NORFOLKLINE SELECTS E-DEA
04/10/2009

Norfolkline selects E-Dea for its new Ferry Reservation System

Date: 10 April 2009
Location: Naples, The Hague

Norfolkline, part of the A.P. Moller-Maersk Group and European leader in the provision of Ferry services, has selected eBooking® Enterprise as the solution for managing the entire reservations lifecycle, for both its freight and passenger business. eBooking® will replace the current in-house developed system that was reaching its end of life. Implementing this new state of the art system will allow Norfolkline to offer an even greater service to its Customers in the future.

The Norfolkline Ferry Division offers more than 300 sailings a week, operating 19 vessels on 10 different short sea routes, linking all the way from Ireland to mainland Europe. This is complemented by Norfolkline Staff who are committed to providing a service that is second to none while maintaining a market competitive edge.

eBooking® is the most open and flexible FRS (Ferry Reservations System) ever designed, using Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Java EE technology. eBooking® is part of E-Dea’s IMOS platform, a cutting edge middleware product for the maritime industry, that currently handles more than 15 million passengers a year across Europe.

The exhaustive selection process spanning a number of months was spent evaluating the ferry reservation system market. This resulted in the selection of E-Dea’s eBooking® reservation system and was followed by the signing of a strategic Framework Agreement between E-Dea and Norfolkline. This is with a purpose of facilitating the prospective adoption of IMOS® technology as well as other E-Dea’s products and services in the mid to long term driven by the business relationship of the two Companies.

Jacco Schonewille, CIO at Norfolkline commented:
“We selected E-Dea because we considered the eBooking® product, to be the best solution for the reservation and booking process within our Ferry division. eBooking® came out as the best product after an evaluation period of several months, both from a functional and technical perspective and delivers the functionality we need today but also creates the foundation for our future requirements in the functional and technical field. However, it is not only the product and functionality that guided our decision. E-Dea has the size and approach that fits with our culture and high demands. We are looking forward to building up a long term relationship with E-Dea and together build a solution that makes Norfolkline the preferred ferry operator for customers and passengers that value a high quality operation and ease of doing business”.

Darren Smith, Process & Information Manager at Norfolkline commented:
“E-Dea was selected to provide a new Ferry Reservation System for Norfolkline after a period of investigations by Business and IT resources into the maritime and reservation software markets. The consensus was that E-Dea could provide the people and system expertise to ensure that the project will be an outstanding success. The eBooking® system will offer greater flexibility to our staff and will allow them to provide an even better service to our customers.”

Mario D’Angelo, Project Manager at E-Dea commented:
“The possibility of providing Norfolkline our cutting edge technology represents for E-Dea a major milestone in the process of continuous development of its maritime solutions portfolio and makes us proud of having the opportunity to work with highly specialized professionals of the maritime transportation industry. With the acquisition of such an important Customer, eBooking is elected to become the de facto leader in the Ferry Reservation Systems for the Enterprise market.”

About Norfolkline
Norfolkline, part of A.P. Moller – Maersk Group is one of Europe’s leading ferry providers on the North Sea, Irish Sea and the Channel markets, serving over 2 million ferry passengers, and close to million quay-to-quay movements per year. Norfolkline were voted ‘Best Ferry Company’ at 2008 by Guardian, Observer and guardian.co.uk Travel Awards.

About E-Dea
E-Dea is a leading provider of new generation technologies and IT solutions for the today’s global Maritime Transportation and Logistics industry. With offices, organizations and solutions deployed all over Europe, the Company offers decisive momentum to technical innovation in the traditional maritime operators business. Many Ferry and RoRo Companies, Cruise Operators, Port Authorities and Homeland Security Organizations across Europe benefit from the E-Dea unique solution platform IMOS®, designed on a complete service oriented architecture. Thanks to its technology, E-Dea is the perfect link between all different maritime market players, offering next generation solutions based on a single common platform covering all business requirements and rules.

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