Getting outside support personnel to a ship is time consuming, expensive,
and very difficult.
Employing
many full-time support personnel on each ship would be too costly.
End-users
on each ship work varied shifts and many share computers 24 hours
a day.
The
installation of unlicensed software on individual workstations needed
to be controlled.
Damage
to workstations by inadvertent “tinkering”.
We
needed a quick and simple turnaround to repair damaged machines
and keep them in service 24 by 7.
Avoid
reoccurring virus problems.
Byte Solutions based the initial design on Windows NT Server 3.51
and Windows NT Workstation 3.51. We also incorporated the following
standard applications for each workstation; Microsoft Office 95
Professional, Broaderbund Print Shop Ensemble, Avery Label Pro,
McAffee Viruscan Deluxe. Smartterm Office and Anzio were installed
for terminal emulation to “talk” to UNIX machines.
The pilot project for Royal Caribbean went extremely smooth. The
reliability and functionality far surpassed that of any previous
attempts, as well as exceeding their expectations. Since that initial
project, Royal Caribbean has built three more ships, and Byte Solutions,
Inc. once again designed and implemented the new systems. We have
since upgraded all systems to NT 4.0 Server, NT 4.0 Workstations,
and also performed an automatic upgrade to Microsoft Office 97.
On a separate consulting basis, we have cross-trained their support
teams on installation procedures. Currently, fifteen of Royal Caribbean
ships utilize our design. This system design has received high marks
from their support personnel, end-users and management. We continue
to maintain and update the systems as new software products are
released and their needs change.
|