11 February 2008

Vertical ousts Comtec in Co-op systems review

Vertical Systems has won a &#pound;5.5 million contract to supply front and back office systems to the Co-operative Travel Group.

The five-year deal was awarded by the merged Travelcare and Co-op Travel group following a detailed tender process competing against Comtec, operators of Travel CAT, which currently supplies some parts of the existing business.

Vertical Systems provides the TARSC software and is expected to provide savings of more than &#pound;2 million during the course of the contract.

'We will continue to work with Comtec on existing bookings for the remainder of their contract, which concludes in January 2010,' said CTG managing director Mike Greenacre.

He said: 'As always with such a significant merger last summer, making the right decision on such a key issue as the main operating system was a very difficult one.

'An enormous amount of very detailed work has been undertaken by The Co-operative Travel's Head of IS Mike Yates, and his team, in considering the complex tender submissions.

'Our decision has been focussed around price, ease of implementation and longer-term business objectives. Vertical Systems were able to demonstrate that they could deliver a robust solution for all channels to market at a competitive price, alongside guarantees about future strategic direction.'

Vertical Systems CEO Peter Healey added: 'Our next challenge is implementation, which needs to be completed early in the summer, and we look forward to working with The Co-operative Travel Group, not just on the roll-out of TARSC in the near future, but also in the long-term as we look to further develop state-of-the-art technology fit for today's fast changing travel business.'

by Phil Davies