COVER STORY: KEEPING CUSTOMERS CRUISING ALONG

Renaissance Cruises uses IBM SecureWay Software to improve its customer service responsiveness

Customers of Renaissance Cruises® Inc. say the best way to experience paradise is to take a Renaissance CruiseTour to a warm, sunny destination. The Mediterranean. The Greek Islands. Or Tahiti and the South Pacific. According to Frank Peluso, Renaissance director of software development, the first step on the way to paradise is a friendly, yet factual conversation with a Renaissance travel consultant. IBM SecureWay® Host Integration Solution helps Renaissance Cruises' consultants provide just such a friendly first impression. When a consultant receives a call from a customer who wants to make a reservation, the consultant accesses the corporate reservations system through a standard Web browser, using IBM Host On-Demand. Using the browser-based inter-face, the consultant can quickly and easily compile the passenger's information.

Executive Summary Problem Travel consultants need a faster, more intuitive way to access and use the online reservations system Solution IBM SecureWay Host Integration Solution featuring Host On-Demand Benefit Simplified access helps consultants provide significantly better customer service; new technology enables room for growth

A More Intuitive Way of Working
Previously, the consultants used an IBM AS/400®-based reservations system and 5250 emulation sessions to access the reservations application from their desktops. Limitations in the user interface often made it difficult to display information in ways that customers were likely to ask for it.

For example, the natural flow of conversation often led to a need to view availability of a specific cruise itinerary. The consultant then had to enter other pieces of information to navigate to that screen—creating a delay for the customer. The system's design also lacked many of the intuitive and flexible features that the develop-ment team was able to add by using Host On-Demand and a Web-based interface, Peluso says.

Improved Customer Service
Renaissance Cruises chose the Host Integration Solution after seeing its potential for improving cus-tomer service. After a brief pilot test, the company has begun to roll out the new solution to its consultants. Now, using a standard Web browser to retrieve and enter data, consultants can gather information and answer customer questions immediately. "The new look-and-feel is much more intuitive," Peluso says. "Our consultants can now provide better cus-tomer service, concentrating on describing the wonderful vacation experience that we provide instead of thinking about how to navigate through our computer system." The new system is designed so that, if desired, it can be used over an extranet by independent travel consultants, as well as by Renaissance Cruises employees. It can send and receive smaller packets of data across the public Internet than it does on the current intranet in use at the Renaissance Cruises headquarters office. This extranet capability will help to extend the reach of the Renaissance Cruises reservations network even farther.

SECUREWAY HOST INTEGRATION SOLUTION AT A GLANCE The IBM SecureWay Host Integration Solution can give users secure access to mission-critical business systems regardless of the platform or network environment. For a standard price per user, the Host Integration Solution provides the choice of client, server, and firewall software—all in a single, integrated package. A comprehensive solution for providing access in a secure e-business infrastructure, the Host Integration Solution is designed to: Seamlessly integrate SNA and TCP/IP networks by using standard Web technology Help build intranets and extranets that can provide your employees and business partners with secure, Web-based access to applications and data Extend your business to new customers over the Internet Scale quickly and easily to address the needs of your changing business environment Secure business applications and data against unauthorized access Enable platform and technology migrations without additional purchases Support a common development infrastructure With the Host Integration Solution, you can choose a combination of communication clients and servers based on the number of users you need to support. This flexibility effectively eliminates the complexity of evaluating, buying, and piecing together your e-business infrastructure from various components and vendors. The following industry-leading client and server software roducts are available: SecureWay Host On-Demand for Windows® 95, Windows NT, and AIX—a 100% Pure Java™ emulator supporting 3270, 5250, and virtual terminal emulation in a thin-client mode and an extensive set of Host Access Class Libraries and JavaBeans™ SecureWay Personal Communications for Windows, Windows 95, Windows NT, and OS/2®—a comprehensive communicacions client featuring 3270, 5250, and virtual terminal emulation and a variety of APIs SecureWay Communications Server for Windows NT, AIX, OS/2, and UnixWare® 7—a multipurpose networking server that features the industry's most advanced SNA gateway, a TN server (3270 and 5250), and a host publisher Although these individual products are powerful on their own, together they provide an integrated, cost-effective solution for improving access to host-based business information and applications across intranets, extranets, and the Internet.

For more information
Visit www.ibm.com/software/network/hostintegration.