Global CIO: 5 Ways Royal Caribbean's CIO Taps Emerging TechGlobal CIO: 5 Ways Royal Caribbean's CIO Taps Emerging Tech

More than 40 touchscreens also offer interactive mapping, something like a Google Maps for the ship, to help people find their way around. And they're using interactive TV (using Mac Minis on some ships) for steps such as access to those photos, to schedule activities, and for the company to send customized offers. Hotels have had lukewarm use of interactive TV, Martin says, but on the ship people often have seven days or more to get used to it, so the uptake has been good.

4. Wireless Everywhere

What's new about Wi-Fi? Nothing--except how effectively you use it. Many companies have Wi-Fi in their businesses but haven't done anything more than allow Web access for staff or visitors. Guests on Oasis of the Seas, for example, can outfit their children with a wristband that sends a signal to one of 900 wireless access points on the ship, which connects to an iPhone app that shows parents where their kids are, by displaying a blip on a diagram of the ship. The specially equipped iPhones are for rent during cruises.

Wi-Fi's making staff more mobile. Guests need a waiver to ride the surfing simulator, skate on the ice rink, climb the rock walls, or use the zipline that runs several stories above the deck. Those waivers all used to be on paper. Now sports staff give people a wireless tablet, they swipe their guest key, and can sign waivers for any of the activities they plan. Some point of sale terminals are wireless. And the maintenance staff are dispatched using Wi-Fi connected handhelds, so they log fewer miles going back-and-forth to a central dispatch point, and get to problems sooner on the massive ship.

5. Real-Time Analysis

Using data to drive new products and growth is the single biggest opportunity in front of IT leaders. In our survey for our Return To Growth article, IT leaders cite this more often than any other priority, as the key opportunity for CIOs. For Martin and his team, this is far from the same old, reactive report generation cycle; it's a real-time opportunity to drive revenue while a cruise is underway.

"We're learning every week new ways to take advantage of it," Martin says.

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Royal Caribbean has more real-time data than ever before because every point of sale terminal and booking system is networked, so analysts can know what’s selling well, what services are being under-used, plus the demographics of who’s on board. Analysts onshore have started crunching that data while the cruise is sailing. Combine that with the interactive media on the ships, and Royal Caribbean has a chance to put customized offers in front of people, say for a particular type of spa treatment that has more openings than usual, to a person most likely to want such a treatment, delivered direct to their interactive TV.

Martin considers the real-time analytics effort a work in progress. Is it worth looking at the demographics to discern if this is more a cabernet or Corona crowd, and promote accordingly? Martin has a small team of about six people whose sole job is to look for new information-driven growth opportunities.

Our recent cover story touts the idea that more IT teams are getting into a "Return to Growth" mode, as the economy offers more potential for increasing sales and profits. Anyone who saw the recent tepid employment numbers, or watched the roller coaster stock market, knows this isn't a simple v-shaped recovery that anyone can hitch onto. IT teams like Royal Caribbean, who are finding ways to make technology relevant to the ultimate customers and to the bottom line, are on the right track.

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