Thomas Cook is embarking on a £67m, multi-year IT
project to develop a single, multi-channel reservation platform
covering its 34 tour operator brands and travel agency network
across Europe.
The travel company has signed up IBM as its systems integrator.
The supplier will use its Websphere middleware product to improve
integration of the firm’s diverse IT environment. Thomas Cook’s
infrastructure, described as “anti-homogeneous” by chief
information officer Reinhard Eschbach, includes legacy mainframe
systems at many locations across Europe.
The core reservation platform is being supplied by BlueSky
Travel Systems in a £20m deal. Its browser-based iTour system,
which uses Java and Oracle technology, was trialled extensively by
Thomas Cook earlier this year.
Over the next three years, Thomas Cook wants iTour to replace,
or substantially integrate, the 11 distinct reservations systems it
is using currently. These are the legacy of the company’s recent
acquisitive growth, as well as decades of piecemeal,
country-specific development across Europe.
Eschbach said the main driver for the IT project, codenamed
Globe, was to improve efficiency and cut costs by developing a
sustainable, future-proof reservations infrastructure able to cope
with changes in customer booking habits.
“We are using far too many reservation systems, some of which
were self-developed and some of which we have inherited through
acquisition,” he said. “The Globe project will enable us to better
support our business processes and dramatically cut down on
internal application development in the long term.”
Eschbach said iTour’s flexible, multi-layered architecture would
allow new functionality to be integrated more easily, because at
its core it was not based on any particular type of travel
transaction.
“Our current systems are nearly all based on specific parts of
the business. But a good hotel procurement system is not easily
adapted to other purposes,” he said.
BlueSky managing director Steve Driscoll said, “All the
reservation systems being replaced are connected to similar but
different front- and back-offices, and the integration layer has to
map onto all these systems. There will be a fair amount of
application development to undertake, but one of Thomas Cook’s
original criteria was that between 70% and 80% of existing systems
could be retained.”
The roll-out will be managed on a brand-by-brand basis, and
Thomas Cook has specified the software releases it expects from
BlueSky, but Eschbach said the company did not plan make the
timetable public.
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