A safe onward journey for Travelcare
Attenda provides Managed Services for the UK's largest independent travel provider
London – February 1, 2006 – Attenda Limited, the Always On Managed Services company, today announced that Travelcare, the UK’s largest independent travel provider, has renewed and expanded its managed services contract with the company for an additional three years. Part of the Co-operative Group, Travelcare has sales in excess of £430m per annum, a network of 370 branches throughout the UK and over 2,000 staff.
Attenda has managed Travelcare’s web presence for the past five years, however the renewal was made after a competitive tender to a more complex brief. The new three year contract supports a set of newly developed customised applications which allow online customers to create a totally bespoke holiday quickly and cost effectively.
“This solution enables Travelcare to move beyond the role of retailing packaged holidays from a single operator” said Mark Hale, Head of IS & Business Transformation for the Co-operative Group’s Specialist Retail Division. “We can now compete more effectively in a market led by customer demand for choice and flexibility in the design of holiday travel.”
Travelcare’s new applications bring together the organisation’s online brands, such as cheapestflights.co.uk, justflights.co.uk and travelcare.co.uk, as individual holiday components. When responding to customer queries the applications automatically select the best value option.
“Simply being able to sell packages based on our own brands reinforces our ‘Traveller’s right to know’ policy, which is designed to provide customers with all the facts they need to make an informed holiday choice” commented Mark Hale. “From the customer’s point of view, our new solution makes it quicker and easier for them to identify the holiday they’re looking for. From our own business perspective it enables us to increase the return on each transaction.”
To support these complex applications Attenda has designed and deployed a highly available internet platform built using Microsoft's latest .NET server products. These include SQL Server, Commerce Server, Content Management Server and BizTalk Server. The solution consists of discrete production and disaster recovery solutions in geographically dispersed data centres. The high degree of security reflects the business critical nature of the transactions being processed.
By consolidating all of its online brands together on one enhanced platform Travelcare is reducing operational complexity and cutting the costs of hosting various applications with different external suppliers.
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About Attenda Limited
Attenda, the Always On Managed Services company is Europe's leading specialist in operating enterprise and Internet applications. We manage those vital applications that every business relies upon today to function effectively allowing our clients to selectively outsource their IT operations and re-focus on using IT to add strategic value to their business.
Through a commitment to operational excellence, we manage, secure and optimise the performance of their applications, irrespective of the physical location of the infrastructure.
With over 5 years' investment into Attenda M.O., Attenda's operations platform, we provide the people, process and technology to deliver exceptionally high service levels, but at a cost that is amortised across Attenda's entire client base - currently, 95 of the UK's leading companies.
The company enjoys substantial financial backing, the industry's leading accreditations and an unrivalled portfolio of clients including Avis Europe, bmi, easyCar, Compass Group, Microsoft, NHS and Sun. Attenda is ISO27001 accredited, an HP SP Signature Partner, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner (Advanced Infrastructure competency) and a SunTone accredited managed service provider. Attenda is one of only seven companies to have been ranked in the UK's Sunday Times ARM Tech Track 100 for three consecutive years.
For further details, visit www.attenda.net or contact
Attenda Corporate Communications
Simon Hansford +44 (0)1784 211100
simon.hansford@attenda.net
Attenda provides Managed Services for the UK's largest independent travel provider
London – February 1, 2006 – Attenda Limited, the Always On Managed Services company, today announced that Travelcare, the UK’s largest independent travel provider, has renewed and expanded its managed services contract with the company for an additional three years. Part of the Co-operative Group, Travelcare has sales in excess of £430m per annum, a network of 370 branches throughout the UK and over 2,000 staff.
Attenda has managed Travelcare’s web presence for the past five years, however the renewal was made after a competitive tender to a more complex brief. The new three year contract supports a set of newly developed customised applications which allow online customers to create a totally bespoke holiday quickly and cost effectively.
“This solution enables Travelcare to move beyond the role of retailing packaged holidays from a single operator” said Mark Hale, Head of IS & Business Transformation for the Co-operative Group’s Specialist Retail Division. “We can now compete more effectively in a market led by customer demand for choice and flexibility in the design of holiday travel.”
Travelcare’s new applications bring together the organisation’s online brands, such as cheapestflights.co.uk, justflights.co.uk and travelcare.co.uk, as individual holiday components. When responding to customer queries the applications automatically select the best value option.
“Simply being able to sell packages based on our own brands reinforces our ‘Traveller’s right to know’ policy, which is designed to provide customers with all the facts they need to make an informed holiday choice” commented Mark Hale. “From the customer’s point of view, our new solution makes it quicker and easier for them to identify the holiday they’re looking for. From our own business perspective it enables us to increase the return on each transaction.”
To support these complex applications Attenda has designed and deployed a highly available internet platform built using Microsoft's latest .NET server products. These include SQL Server, Commerce Server, Content Management Server and BizTalk Server. The solution consists of discrete production and disaster recovery solutions in geographically dispersed data centres. The high degree of security reflects the business critical nature of the transactions being processed.
By consolidating all of its online brands together on one enhanced platform Travelcare is reducing operational complexity and cutting the costs of hosting various applications with different external suppliers.
- end -
About Attenda Limited
Attenda, the Always On Managed Services company is Europe's leading specialist in operating enterprise and Internet applications. We manage those vital applications that every business relies upon today to function effectively allowing our clients to selectively outsource their IT operations and re-focus on using IT to add strategic value to their business.
Through a commitment to operational excellence, we manage, secure and optimise the performance of their applications, irrespective of the physical location of the infrastructure.
With over 5 years' investment into Attenda M.O., Attenda's operations platform, we provide the people, process and technology to deliver exceptionally high service levels, but at a cost that is amortised across Attenda's entire client base - currently, 95 of the UK's leading companies.
The company enjoys substantial financial backing, the industry's leading accreditations and an unrivalled portfolio of clients including Avis Europe, bmi, easyCar, Compass Group, Microsoft, NHS and Sun. Attenda is ISO27001 accredited, an HP SP Signature Partner, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner (Advanced Infrastructure competency) and a SunTone accredited managed service provider. Attenda is one of only seven companies to have been ranked in the UK's Sunday Times ARM Tech Track 100 for three consecutive years.
For further details, visit www.attenda.net or contact
Attenda Corporate Communications
Simon Hansford +44 (0)1784 211100
simon.hansford@attenda.net
