Our Business:

We are a full-service shore excursion operator and ground handler for the UK and Irish cruise industry. Our services include offering full logistical organisation and execution of cruise itinerary plans, excursions, specialist and niche tour products, as well as pre- and post-cruise programmes.

Challenges Faced:

We were replacing a previous database that was getting quite old and unstable. It was a home-built system and was on a platform that wasn’t easily scalable. We were increasing in size and we needed to improve scalability, but also have a system sophisticated enough to handle our high-volume and deep-detail operations.

Why Cloud Street:

We interviewed three others but found Cloud Street to have a better understanding of what we needed and empathetic to what we wanted to achieve. We also wanted to get things up and running quite quickly. Cloud Street had the capacity to do that and were very transparent, while others were vague about timetables.

Working with Cloud Street:

We were very happy. They scope everything out very well before starting and you get complete offer of what they would do, how they would do it, and timescale. We then worked very closely together, and it went well. Specification is important to Cloud Street, they put a lot of emphasis on it at every stage, and that I think is to the benefit of both parties.

Challenge Resolution:

Cloud Street delivered a completely stable system, capable of handling our complex operations and even adding in more functionality than we had previously. The truly great thing has been the speed of it. There is more automation and less double input than before, allowing us to execute tasks a lot quicker. On top of all of that it’s easily scalable, which was key for us.

Business Impact:

The system allows us to carry out our work, while following our workflow pattern, much more efficiently. There is far less room for error than before, and less duplicating of people’s efforts. It has also allowed us to scale; we have more users on the system than ever before, and it is performing very well. It’s user friendly and intuitive too, so when new users are added it is easy for them to understand and get up to speed quickly.

Added Client Value:

Our business has so many moving parts, orchestrating a high volume of excursions, for a large number of clients, across multiple locations. However, we now process information much more efficiently, meaning we are able to respond faster to clients’ needs. It’s a complicated industry, but with our new system we are able to schedule years in advance. It even balances tour costs and passenger volumes to offer our customers the best possible price per-head, while maintaining our precise margins.

Cloud Street in a Nanobyte:

Supportive. We get outstanding support from them and have recommended them to our Norwegian office, which has turned into a major project for our organisation.