Background

Carnival UK is the operating company for brands P&O Cruises and Cunard in the cruise industry. It generates nearly £1bn turnover and is part of the Carnival Corporation & PLC, based in Miami. Carnival UK want to reduce their cost base, increase their operational efficiency and meet compliance requirements imposed on the marine industry.

Carnival UK has many business initiatives that responded to these strategic aims that had a significant dependency on IT. Baxter Thompson Ltd was engaged to help align the benefits, identify the best technology fit for these initiatives and the subsequent IT deliverables.

Approach

Define the Strategy

1. On an on-going basis through informal meetings and workshops:

2. Identify long term business plans with Heads of Department and Directors, using set questions to get a clear and consistent picture across the functions.

3. Identify key strategic aims, common themes and requirements.

4. For each function develop an IT Roadmap, highlighting the capabilities required – quantify the change required in each – people, process and technology.

5. Force-rank the capabilities based on benefits sought.

6. Review with internal IT colleagues the existing internal IT strategy to see what services needed to be changed and solicit system architecture proposals.

Develop the Portfolio

1. Develop a project portfolio reporting tool to track and report the status of activities.

2. Agree a governance structure with directors to prioritise capabilities and formally agree strategic direction.

3. Define a method to help business colleagues identify the strategic capabilities required.

Deliver the Benefit

1. For the prioritised capabilities, assign Consultants and Project Managers to carry out Feasibility Studies to assess the impact, benefits and return on investment. This included process mapping, requirements gathering, issuing requests for information, writing Business Cases and defining Project Plans.

2. Obtain business approval for funding for those Business Cases that meet established business criteria.

3. Set up project / programme review boards to ensure that deliverables achieved, benefits realised and expectations met.

Business Benefit

• Through a team of 4 Systems Consultants and 1 Project Manager, scoped and shaped 6 initiatives from inception through to Business Case approval totalling £1m. The scope included: document management, scanning and publishing; enabling a future crew portal / intranet; legacy application support; business continuity planning; disaster recovery; entertainment act management; and timekeeping.

• A new approach of system selection away from replacing legacy HR systems to system selection based on fulfilling strategic business capabilities.

• Developed and managed an IT portfolio of 104 potential projects and identified a CAPEX spend of £5.6m for year 2014 prioritised projects.

• Developed an IT strategy for the major applications. Formalised Business / IT strategy for Medical, Corporate Shipping, and Safety departments.