By Felicity Ussher, 11 December 1998 00:00
NEWS Swedish ferry company Stena Line has abandoned its ecommerce strategy following the realisation that it would not work internationally. The company has now left each of its European offices to develop a retail engine for itself. The company's central IT department had developed a system for booking tickets online, but failed to incorporate the business rules of its European markets, according to Simon Daniell, system development manager at Stena's UK offices. "We are going to have to redevelop the system ourselves," Daniell told Silicon.com. "The booking system was due to launch now, but only the Swedish version of the site works." StenaLine operates in Sweden, UK, Ireland, Holland, Denmark, Norway, Germany and Poland. The English version of www.stenaline.com contains a statement that reads: "Click the Hyperlink below for an online booking form. Sorry - this link is not available yet." Daniell said that the UK site faced logistical problems, such as how to process credit card details. "Both sides were to blame," he said. "Management changed its mind about what it wanted, but also the technical team developed something that was not suitable." He said they were aiming to complete the UK payment engine early next year. Despite the delay, Stena Line is still ahead of the game - its main rival, Scandinavian Seaways, has still not produced an online booking service.
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