International cruise company and holiday provider RCL Cruises Ltd. partnered with Konica Minolta Business Solutions to help improve efficiencies around customer information management through the implementation of a streamlined end to end document / content management program including a range of print hardware and document solutions including eCopy, SharePoint and Equitrac.
ABOUT THE RCL CRUISES LTD.
RCL Cruises Ltd. is a subsidiary of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., the 2nd largest cruise company in the world with a combined total of 41 ships operating diverse itineraries around the world that call on approximately 460 destinations on all seven continents. Brands include Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises, and Azamara Club Cruises along with the Pullmantur brand, which has been custom tailored to serve the cruise markets in Spain, Portugal and Latin America and the CDF Croisières de France brand which provide a custom tailored product targeted at the French market. Travel Weekly Globe Awards have recognised Royal Caribbean International as the ‘Best Mainstream Cruise Company’ for 2013 and 2012.
THE CHALLENGES FACED
As part of this on-going success, Royal Caribbean was increasingly challenged with ensuring records were efficiently managed within their back office operation. Realising that their existing systems had become dated and no longer able to assist in the increasing demands placed upon it, Royal Caribbean felt they needed to update their document management system. To this end, Royal Caribbean sought a single supplier to provide MFDs, Equitrac print management solution (an existing solution running on their server, which they wished to retain), a scanning / workflow solution and a document repository to replace their existing Domino Database which was being phased out.
After speaking with Konica Minolta, the business critical priorities that were identified was to provide a complete end-to-end solution, utilising the MFP as a digital on-ramp to a document repository and then provide the required search capabilities that make finding documents quick and easy.
Ultimately, and perhaps most critically to this project, was ensuring that any change in technology would not hinder Royal Caribbean’s end customer relationships and that a continued seamless service was delivered.
HOW KONICA MINOLTA HELPED
Aware of Royal Caribbean’s requirement, Konica Minolta carried out a comprehensive document workflow assessment to understand the existing document / content management processes. Following this consultancy phase, Konica Minolta was able to recommend appropriate solutions to meet the existing and foreseeable needs of Royal Caribbean. Specifically, Konica Minolta delivered an end-to-end solution, encompassing a mixture of hardware and software. Specifically, print / copy / scan hardware (which included a number of bizhubs ranging from 30 page per minute devices to 55 page per minute C552 devices) and a suite of software that included a new installation of Equitrac Secure Print, Microsoft Sharepoint and eCopy.
These solutions in particular were able to provide a range of tangible benefits to the customer, which has been outlined opposite.
EQUITRAC
Equitrac Office creates a unified view of print, copy and scan activity for all the devices on the network. This innovative output management solution enables the Royal Caribbean to:
- Keep track of document-related activities on the network by:
- Monitoring all print / copy volume, and where appropriate, allocate individual job costs to specific users / departments / clients / job codes
- Keeping costs down by redirecting print jobs from desktop printers to multifunctional product with lower cost per page
- Tracking costs by file size, paper size, media type, colour or duplexing
- Employ user authentication to ensure the security of every print, copy and scan job
- Implement Follow-You® Printing which holds documents in a secure server until users authenticate — so documents are never left unattended in an output tray
- Establish permission-based access to systems and features
- Create an audit trail, so you can see who printed what document at what time, on which device
- Provide secure copy / print / scan facilities via the integration with Konica Minolta Equitrac Embedded Software
- Automatically enforce rules (such as for colour output), authenticate users, protect sensitive documents
- Reduce wasted paper and toner
In addition to implementing Equitrac, Royal Caribbean was already utilising RFID Card technology for print authentication on existing equipment, a facility they wanted to continue to use. As part of the upgrade, Konica Minolta implemented a fresh installation of Equitrac O ffice on a new server and supplied USB RFID Card readers to all devices.
In doing so, Royal Caribbean is able to ensure:
- Full control of all printing / copying and scanning activity on all Konica Minolta devices which integrated with Active Directory
- Konica Minolta provided RFID USB Card Readers for all devices including desktop printers to provide a total secure printing facility throughout the site – which was only previously available on the larger MFDs
- Konica Minolta replaced desktop printers with Bizhub C35s which were incorporated into the Equitrac solution – therefore reducing waste paper previously left on printers, reducing costs.
- Secure print on desktop printers – no security provided previously
- A ‘Follow-you’ print solution was provided via 2 queues – mono and colour – this allows users to retrieve print jobs from any Konica Minolta device securely
ECOPY
Konica Minolta implemented eCopy Scanstations which securely puts paper-based data directly into electronic workflows – where appropriate it will enable Royal Caribbean, through the MFP, to scan, extract, classify, index and convert paper information into digital information that flows effortlessly into and through the electronic channels of the business. This is done with Microsoft Sharepoint Connector, Lotus Notes Connector and a developed bespoke connector (Scan to Siebel – Oracle CRM system – which was provided by NSI via internal scripting). Konica Minolta was required to provide this functionality as it was critical to the business’s requirement. This integration and development helped to deliver scanning into Sharepoint via eCopy Sharepoint Connector and provide full OCR for rapid search functionality so documents can easily be found.
With the eCopy Connector for Microsoft SharePoint, Royal Caribbean are able to quickly convert hard copy documents into digital files that can be stored in folders within SharePoint repositories in defined locations which can therefore be made immediately available for retrieval by authorised users.
SHAREPOINT SERVICES
Konica Minolta’s installation and configuration of SharePoint 2010, an enterprise-class collaboration and content management platform, was done with the intention of replacing Royal Caribbean’s existing customer database, Domino. By proposing the Sharepoint solution, Konica Minolta was also able to offer full migration of existing data currently stored in Lotus Database – Royal Caribbean therefore did not need to retain the existing database for historical look-ups, as they had originally anticipated. All documentation, new and historical, could now be retrieved via Sharepoint. In doing so, Royal Caribbean had a single SharePoint server which in turn has the following features:
- Managed Metadata
- Secure Storage
- Search facilities (with PDF icon and iFilter installed)
- State Service
This in turn has enabled Royal Caribbean to do the following:
- Work collaboration: such as team calendars, discussion boards, and document libraries that allow users to “check out” documents and track changes. Users can be notified by email of new items or changes.
- Multi users access to portals: intranet sites or public web pages can be created in SharePoint using templates and component parts (e.g., a Help Desk ticket system) which can be added to the portal.
- Content Management and Document Workflow: SharePoint helps users review, edit, and track documents. Administrators can control access to specific documents by team member or groups, and SharePoint is also useful for other policy, auditing, and compliance features like setting document expiration and retention.
Other notable SharePoint features and functions include: a search component, forms-driven process integration, and business intelligence capabilities (such as the ability to create dashboards to easily see key business information). In implementing SharePoint, Royal Caribbean’s customer information is more easily accessible and can be shared across the enterprise securely among business users.
MANAGING THE CHANGE PROCESS:
As part of this process, Konica Minolta project and change managed this process to ensure continuity and minimal impact to staff across Royal Caribbean. All existing data was migrated across to the new document management system to provide users access to all legacy documents.
BENEFITS OF WORKING WITH KONICA MINOLTA
Overall, this new document / content management program has offered Royal Caribbean:
- Full migration of existing data stored in out dated systems into new user friendly systems
- Reduce costs in the longer term
- Provide tools to assist with collaborative working
- Ensure continuous document security
- Business process improvement
Byron Shaw 