Microsoft Dynamics

Customer Solution Case Study

Luxury Cruise Operator Boosts Productivity by

400 Percent, Gains Substantial Savings

Overview “Because Microsoft Dynamics CRM helps us connect

Country or Region: United States
Industry: Hospitality—Travel services our people and our business in practically every way,
we can provide the kind of outstanding service and
Customer Profile
New York–based Travel Dynamics attention to detail that our customers expect.”
International (TDI) specializes in
Nikos Papagapitos, Manager of Technological Development and Special Projects, TDI
operating luxury cruises to exotic
destinations designed to provide
Travel Dynamics International (TDI) provides luxury cruises based
passengers with culturally enriching
experiences. around cultural and educational themes. For 10 years, the
company relied on a custom-built reservation and booking
Business Situation
The company needed to replace its system. However, this system lacked built-in tools for sales,
aging, custom-built reservation system
marketing, and customer service. Employees used a variety of
and consolidate its operations on a
single, easy-to-use, highly flexible nonintegrated applications to perform daily tasks, restricting
system.
TDI’s ability to automate processes to improve efficiency. After
Solution spending an average of U.S.$50,000 a year to maintain its aging
With help from Microsoft® Gold Certified
system, the company opted to implement a customer
Partner Infinity Info Systems, TDI
deployed Microsoft Dynamics® CRM and relationship management system. TDI chose Microsoft
built a new reservation management
Dynamics® CRM based on its ease of use and the flexibility
system on the solution.
offered through xRM, the application development framework
Benefits
that underpins the solution. Now, TDI has seen a four-fold
 Increased productivity by 400 percent
 Projected annual gain in sales volume increase in workforce productivity, improved its customer
by 10 percent
service, and projects year-over-year sales growth of 10 percent.
 Improved customer service
 Saved $50,000 a year through greater
IT self-sufficiency

TDI operates cruises to exotic
locations worldwide.
Situation
Given the business model of Travel
Dynamics International (TDI), it seems
fitting that two brothers from the Greek
island of Rhodes—site of one of the seven
wonders of the ancient world—came
together to form the company. Founded in
1969, the Manhattan, New York–based
company pioneered the fusion of luxury
cruise travel and theme-based education
covering a range of topics, including
ancient and medieval civilizations and the
voyages of modern explorers.
TDI has a fleet of three small to midsize
cruise ships with occupancy ranging from
34 to 114 passengers. The 40-person
company sells an average of 60 trips a
year—serving approximately 4,000
passengers annually—mainly through its
partnerships with nonprofit-sponsoring
organizations, such as the Association of
Yale Alumni and the Smithsonian Institute.
From its inception, TDI has earned a
reputation for its personalized service and
exquisite attention to detail. The company
provides elaborate catering and amenities,
such as spas, exercise facilities, and private
butler services.
To meet its sophisticated passenger
reservation and program-planning needs,
TDI engaged an independent software firm
to develop a proprietary reservation
system. Although this system, which TDI
relied on for 10 years, met basic
requirements for storing passenger and trip
information, it did not include marketing,
sales, or customer service modules. The
lack of support for these functions
hampered efficiency, limited visibility into
customer and sales data, and introduced
opportunities for error. Specifically:
 Sales staff only sporadically tracked
leads, using stand-alone spreadsheets,
which prevented real-time visibility of
prospects and analysis of conversion
rates; this practice also meant that sales
staff spent up to an hour each week
compiling and rekeying data to create
reports.
 Accounting staff needed to manually
reenter data from the reservation system
into the company’s Sage Accpac
accounting system.
 Customer service staff relied on a paper-
based system for generating and
distributing precruise mailings to
travelers, which occasionally led to delays
and missed deadlines.
 Marketing coordinators often had to sort
through dozens of records retrieved
from multiple, nonintegrated systems to
find the information they needed,
complicating the process of building
targeted campaigns.
Attempts to add functionality to the
existing system to standardize and link
business processes and simplify
information sharing across departments
proved costly. In one three-year period, the
company spent an average of U.S.$150,000
to maintain and extend its aging system,
with minimal return on investment.

