Thomas Cook adopts MicroStrategy platform

McLEAN, Virginia -- German-based Thomas Cook AG, the second-largest travel group in Europe and the third-largest in the world, is now using the MicroStrategy Business Intelligence Platform as its enterprise business intelligence standard. MicroStrategy, a global provider of business intelligence software, said that with MicroStrategy technology, hundreds of employees at Thomas Cook can better understand hotel capacities and contractual terms, optimize travel routes and track the types of the rooms that are booked.

MicroStrategy's business intelligence system provides companies with access to their data query, reporting, and advanced analytical needs, and distributes the information on the Web, wireless and voice. 

"The MicroStrategy platform has been well received by our end user community," said Hans Dresler, data warehouse manager at Thomas Cook. "During a critical phase of corporate restructuring and growth, Thomas Cook relied on the MicroStrategy platform 24/7 for uninterrupted business intelligence analyses. With the technology, decision-makers from management all the way to our executive board can analyze in real time critical success factors necessary to make better business decisions."

Email and SMS

The MicroStrategy platform anchors a number of business intelligence applications, including the management information reporting system, revenue management analysis, sales analysis, and customer call center applications. Approximately 200 employees at Thomas Cook are able to analyze 500 gigabytes of sales information contained in an IBM DB2 data warehouse, and expect to eventually link customer information to the data warehouse. In the future, MircoStrategy said decision-makers will receive corporate indices proactively in real time via a variety of methods, including email and short message service (SMS).

Thomas Cook AG is comprised of 30 tour operator brands, around 3,600 travel agencies, 73,000 company-managed beds and a fleet of 86 aircraft operated by five holiday airlines. The shareholders in Thomas Cook AG are Deutsche Lufthansa AG (50 percent) and KarstadtQuelle AG (50 percent).

Last month, MicroStrategy announced that Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC) was using its system to help 10,000 ARC customers save money and enhance efficiency and productivity by providing them with quick access to transaction data through its MicroStrategy-based extranet application. As the airline industry’s financial settlement system for the United States and Puerto Rico, ARC processes approximately 150 million ticket transactions per year for its customers, which include approximately 30,000 travel agents and more than 130 domestic and international carriers.

Airline ticket details

ARC used the MicroStrategy Business Intelligence Platform to build the ARC Document Retrieval System, which allows travel agents and carriers to access summaries and details of millions of airline ticket transactions over the Web. Prior to the availability of the ARC Document Retrieval System, agents and carriers had to rely on paper copies of ticket documents, microfiche and back-office systems to research ticket information for all of these transactions.

"The ARC Document Retrieval System is an example of how ARC is providing innovative solutions for our customers -- travel agents and carriers -- so that they can receive timely access to the information they require," said John Kyle, General Manager of ARC COMPASS, the analytical services division of ARC. "The MicroStrategy Business Intelligence Platform enables us to support thousands of users over the Web with a clean interface that requires little or no training for end users. Agents and carriers are saving substantial time and money by not having to print and rely on paper."

There are more than 30,000 ARC accredited travel agency locations and approximately 134 participating airlines and railroads in ARC’s settlement system. Using increasingly sophisticated electronic means for ticket distribution, reporting, and remittance, these points of sale are responsible for air and rail sales of nearly $70 billion a year.

Founded in 1989, MicroStrategy's customer base cuts across industry and sector lines, with over 1,700 enterprise-class customers, including Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse, AT&T Wireless Group, Wachovia and GlaxoSmithKline. MicroStrategy also has relationships with over 400 systems integrators and application development and platform partners, including IBM, PeopleSoft, Hewlett-Packard, and JD Edwards.