Lufthansa Industry Solutions is committed to helping the hospitality business develop complex guest service platforms and digitised business process software. Tino Herrmann, vice-president for marketing and communications, discusses applying the airline’s experience to the cruise industry, and how its solutions can do everything from managing Wi-Fi to arranging spa bookings.
Could you tell me a little about Lufthansa Industry Solutions?
Tino Herrmann: Lufthansa Industry Solutions is an IT service company for process consulting and system integration. This wholly owned subsidiary of Lufthansa Group supports its customers with the digitisation of business processes. Its customer base includes companies within the Lufthansa Group and over 150 others in different industries. Lufthansa Industry Solutions was spun off from Lufthansa Systems on 1 April 2015, and is based in Norderstedt, Germany. It employs around 1,000 people at branch offices in Germany, Switzerland and Miami, US.
What are the main challenges cruise businesses face when designing and building an integrated network infrastructure? Why is there such demand for these types of services?
There’s no business like hospitality when it comes to the dance of maximising guest satisfaction while minimising costs. No other industry faces such demanding customers, tougher market requirements or more stringent cost pressures. It takes creativity and drive to meet these challenges and adapt to new ones as market realities and customer needs evolve.
In developing innovative solutions, Lufthansa Industry Solutions’ goal is to give guests and travellers an unforgettable ‘best in class’ experience, exceeding their expectations across the travel cycle. Lufthansa Industry Solutions excels at designing innovative platforms for the cruise and transportation market to make life easier for industry players.
Could you tell me a little about Velimo and how it was developed? Why do you think it has been so successful?
Velimo, our innovative guest service platform, enables the enterprise-wide convergence of applications and hardware. It delivers network, voice, Wi-Fi, video, audio, news, games, internet, shopping, concierge, spa, spa booking and digital signage, across a range of devices, including tablets, televisions, laptops and smart phones.
Velimo gets its supreme intelligence from innovative digital technology, which delivers a powerful, intuitive performance for guests and staff. What’s especially smart about Velimo is its ability to perform seamlessly across multiple platforms, accommodating a wide variety of guests’ needs.
What other key solutions do you offer, and how do they work?
Lufthansa provides professional services for application management, project management and software development. As a full-service provider, we can also implement and supervise data analytics solutions.
Our new offering is the data insight lab, recognising the enormous business potential to be found in big data. Here, it is not merely a matter of evaluating untold quantities of data, but also putting together the data relevant to companies, analysing it and using it as a basis for making decisions relevant to success, or even for developing entire new business models. The data insight lab also allows clients to make use of predictive maintenance solutions, reducing the risk and costs of unexpected breakdowns.
What are your key convergence solutions for the cruise industry? What has been the customer response to these technologies?
Lufthansa Industry Solutions is a global leader in network solutions, having designed and built an integrated network infrastructure that allows the hospitality industry to provide their guests with a tailored service at a reduced cost. With digital convergence, everything is possible, and all applications or services can now be distributed over a single cable. Guests can make phone calls, surf the internet, watch movies and order other services, all through one seamless data network.
Beyond these guest services there are many more applications that can converge on a single network infrastructure: Wi-Fi, lighting, security, heating and air conditioning, window treatments, door locks, room safes, elevators, CCTV and fire detection. Early adaptors of this technology have achieved great results, with streamlined processes, lower cost structures and a scalable network infrastructure. Owners can continuously innovate and enrich their guest services without limits.
To ensure the success of a project, Lufthansa Industry Solutions applies ‘best of breed’ technology to its solutions. Working closely with other key suppliers and partners, we lead by applying our extensive experience and the highest standards to our products, offering leading solutions that easily and cost-effectively deliver carrier class reliability.
