Alaska Marine Highway System opts for Carus IT solution

DECEMBER 23, 2014 — The Alaska Marine Highway System (AMHS) has awarded Mariehamn, Finland, headquartered Carus a contract to provide the ferry system’s booking, ticketing, departure control and attendant administrative functions.

At a recent Carus User Group conference in Cape May, NJ, hosted by the Delaware River & Bay Authority, AMHS Project Director Matt McLaren stated “We selected Carus and the Carus Reservation solution because we felt the Carus team understood our system and could provide us with valuable input to our future plans while providing a well establish solution that is being used successfully both in U.S. and around the world. We intend to adopt the established best practices from the varied Carus client base to take full advantage of the enormous functionality within the standard Carus Reservation solution.”

Carus will establish an office in North America and recruit local personnel who understand the market and its nuances, to work alongside the Carus assigned to the contract.

Carus CEO Anders Rundberg says “Carus will be deploying our standard solution for the Alaska Marine Highway System providing software and hardware solutions for booking, check-in, self-service, CRM and business information tools. It’s a very complex operation in terms of the route network and the remoteness of some of the terminals but Carus specializes in simplifying the IT in complexITy!”
“Carus already operates in the U.S.,” added Mr. Rundberg, “but this AMHS contract is a major step forward in our U.S. expansion programme and signifies the intent of Carus to become a major player in the North American market. Our commitment to this region is demonstrated by the new North America support office that is being established.”

In another commitment to North America, Carus has also launched Carus Executive Consulting, a new initiative offering ferry companies hands-on expertise from ten international, highly experienced senior executives from every discipline within passenger vessel management, including U.S. consultant Bruce Nierenberg.