Woodward I.T. TABS

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TABS is a software solution developed for Brisbane's Airtrain that automates every aspect of their business. The first phase involved the creation of reservation and limousine scheduling tools to stop the need for double-entry in multiple separate databases. The latest release manages all of their ticket information as well as provides their daily financial tracking.

Before TABS, the reservations department, ticket operations at the Airport, limousine scheduling at the Gold Coast and final analysis in the Airtrain offices used their own data storage facilities and all manually entered the data. In some cases, the same data was being entered up to four times. TABS streamlines this process by ensuring that data is only entered at the first contact and additional information amended as the data flows through the business.

TABS is more than simply a reservations tool. A touch-screen solution was developed to enable staff to rapidly enter travel at the ticket office and Airport counters. The software also features a comprehensive Data Warehouse tool that allows management to extract any information they require in any format. The latest release allows management to track the progress of the business in real-time and work out projections of what their monthly revenue will be.

TABS was developed using the Microsoft .Net 2.0 Framework and interacts with a PostgreSQL database on a linux server using a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) to encrypt communications. The web server hosting the database contains server-side code written in PHP.

There was a need to utilise a remote web database because the application needs to be run on two separate networks as well as at remote locations such as the Gold Coast office, and from home on Airtrain laptops. The TABS database is also primarily used to populate the Airtrain web site www.airtrain.com.au

For more information on TABS including the touch-screen solution and monthly financials continue to TABS Page 2

Contacts Management

One of the major aspects of TABS is that it is now the official location to host contact information. Various CRM functions have been included to allow staff to track various entities associated with Airtrain including general contacts, travel agents, Gold Coast accommodation houses, limousine companies and limousine drivers.

Each contact can be placed in a market category and segment for more detailed reporting using the Data Warehouse tool.

As well as entering contact details, users can also:

Record corporate and private journal entries against a contact
Drag and drop files from Windows Explorer to create a series of bookmarks to files.
Create a catalogue of searchable keywords
List alternative contact aliases which are needed for Gold Coast Accommodation houses which change name frequently or are known by many names.

Reservations

Reservations are taken by product type without the need for the operator to know the current fare structures in place. Any form of reservation can be taken and amended by any other person in the business allowing anybody to query and/or update information on a booking.

The reservation process automatically calculates travel agent commissions (if applicable) and automatically generates travel confirmation emails. Credit card payments can also be entered through the Reservations components and are validated within a second using ANZ merchant facilities. Invoices can also be generated for individual travel which also adds entries directly into MYOB Premier.

Bookings that are taken by the Reservations department appear on the various touch-screens through out the ticket offices and counters on the date of travel. The names of travellers also appear on digital LCD displays at the counters in the airport terminal.

Online Manifest

Paper copies of daily travel manifests are no longer printed for operations staff to perform "meet and greets" with the public. Instead each user sees a "live" version of the manifest on their computer from which they can directly view each booking.

The online manifest is used to:

Determine if a voucher needs to be collected from the traveller
Highlight where there are special comments attached to a booking
Print meet and greet sheets for travellers arriving on smaller airlines or at the International Airport
Display the travel that has already been confirmed

Integrated Searches

Unlike any other industry, the travel industry varies in the amount of information provided by travel agents and travellers. Sometimes it can be exceedingly difficult to find a booking based on the information provided from the public. TABS contains a variety of search methods to find bookings:

Reservation number
Passenger Name
The travel agent that made the booking
The travel agent voucher number
The date of travel
The date the booking was made
The name of a conference the traveller is attending
The Data Warehouse Tool using a combination of any of the fields entered while taking a booking

Ticket Books

As well as taking individual reservations for travel, Brisbane's Airtrain also sells books of CBD tickets to private business and accommodation houses in Brisbane and on the Gold Coast. TABS manages the process of accepting credit card payments and generating invoices if needed.

TABS is integrated with MYOB to automatically upload invoices created by TABS even if MYOB is not installed on the computer that took the booking or ticket book sale.

After a ticket book sale, staff in the ticket offices receive an alert to enter ticket sale information into the Queensland Rail OC ticket machines.

End of Month Invoicing

TABS has simplified the end of month invoicing process. The reservations department is presented with a monthly view of all bookings with travel agents that are yet to be reconciled and can match up any vouchers that have been collected through the month.

TABS then prints of a series of invoices and sends the details of all invoices to MYOB.

External Interfaces

As the TABS database is available to external parties, a number of external interfaces have been developed to allow partners of Airtrain to directly enter information into the TABS database. This negates the need for Airtrain staff to manually enter the same information.

Interfaces that have been built include:

Con-X-ion coaches to confirm bookings taken by Airtrain for travel outside train operating hours
Southern Queensland Tourism touch-screen for limousine bookings at the international terminal
Integration of the Airtrain web booking tool directly into the TABS database.
Surfside Busses for sales of SmartPasses by Airtrain
Toowoomba Transit Coaches for sales of the ToowoombaPass by Airtrain

Continue to TABS Page 2 ->