“With Microsoft
Dynamics CRM, we can
ensure that no leads fall
through the cracks. And
with more efficient and
more targeted
marketing, we’re better
equipped to turn leads
into loyal, long-term
customers.”
Nikos Papagapitos, Manager of
Technological Development and
Special Projects, TDI
Company leaders knew that TDI had
outgrown its custom reservation system.
But, they were initially skeptical that
anything but a custom-built solution could
serve its specialized business model. Also,
the company hesitated to abandon a
decade’s worth of investment in its former
system. After several months of
deliberation, the company ultimately
considered the option of a packaged
customer relationship management
solution.
“We were looking for a solution that
combined core sales and marketing
automation functionality with maximum
flexibility,” says Nikos Papagapitos,
Manager of Technological Development
and Special Projects at TDI. “We needed to
be able to quickly modify the system to
handle our reservation process so that we
could connect all the parts of our
business—from sales and booking, to
managing trip itineraries, to marketing—to
drive customer loyalty and repeat
business.”
Solution
TDI evaluated customer relationship
management solutions from Microsoft,
Sage, Salesforce.com, and Oracle. The
company ultimately chose Microsoft
Dynamics® CRM based on a number of
factors, including ease of use and
integration with the desktop productivity
and communication applications that TDI
staff use each day, including Microsoft®
Office Word and Microsoft Office Outlook®.
Another key decision driver for TDI was the
extensibility offered through xRM, the
flexible application development
framework of Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
With its deep expertise in tailoring
Microsoft Dynamics CRM to fit a variety of
unique business models, Microsoft Gold
Certified Partner Infinity Info Systems
effectively demonstrated this capability to
managers at TDI. “The ability to quickly
build new line-of-business applications
through xRM was something the other
customer relationship management
solutions couldn’t match,” says
Papagapitos.
Managing Reservations
Infinity Info Systems helped TDI make
changes to the database and user interface
components of Microsoft Dynamics CRM to
optimize its reservation-booking process.
The team modified the data model to
support a passenger-centric approach to
handling reservations, a change that TDI
deemed too difficult and costly to complete
in its former system. Now, customer profile
data is automatically associated with tour
package information in a single database,
enabling TDI agents to complete and
update bookings more quickly. This change
also enables the company to track shared
data across its customer base on a number
of specified dimensions, such as a
passenger’s connection to a particular
travel agent or sponsoring organization. In
addition, TDI can now track passenger
transaction history data to more precisely
market tour packages based on individual
preferences.
“xRM simplifies access to powerful
application development resources, such as
Microsoft SQL Server® and the Microsoft
.NET Framework. So, we were able to help
TDI build its reservation management
application on Microsoft Dynamics CRM
much more quickly than if we tried to
custom build it ourselves,” says Infinity Info
Systems’s Matthew Bogan, who oversaw
the TDI engagement.
Tracking Ship Inventory and Tour
Program Details
TDI uses Microsoft Dynamics CRM to track
cabin inventory across its fleet. This
information, which is automatically updated
each time an agent completes a
reservation, is instantly available to
employees throughout the organization:
 Company managers can log on to the
system to obtain a snapshot of inventory
utilization.
 Booking agents can see current inventory
by ship and easily access details about
available suites, such as square footage
and whether or not the cabin offers a
private balcony.
 Sales associates and managers can
access up-to-the-minute sales figures to
determine what packages need to be
further promoted.
TDI also uses the solution to track itinerary
and tour program information, including
lecture schedules, details about presenters
and guides, shipboard entertainment
activities, land tours, and the various
excursions available through each themed
vacation package. Previously, the company
maintained this information in as many as
three nonintegrated applications. Now, the
company stores it in a centralized database
and any updates are automatically
propagated throughout the system.
Providing a Hub to Connect
Business Activities
For TDI, the solution serves as a hub to link
all of its core business processes:
 Sales associates use the lead-tracking
tools to record detailed information
about prospects and to organize and
prioritize follow-up activities for each
new opportunity.
 Customer service and tour program
teams rely on automated workflows to
guide the creation, review and approval,
and distribution of precruise mailings to
booked passengers.
 Marketing coordinators use the system
to drill down into customer profiles,
examining transaction and
correspondence histories and identifying
key relationships among its customer
base to create targeted campaigns.
To more tightly connect its business
activities and streamline operations, TDI
integrated Microsoft Dynamics CRM with
its Sage Accpac accounting system through
the Scribe Insight connector. Now, sales
orders are automatically converted into
reservations and recorded as invoices—all
inside Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
Accounting staff can then flow invoice data
into the Sage Accpac system to update
accounts payable records and reconcile the
general ledger.
Benefits
“Since deploying Microsoft Dynamics CRM,
our people can complete tasks up to four
times faster than before. And we’re
projecting a 10 percent year-over-year gain
in sales volume through improved sales
lead–tracking and marketing capabilities,”
says Papagapitos. In addition, TDI can now
provide more responsive and consistent
customer service because its people share
access to current, accurate information
