Last month in his home town of Hamburg, Heuer received the Seatrade Outstanding Contribution to Cruising award for being at the forefront of supplying the global cruise market for over 20 years.
The entrepreneur and IT mastermind started a software development company in the mid-1980s concentrating on the banqueting sector. The company was sold to Fidelio Software Munich in 1990 where Heuer continued to develop software products for the hotel industry.
His big break in cruise came in 1995 when he was asked by Deutsche Seereederei to develop a Ship Property Management System(SPMS) for its unconvential ‘clubship’ Aida.
‘Other lines at the time claimed to be operating cashless ships but not across the entire vessel,’ noted Heuer in an interview with Seatrade in 2003.
Agreeing to deliver the SPMS he then found out the vessel was debuting in less than one year. He and four colleagues set about the task in hand and succeeded in the end to deliver what at that time was ground breaking technology.
Contracts from Disney, Star Cruises, NCL and a whole range of major lines followed with its systems found on 180 ships worldwide.
Over two decades Heuer led the charge to develop other software modules linked to specific onboard tasks covering fleet management, online reservations, materials management, dining room management, HR systems, retail, passenger and crew information, system accounts, safety and security and manifests.
For every issue that a cruise line threw up Heuer’s Fidelio team found a software solution due to his forward thinking, time and energy spent in bringing innovation to cruise IT.
‘Building software is very complex' according to Heuer – ‘comparable to building a cruise ship. A hotel stays static but ships change location which is a challenge in itself.’
Asked what is the most significant change in the 20 years he has been supplying cruise, Heuer said, ‘all admin tasks now need to be controlled from HQ, there is a constant exchange between ships and shore and the sheer size of cruise ships makes it mandatory to control from the shoreside.’
Heuer singled out Materials Management software as heralding a ‘new era in cruise ship purchasing strategy’, enabling shore-based managers to have complete transparency and control over all consumable items required in cruise ship operation.
‘Fleetwide and real-time data transfer provides complete information on a constant basis including full tracking of POS information and the resulting drawdown in consumable stock on board,’ he added.
He also mentioned, mobile add-ons for crew and passengers as ‘another major development in recent years’.
Aged 60, Heuer is not content to sit back and said he is now considering his future in a new role within cruise, while Oracle Hospitality remains committed to supporting the global cruise industry with the solutions it is know for.
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