all other IT systems are measured. Royal Caribbean just launched the Mariner of the Seas in November 2003, and the Jewel of the Seas in April 2004. Both ships incorporate similar POS, property management systems, and wireless access areas for passengers. Royal Caribbean has attempted to capitalize on superior IT strengths in its own right, but falls slightly short of the advances on the Queen Mary 2. Unlike the Queen Mary 2, the smart cards used by Caribbean's ships do not contain passport information. They are only used as room keys, identification and for purchases (Datz, 2004).

For passengers, Internet access aboard the Mariner of the Seas and the Jewel of the Seas is confined mainly to each ship's open Internet cafés. Otherwise passengers can readily access the Internet via their own laptop computers. Access to the Internet is available to the respective crews of both the Mariner of the Seas and the Jewel of the Seas through a thin-client device (Datz, 2004). In contrast, the ease of touch screen Internet access aboard the Queen Mary 2 offers passengers universal user-friendly Internet access for a nominal fee.

In the wake of the success of the Queen Mary 2, Royal Caribbean soon will unveil in May 2006 a grander vessel called the Ultra Voyager. With the ability to transport 3,600 passengers and weighing at close to 160,000 tons, Caribbean looks poised to give Cunard a run for its money.

I think that as we see Internet, satellite and telecommunications technology progress even further in the 21st century, we will see more, better and faster use of IT. Some possible areas where IT could be developed in the cruise industry might be:

· Wireless Internet access for all passengers and crew.

· Satellite television connections available to individual staterooms.

· Satellite videoconferencing for busy executive passengers.

· Satellite video telephones.

Cruise lines are pressured into keeping up with the continuously changing environment to maintain market share. IT is a valuable asset for any organization. Cunard will continue to face many new challenges in the future and will need to use IT to build upon the legacy of Samuel Cunard for generations to come.