Innovative approach to IT management pays dividends

Norwegian cruiseferry operator Color Line has come up with some creative solutions to make the most of scarce bandwidth, while streamlining business operations and keeping IT management as simple as possible

Between 2004 and 2008 Color Line invested NKr7.5 billion (approx €835 million) in new tonnage and concepts. The company is Norway’s largest cruiseferry line, operating six ferries serving four routes from Norway to Germany, Sweden and Denmark.

Over the same period, the operator has significantly upgraded the IT systems running on board its vessels to increase their performance and reliability and has found some innovative solutions for transferring data to and fro shoreside offices.

Particular highlights include creating its own replication software for transferring operational data and other heavy updates over WiFi in port areas; deploying a sophisticated stock control system to ensure supplies arrive quickly and on time; and introducing virtualisation in the ships’ server room to simplify maintenance, save space and reduce power consumption. It is also on the verge of deploying a sophisticated new booking system that will enable passengers to plan every aspect of their trip online in advance.

Color Line describes the 75,000gt Color Fantasy as the world’s largest cruise ship with a car deck (a virtual sister is named Color Magic, whose systems are briefly discussed later). The cruiseferry offers up to 2,700 passengers a variety of entertainment, and amenities including eight restaurants and several bars, a fitness centre, and a 163m-long shopping arcade.

When at sea, Color Fantasy shares a 2 Mbps VSAT satellite link (supplied by Norwegian maritime communications integrator Marlink) with the five other ships in Color Line’s fleet. Considering this connection is used to provide Internet access and the telephony needs of passengers travelling on six ships as well as some business data transfers, it is rather modest compared with what people are used to on land, admits company IT manager Oddbjørn Olsen. “We are planning to boost the overall bandwidth to 3 Mbps, however connectivity depends on more than just the size of the pipe. We have deployed a lot of behind the scenes technology to ensure we make optimum use of that scarce resource.”

To start, there is flexibility in how the bandwidth is shared among the vessels. “If necessary, the whole capacity could be allocated to a single ship, though so far we have never needed to call on that facility. However, it could be useful for, say, a large press conference”.

Color Line sees onboard conferencing as a significant growth area and has invested considerably in facilities to make it an attractive option for event organisers. Color Fantasy has a 1,600m² conference centre and permanent 1,400m² exhibition area, which together provide capacity for around 850 delegates. The conference area spaces are equipped with terminals and wireless Internet, which is available throughout the crossing.

More interesting, however, is how Color Line has taken advantage of wireless communications in coastal waters. The company has installed high-capacity 54 Mbps WiFi routers at each port served by its vessels. “The vast majority of operational data is pushed to shore when we enter the wireless coverage zone, between 500m and 700m from the coast, depending on each location,” Mr Olsen says. “Similarly, heavy software updates will be carried out when we are in port. This approach of holding back operational transfers not only saves on cost but also maximises the amount of bandwidth that we can offer to our customers during the voyage.”

The operator has recently initiated an in-house development project to create an intelligent replication system for transferring extra large content to its vessels. In some cases, large transfers cannot be completed during a single port stop due to a short turnaround. The Color Line Replication Engine (CLRE), however, will enable such transfers to be picked up and resumed at the next port of call. The hope is to release the finished program as open-source software freely available to other ferry operators.

“The thinking behind this project is quite simple,” Mr Olsen explains. “Satellite based communication will always be expensive. Although prices will probably fall in the medium- or long-term, it is never going to compete with terrestrial services, so the idea is to make maximum use of the cheapest possible bandwidth whenever and wherever it is available.”

In addition to periodic software updates, Color Line intends to use its new replication engine to deliver e-learning resources to its crew more efficiently. “E-learning applications intrinsically contain a high percentage of heavy multimedia content, which is not suitable for narrowband transmission,” Mr Olsen says. “While it is certainly possible to deliver physical CD-Rom or DVD versions on board, these then have to be installed. Sending the file across in the background means the applications seem to appear automatically on the ship’s servers.”

There are approximately 1,000 ethernet ports located around Color Fantasy, which are joined by several kilometres of CAT6 cable, including a significant length that had to be fitted vertically along the fire zones. “Because the wiring is so extensive we had to plan it before the ship was delivered. Working together with the ship’s interior designers, we defined and finalised the network architecture some 18 months prior to it being launched in 2005. Obviously, this involved a certain degree of looking ahead, which is difficult when technology has a habit of changing so fast. The idea was to predict what will be mainstream in two years but not overstretch ourselves by committing to bleeding edge systems which were still unproven,” explains Mr Olsen.

Color Fantasy’s sistership, Color Magic, delivered two years later in 2007, is fitted with some 2,200 access points. “While the primary driver behind this was the introduction of a new fully IP-based interactive TV system, which meant adding sockets in each passenger cabin, it goes to show how quickly network connectivity has grown in importance.” As well as providing a range of TV and radio channels, the in-cabin entertainment system allows passengers to keep track on the credit remaining on their personal key card.

As is common on many passenger ships today, the key cards used on Color Fantasy are multi-functional. Aside from serving as cabin keys, they also act as passenger boarding cards and prepaid credit cards for purchasing products and services on board ship. The prepaid cards can be topped up at any time using a conventional credit card at the ship’s main reception desk. Advantages of the prepaid cards are that they speed up transactions and reduce the frequency with which credit card transactions have to be authorised over the satellite link.

