Carlson WorldChoice, UK’s Largest Travel/Leisure Company, Adopts IBM Network Stations to Deliver Unique Web-Based Travel Packages
Carlson Worldchoice, the UK's largest travel & leisure company (June 01, 1998) – Carlson Worldchoice, the UK's largest travel & leisure company – 01 Jun 1998: attached PCs in its local branch
offices with 2,000 IBM Network Stations connected to 400 IBM Netfinity 3500 servers to provide a unique way of allowing travelers to “visit” vacation spots on-line
in travel offices before booking their vacations.
By using a Java-enabled Intranet environment, Carlson, for the first time, will allow customers to look at travel options with the help of up-to-the-minute video and audio information, and fully preview their choices before booking and paying. In fact, by showing the customer a live video of their chosen destination, Carlson can provide more valuable
information to customers, saving time and money, because the system can instantly calculate the total price of a vacation, including hotel stay, car-rental, airport parking, discounts and insurance costs.
Each of Carlson Worldchoice’s 400 branches will have a computing environment that fully exploits the rapid application deployment, centralized
management and total cost of ownership benefits of thin-client computing. Carlson Worldchoice will use Java technology to access Web-based applications that
control an automated holiday search process and provide access to legacy software systems used by the travel industry, such as Viewdata and CRS (Worldspan), via
IBM’s Netfinity 3500 servers. The system also provides Carlson Worldchoice with server-centric management benefits that reduce the costs associated with
application deployment and network administration.
“The installation of this IBM solution enables Carlson Worldchoice to leverage a vast communication network that could not have been developed by our previous
PC-LAN system,” said Bill Donaldson, Group IT Director at Carlson Leisure Group. “The new environment allows access to e-mail, audio messages, videos, the Internet, instant company policy updates and, most importantly, a live sales process.
This special feature will enable sales representatives to search our Intranet for a suitable holiday at the touch of a button.”
The installation of IBM Netfinity servers and NCs will also offer Carlson Worldchoice significant hardware savings, both from initial unit costs and ongoing
maintenance costs, as well as providing enhanced flexibility through the centralization of application deployment. In addition, the IBM environment offers
significant gains in staff productivity by enabling the company to offer a centralized Web-based training service that can be quickly and easily rolled out from a single
point to support thousands of individual branch desktops.
“IBM has moved quickly and collaboratively to provide Carlson Worldchoice with a computing solution that fundamentally changes the way that they do business,”
said Martin Tarr, Northern Region Sales Manager, IBM Network Computer Division, Europe. “The combination of IBM Network Stations and IBM Netfinity servers
enables Carlson to implement a true e-Business strategy that enhances its entire sales process. This open environment also sees a true implementation of Java
technology that maximizes Carlson’s data resources and delivers a true competitive edge.”
Source: IBM