Fred Olsen Cruise Lines has chosen IBS software to improve the onboard dining and retail purchasing experience across its fleet
Fred Olsen will be implementing IBS’s iTravel point-of-sale (PoS) system where guest will have greater flexibility to order food and beverages and other onboard retail services from their cabins, in addition to the traditional over-the-counter purchases or waiter-assisted orders.
A statement by IBS said “The pandemic has elevated the critical role PoS systems play in the day-to-day operations of a cruise ship. They are an integral part of transforming the guest experience to deliver onboard dining services safely while simultaneously enhancing the entire process. The issue for cruise lines is that traditional PoS systems work in silos across ships with no centralised administration capabilities. Additionally, they typically require specific hardware to function and therefore have very low portability and tend to be stationary at various points on board. These factors significantly impact a cruise line’s ability to innovate and provide top-class service to guests, who increasingly expect state-of-the-art tech on board.”
By deploying iTravel PoS, Fred Olsen can take advantage of its mobile-first approach, through which all key sales functions for crew are also available via handheld devices. It also integrates with other onboard systems including food and beverage inventory, dining and property management systems.
As part of the implementation, IBS Software will also deploy iTravel-Super Highway, which is a framework that facilitates real-time synchronisation of data between shore and ship, thereby allowing ongoing tasks, such as restaurant and menu item set-up and management of business rules for each ship, to be centrally managed from headquarters. A statement explained that the sales from each ship can also be consolidated and monitored in real time from headquarters and hosted on the public cloud.
“We expect iTravel-PoS to improve the guest experience and drive efficiencies for point-of-sale operations across our fleet as well as simplify our technology landscape,” said Fred Olsen Cruise Lines director of IT Damon Impett.
“Fred Olsen is a forward-thinking cruise line and it is really fulfilling to be a part of their digital transformation journey. IBS’ vision is to provide cruise lines with a seamlessly integrated shore-ship digital platform supporting reservations and onboard operations. With Fred Olsen also selecting IBS for PoS we have begun to realise this vision,” said IBS Software vice president and head of tour and cruise solutions Asish Koshy.
iTravel PoS is part of the iTravel Suite which is an integrated shore-to-ship family of products for cruise lines that also includes iTravel-Cruise (reservations), iTravel Dining (table reservations) and iTravel Navigator (guest mobile app).
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