The key cards are interfaced with a point-of-sale (POS) and property management system supplied by UK company Torex, which has become almost an industry standard for passenger ship operators in the Scandinavian and Baltic regions, Mr Olsen says (another Torex installation is discussed on page 41). “It is a very flexible system. For example, if there is a conference taking place on board, the event organisers can put credit on their delegates’ cards for breakfast or a couple of drinks at the bar in the evening.”

Another interesting feature of the in-cabin interactive TV system is that housekeeping personnel can use it to register maintenance and upkeep activities, for example, if a light bulb needs replacing or a dripping tap needs to be fixed. Staff use a special issue remote control to beam work orders via the ITV back to the property management system, which then creates a job order for the onboard electrician, plumber or other member of the maintenance crew.

A major draw for passengers on Color Fantasy is the Show Lounge, which puts on two song and dance performances each evening. The popularity of these events, however, creates a considerable logistical challenge for the hotel staff, who may have to serve drinks and other refreshments to up to 500 passengers during show intervals lasting just 30 minutes.

The Norwegian operator has streamlined the way staff work and employed an IT solution to achieve this. Waiters are all issued with an Atigo tablet PC from Xybernaut, which they use to punch in orders. These are wirelessly transmitted behind the bar, where a second team make up the orders which are served by a third team of waiting staff. Finally, the first team make a second round to collect payment, which can be made in cash, from their cabin key cards or credit card. Credit card transactions are authorised in real-time over the satellite link.

Stock control is also managed on an ongoing basis throughout each sailing. Electronic orders are submitted to the operator’s central warehouse in Hirtshals, Denmark at a predetermined point after leaving port, either across the VSAT satlink or over WiFi, depending on what connection is available. As a result, orders can be processed and delivered ahead of a vessel reaching its destination port, even while operating on quick turnarounds.

The heart of the IT operation on board Color Fantasy is the server room. When the ship was first delivered, this room housed some 25 servers, each set up to perform a specific function ranging from amenity services (such as video and other entertainment systems) to technical maintenance (such as checking water quality and fire safety systems). Because of their criticality to overall ship operations, these servers and the associated cooling system were connected to a backup power plant that would kick in if the ship’s normal power grid failed.

Since delivery however, Color Line has managed to reduce the number of servers to just five, which has freed up considerable space, reduced power consumption (both of the servers and the cooling apparatus) and is generally more reliable, Mr Olsen says. The reduction was achieved by the introduction of a ‘virtual machine’ environment. Virtualisation is a means of consolidating server hardware by moving services from separate hosts into isolated containers on a single server.

Migrating the IT infrastructure to a virtual architecture started in 2005 at the operator’s head offices. Soon after, the concept was introduced on Color Fantasy and Color Magic, and the company has just completed roll-out across all vessels in the fleet.

In addition to improved physical resilience, virtualisation offers advantages in terms of software resilience too. Like many ships, a number of systems on board Color Line’s vessels require older software that is most stable when running on a PC with a particular operating system version. Often this is a legacy version which is no longer widely available and difficult to fix if something breaks.

Virtualisation allows a virtual ‘image’ of that operating system to be created and then run on top of modern hardware. If the system ever crashes, it can be re-instated in a pristine state simply by reloading the image. The majority of systems, however, are happy to run from – or indeed, require – a modern operating system, which is kept up to date with the latest patches and security updates.

While admitting that implementing a virtual machine environment is costly and requires considerable effort during the initial implementation, Mr Olsen believes that it offers a very efficient way of managing both needs. “Because we are running so many different systems and because we do not have any IT personnel on board ship, it is essential that we have a means of quickly recovering from any software failure before it impacts on customer experience. With virtualisation, this can even be done remotely, as the process can be initiated and monitored over satellite.

“Looking ahead, more and more onboard services will have some kind of software element, resulting in greater dependence on the vessel’s IT infrastructure and there is only so much room for adding new hardware.” It is these considerations that justify the capital investment, Mr Olsen says.

He is also occupied with another significant development at Color Line. The company is in the process of decommissioning its current core booking system, ready to replace it with a completely new one due to go online this year. The current system is hosted on a Unisys mainframe housed at the Oslo headquarters and has been in operation for over 20 years.

The system is written in Mapper, a 4th generation programming language dating back to the late 1970s but with an even older heritage. Despite its age, Unisys has continued to support and upgrade the language incorporating it into its BIS (Business Information Systems) framework and adding functionality for web services.

Nevertheless, it is proving increasingly difficult to find people who have knowledge of the language. Says Mr Olsen: “Because university graduates do not have these skills, we were increasingly faced with the burden of training any new recruits to the company.

While the new system will, of course, offer the same level of functionality and stability, Color Line saw the replacement as an opportunity to add significant enhancements designed to give customers a much greater degree of flexibility in personalising their booking. With the existing technology, customers could set an itinerary and book their trip over the Internet, but any special requests or requirements had to be dealt with through the company’s call centre.

The new system, however, will allow passengers to pre-book any of the onboard services or entertainment events, as well as select meals or specify any special dietary needs, differentiated by each member of the party. While this may sound complex, Mr Olsen believes that the industry is witnessing the emergence of a new generation of consumers who have embraced online commerce.

“This facility will also enable us to see what is popular and what is not. Where there is spare capacity, it allows us to market those services or products more aggressively – for example, advertising them more boldly during the web-booking process or through e-mail mailshots. This should lead to a better customer experience, improve utilisation and, of course, generate more revenue.” MEC