Holland America
Holland America cruises into the Web-based world.- Application integration connects front-end Web application with mainframe business applications
- Travel bookings made simple through easy access to packages, pricing and options
- Improved customer service through enhanced business intelligence
Holland America Line is headquartered in Seattle, Washington. Holland America's Web site supports direct consumers, alumni travelers, travel agents and internal reservations staff. Direct consumers accessing the site can obtain help and information about Holland America's cruise and tour packages, book passages online or have the option of completing a booking with assistance of a travel agent or Holland America reservation staff member.
The Challenges
Implementing an interactive Web site required integrating Holland America's legacy mainframe systems with Web application server technologies. The challenge was to form a "business intelligence" layer that exposed new and existing business rules as Enterprise Java Bean components, which were used by the Web applications and could be distributed over many platforms for scalability. Logicalis was brought in to address this very real issue.
The Solution
Some of the key integration points include real-time hooks into CA-IDMS/ADSO applications on the mainframe, Cybercash payment authorization integrated with the existing credit card payment process, cross-platform event and transaction handling using IBM's MQSeries, combining data from Oracle and CA-IDMS.
Key technologies used include N-tier architecture, HTML, XML, JavaScript, Enterprise Java Beans, Java Server Pages, Servlets, JDBC, IBM's MQSeries, WebSphere Java Application Server and VisualAge for Java Enterprise, Oracle, Solaris, load balancing, centralized site management and performance monitoring, SNMP, NT, and WRQ's Reflection X-Tools.
The Bottom Line
Travel agents now have the ability to book packages for clients, access sales reports, and maintain customer contacts online. Agents and Holland America reservations staff can access a customer's booking-in-progress to complete arrangements for consumers requiring assistance or provide answers to consumers over the phone concerning packages, pricing and options.