stored in a centralized database. And, with
the ability to quickly modify and extend
Microsoft Dynamics CRM, the company has
dramatically reduced its IT maintenance
costs and is better able to adapt to
changing business needs.
Increased Productivity by Up to
400 Percent
Through streamlined reporting, the
elimination of numerous manual workflows,
and seamless integration between
Microsoft Dynamics CRM and applications
in the Microsoft Office system, TDI has
“The ability to take
advantage of xRM to
quickly build out new
applications makes us
more agile as a
company.”
Nikos Papagapitos, Manager of
Technological Development and
Special Projects, TDI
boosted productivity across its operations
by up to 400 percent.
 Agents can book reservations up to four
times faster because customer
information is automatically linked in the
system with tour package details.
 Sales associates can create a weekly sales
summary report in a matter of minutes,
which previously took up to an hour to
complete.
 Customer service personnel have cut the
amount of time needed to complete
delivery of customer mailings by 50
percent by relying on automated
workflows and the ability to quickly
merge mailing lists with documents.
 Marketing coordinators can now search a
single database to create targeted
campaigns, saving an average of 10
hours of development time for each
initiative.
 Accounting staff avoid hours of duplicate
data entry each week through the
connection between Microsoft Dynamics
CRM and the company’s Sage Accpac
system.
Projected Annual Gain in Sales
Volume of 10 Percent
TDI projects a 10 percent year-over-year
increase in the number of tour packages it
sells based on several factors. Lead-tracking
tools in the system provide a way for sales
people to track and prioritize opportunities
in a more systematic way. Moreover,
company leaders now benefit from real-
time visibility into all leads contained in the
system. They can contribute their own
contacts and advise sales associates to
follow up on an emerging opportunity
based on new information. “We’ve already
improved our conversion rate on new leads
based on the ability to track them in a
centralized database, and we expect this
trend to continue,” says Papagapitos.
In addition, the company’s marketing team
uses the system to identify shared
relationships, buying trends, and key
referral sources to build more sophisticated
and effective direct-mail campaigns. “With
Microsoft Dynamics CRM, we can ensure
that no leads fall through the cracks,” says
Papagapitos. “And with more efficient and
more targeted marketing, we’re better
equipped to turn leads into loyal, long-
term customers.”
Improved Customer Service
Because sales associates, tour program
managers, and customer service staff all
work in the same system, TDI provides
high-quality and thoroughly consistent
service at every touch point with its
customers. The company processes and
confirms reservations more quickly, delivers
its precruise information packets on
schedule, immediately provides itinerary
updates to passengers, and avoids sending
contacts duplicate marketing materials.
“Because Microsoft Dynamics CRM helps us
connect our people and our business in
practically every way, we can provide the
kind of outstanding service and attention
to detail that our customers expect,” says
Papagapitos.
Saved $50,000 a Year Through Greater
IT Self-Sufficiency
By moving to Microsoft Dynamics CRM, TDI
immediately eliminated the annual expense
of maintaining and upgrading its former
system, which totaled an average of
$50,000 a year. This cost included regular
system maintenance and a number of
ongoing IT projects that outside
consultants performed. In addition to
removing this expense from its annual
operating budget, TDI can now handle the
majority of its IT needs with internal
staffing resources. Papagapitos attributes
this in large part to his team’s familiarity
with the technologies exposed through the
For More Information
For more information about Microsoft
products and services, call the Microsoft
Sales Information Center at (800) 426-
9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft
Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-
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Outside the 50 United States and
Canada, please contact your local
Microsoft subsidiary. To access
information using the World Wide Web,
go to:
www.microsoft.com
For more information about Travel
Dynamics International products and
services, call (800) 257-5767 or visit the
Web site at:
www.traveldynamicsinternational.com
For more information about Infinity Info
Systems products and services, call (800)
354-4228 or visit the Web site at:
www.infinityinfo.com
This case study is for informational purposes only.
MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.
Document published November 2009
xRM application development framework
alongside training and support from the
Infinity Info Systems team. “The ability to
take advantage of xRM to quickly build out
new applications makes us more agile as a
company,” he says. “And because we don’t
have to outsource these projects, we can
retain complete control of our data. That’s
a huge win for us.”
Software and Services
 Microsoft Dynamics
− Microsoft Dynamics CRM
Microsoft Dynamics
Microsoft Dynamics is a line of integrated,
adaptable business management solutions
that enables you and your people to make
business decisions with greater confidence.
Microsoft Dynamics works like familiar
Microsoft software such as Microsoft Office,
which means less of a learning curve for
your people, so they can get up and
running quickly and focus on what’s most
important. And because it is from
Microsoft, it easily works with the
systems that your company already has
implemented. By automating and
streamlining financial, customer
relationship, and supply chain processes,
Microsoft Dynamics brings together
people, processes, and technologies,
increasing the productivity and
effectiveness of your business, and helping
you drive business success.
For more information about Microsoft
Dynamics, go to:
www.microsoft.com/dynamics
Partners
 Infinity Info Systems