Britannia Airways wireless wins Sybase award

LONDON — The wireless system sold by LogicaCMG to Britannia Airways, enabling cabin crew and pilots to access flight and company information via a personal digital assistant (PDA), has been awarded the Sybase 2003 Innovator Award for Mobile Solutions. LogicaCMG currently has over 2,300 users for its wireless system that reduces the need for paper-based processes allowing flight, roster, passenger, health and safety information to be captured quickly, reducing the time taken for crew to check in.

LogicaCMG integrated an iAnywhere system with Britannia Airways' existing enterprise information system over a wireless network located in all UK crew rooms, enabling the PDA to be used to access information. Britannia Airways reported the company will save £500,000 per annum by automating 50 workflow processes, eliminating the need for printed manuals and a dedicated electronic point of sales system.

The solution also supports the in-flight sales system, Skytrader, enabling the PDA to act as a tax free point of sales application. Moreover, Britannia's 450 pilots are now able to access technical calculations, flight reports, aviation journals and other records via their laptops.

No bottlenecks

During the pre-flight briefing, the system allows data to be transferred to all crew simultaneously enabling them to perform concurrent activity. Previously, crew members experienced bottlenecks at PCs and printers. All crew can now connect wirelessly allowing flight data to be captured within three minutes meaning the fifteen minute pre-flight window is not threatened and flights are not delayed.

"LogicaCMG's broad service portfolio allows Britannia to centralise all of its development with highly qualified staff," said Iain Andrew, Britannia Airways' Director of IT and Change. "I see LogicaCMG as a long-term partner for Britannia".

This is the third year Sybase has run the awards for iAnywhere Solutions Alliance Program members, LogicaCMG won the award for its innovative use of iAnywhere Solutions. T "This award highlights our commitment to providing wireless solutions that enable businesses to rework traditional processes so that they operate more effectively," said Tony Prendergast, service delivery manager, LogicaCMG. "It illustrates our ability to leverage strong partnerships to provide our customers with the best solution to meet their business needs."

LogicaCMG also received the award for successful implementation of its mobile ticketing solution provided to NoordNed, the second largest provider of transportation services in the Netherlands. The mobile ticketing solution which utilised iAnywhere products enables travellers to book tickets via mobile telephone and receive an SMS ticket that inspectors validate against information stored on PDAs.

Managing ticket sales

LogicaCMG reports that NoordNed has benefited through reduced queue lengths at ticket offices and lower fraud incurred by people travel without tickets. NoordNed has also achieved additional savings on the cost of managing ticket sales by no longer using an external service to sell tickets.

LogicaCMG is a global company providing management and IT consultancy, systems integration and outsourcing services. With additional expertise in wireless technology, the company supports clients across diverse markets including telecoms, financial services, energy and utilities, industry, distribution and transport and the public sector.

Formed in December 2002 through the merger of Logica and CMG the company employs around 21,000 staff in offices across 34 countries and has nearly 40 years of experience in the IT service arena. Headquartered in Europe, LogicaCMG is listed on both the London and Amsterdam stock exchanges.

Britannia Airways is part of TUI AG, one of the largest holiday companies in the world. In addition to TUI, the best known brands in TUI AG include the brands of the former Thomson Travel Group in the UK, now called TUI UK (Thomson, Crystal, Lunn Poly), the former Scandinavian Fritidsresor group, now called TUI Nordic (Fritidsresor, Star Tour, TEMA), and the airlines Hapag-Lloyd Flug and Britannia.

iAnywhere Solutions, Inc. empowers the unwired enterprise with always available access to enterprise information. More than 12,000 customers worldwide, including 78 of the Fortune 100, rely on the iAnywhere Solutions industry leading database for mobile, embedded and small to medium sized business environments as well as the company's mobile middleware and m-Business solutions. In addition, eight million registered users leverage AvantGo, the company's mobile Internet service.