®
THE ULTIMATE
RESERVATION SYSTEM
FOR CRUISE LINES
Know Your Customer
Maximize Yield and Revenue
Adjust Business Policy Instantly
Connect to Distribution Channels
www.versonix.com
Seaware Main Functions
Reservation
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• mix and match various products in one booking or make
a separate booking for each component (on board dining,
transfers, hotels, land programs, etc.)
• fl exible group booking functionality (build-up and builddown process)
• various payment options: multiple deposits, payments
• multiple currencies support
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e-mail, SMS or fax
Product Management
• no limitation on the number and types of products
supported in Seaware
• support for simple or complex voyages
• ability to sell tailor-made trips
• on board dining, conference room, workshop, spa treatment
with detailed schedule and capacity control
• hotels as room allotments or on-request basis
• transportation support (transfers, bus connections, etc.)
• add-ons (miscellaneous items and services) with capacity
control
• packaging capability (optional or mandatory components)
Pricing Management
• flexible business rules-based pricing (based on product,
market, guest profile, seasons, etc.)
• ability to price per cabin, person, day, etc
• easy way to create promotions with eligibility and capacity
control
• support for promotions combinability (can be at reservation
or guest level)
• support for percent discount or flat amount (can be applied
to specific price component)
• support for dynamic pricing model based on ship utilization,
days before departure, etc
Inventory Management
• daily cabin inventory to accommodate custom segments and
overlapping packages.
• “Nested” categories setup (combine categories for availability
requests)
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market-applicable products and services
• flexible rules-based inventory management with yield
maximization, which utilizes probabilities and projections
• ability to monitor inventory yield and attrition using
probability
• allotment support for cabins
• easy way to switch cabins between categories on recurrent
basis
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• support for custom segments
• waitlist support
Ship Public Facilities Management
• extensive conference room support
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• scheduling and reservation capabilities for sauna, spa, etc…
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ing additional products)
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items
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Financials
• extensive reservation accounting functionality; most accounting
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payments
online credit/debit card payment processing
apply any combination of payments (CC, Check, discount coupon)
online credit/debit card refund processing
check printing facility
bank reconciliation facility
facility to hold and manage client and agency funds
batch payment facility (one payment to multiple reservations)
ability to move funds between any entity in the system
coupons subsystem
GL accounting: ability to generate GL entries, summarize, and interinterface to insurance company
support for credit agencies (terms billing)
ability to store cost
multiple currencies support
ability to set up pre-paid coupons which can be used once pay(partially or fully) coupons
control
• invoicing support
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unbalanced bookings
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Guest Management
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support for loyalty programs (levels, points earned/used)
complete sailing/booking history
on-board spending history
customer contact history
duplicate control/merge
Agency Management
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• rule-based commission management (% can vary by product,
agency performance, etc.)
• agencies hierarchy support (ownership, consortium)
• performance monitoring/history
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• support for loyalty programs (levels, points earned/used)
• support for individual travel agent recognition
• duplicate control/merge
CRM
• comprehensive customer and agency CRM functionality
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• travel agency/agent performance tracking, component-based commission support
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• loyalty program functionality (various levels, membership)
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tory
• marketing campaign management
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• sales force support (sales people, sales regions)
• contact management functionality
Yield and Revenue Management
• integrated yield and revenue management functionality
• automated price control:
» ability to open/close promotions based on ship utilization
level (milestone functionality)
» ability to target and limit promotions (Selling Limits)
» ability to create tiered promotions
» support for dynamic pricing model based on ship utilization,
days before departure, etc.
• inventory control:
» oversell management (patented “reservation probability feature”)
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» target and set limits for inventory (Selling Limits)
» open/close categories based on ship utilization level (Selling
Limits)
» rule-based optimized cabin assignment (Rule Based)
• demand forecasting based on voyage patterns and dynamics
Interfaces
• travel insurance provider interface
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• on-board system interface
• ability to create custom interfaces using XML API
Reports
• integration with Crystal Report Server
• standard management and operational reports
Distribution/Service Channels
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Complete Reservation XML API via Web Services
GDS (Amadeus, Sabre)
Internet (B2B, B2C)
Mobile platform support
Seaware Concepts
The system makes use of several concepts to automate and facilitate many processes that normally re quire manual entry or user intervention. The concepts at the core of the system are the following:
Daily Inventory
Seaware’s concept of ship inventory is always based on daily/time, rather than voyage inventory. In essence, the system views the
vessel as a hotel, making all of its cabins available for each day/time in the sailing calendar. A sailing or voyage is simply a label
placed on a specified date/time range. This system enables users to create an unlimited number of voyages with common sailing
days without the need to allocate specific cabins for each voyage. When Seaware receives a request for inventory, it simply searches
the days/time associated with the voyage to see if the request can be satisfied, thus making the best use of available inventory. Selling limits can also be placed on any voyage.
Probability
Proper inventory management often requires cruise/ferry lines to “oversell” their inventory in order to compensate for expected
cancellations in both groups and individual reservations. The amount of oversell is calculated by Seaware using several milestones
or criteria in each booking to determine the probability of the booking maturing to revenue. The criteria used can be as simple or
complex as required.
Versonix obtained a patent for this technology (Patent number 7,487,103 issued on February 3, 2009).
Business Rules
Business Rules in Seaware is a mechanism that provides users with flexibility in establishing rules for calculating pricing,
taxes, cancellation penalty, payment schedule, commission, insurance, etc. Instead of having static tables with a limited
number of parameters, users can create hierarchical structures representing business policies and rules. Business policy
changes can be implemented without changes to the source code by appropriate business departments.
Distribution Channels
Seaware
Broker
(Registration/Notification)
Seaware
Event Processor
Ship Inventory
Server
Seaware Database
Air Inventory
Server
Selling Limits
Server
Seaware
BizLigic
Component
Car/Cargo
Inventory Server
BizLogic (Public XML API)
Travel Agent/
Trade
Hotel Inventory
Server
WEB
Call Center
Mobile
Ship Room
Inventory Server
Dining
Inventory Server
Global Distribution
System
1st tier – Oracle Database.
2nd tier – Ship Inventory, Car Deck, Dining, Conference Room/Facility, Hotel Inventory, Air Inventory/Limits, Selling Limits and Broker.
3rd tier – Business Logic that deals with all aspects of creating and updating reservations.
4th tier – Interface that includes but is not limited to Custom GUI, WEB client, GDS interface, Wholesalers and other distribution
channels.
Registration and Notification
Seaware Broker serves as a central point for registration and notification events. Whenever an inventory component starts it registers
with Broker by identifying itself as a unit, which holds specific type of inventory (example: ship, hotel, etc.) Seaware Bizlogic components
also register with Broker when they start. When any Seaware component updates non inventory data that is being cached, it notifies
Broker, which in turn notifies all other registered components.
Inventory Components
Inventory tier is comprised of Ship Inventory, Car Deck, Dining, Conference Room/Facility, Hotel Inventory, Air Inventory/Limits and
Selling Limits. When an inventory component starts it begins caching inventory it is responsible for. Since inventories are cached,
availability requests are processed by inventory components without accessing database, which significantly improves response time
Business Logic Component
Bizlogic component deals with all aspects of creating and updating reservations. A significant and a very important part of Bizlogic
component is Seaware business rules engine component. All business policies related to money and inventories are controlled using
Seaware business rules engine. To guarantee fast response time, Seaware business rules engine is cached.
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