Woodward I.T. TABS

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TABS is an excellent example of how Woodward IT can assimilate with specialist occupations to produce a result fit for any work arena. If you have a need for software that is tailored to your occupation type, don't hesitate to contact Woodward IT for further information.

Touch Screen Walk-Up Travel

One of the requirements of TABS was to ensure that operations staff in the ticket offices or at the counters in the Airport terminal could rapidly enter information for travellers using the Airtrain Connect service. This requirement was needed for walk-up sales and also any pre-booked travel.

A touch-screen solution was developed to allow staff to rapidly enter information and get travellers on the train. As the first point of contact for walk-ups, staff needed to be able to get passenger and accommodation details so they did not need to be re-entered at another stage.

The touch-screen was designed so that the user does not have to interact with the keyboard or mouse to enter information. Data from the touchscreen is entered directly into the TABS database using HTTPS.

As well as walk-up sales, any pre-booked travel can be confirmed within seconds. Any sale of an Airtrain Connect product creates an alert for users at the Gold Coast office that a traveller is on their way and that they need to organise a car to pick them up.

Gold Coast Accommodation

Integrated into the touch-screen solution and all other parts of TABS is a list of all the Gold Coast Accommodation where travellers need to get to.

This comprehensive list speeds up the data entry process of selecting the traveller's destination.

Airtrain Connect Operations

Another large part of Airtrain's business is the Airtrain Connect service. This service is used to provide a luxury car for travellers from a Gold Coast train station directly to their accommodation. Previously, Gold Coast staff, would receive a fax for travel, re-enter the details of the traveller and assign a car. With TABS, staff need only select a driver to assign a job.

Within 5 minutes of a traveller being confirmed on a touch-screen at the Brisbane Airport, Gold Coast staff are alerted to the fact they need to organise a car to pick them up as well as all the details of the travel including luggage requirements and othr special needs.

TABS is also capable of managing a limousine driver roster to make the selection of available drivers easier.

Limousine Scheduling

One of the features of TABS is that Gold Coast Airtrain staff can schedule limousine jobs without having to re-enter data or worry about whether drivers are available. Staff can also easily double-up jobs by dragging and dropping travellers into a car schedule.

The pickup times and accommodation details are also automatically calculated by TABS as well as the limousine charges incurred for the service. Users can issue instructions to drivers about collecting vouchers or issuing tickets.

One of the features that makes TABS an incredible time-saving tool is the ability for staff to send an SMS to a lmousine driver, or an SMS to the passenger with details of their travel, with the single click of a mouse.

Train Timetables

The configuration of the Airtrain Plasma Displays has been moved into TABS. Operations staff can adjust train times which are replicated across all displays within 30 seconds. The Plasma Displays are now also integrated with the TABS database and use HTTPS mechanisms to retrieve their data.

TABS also allows user to queue up messages to appear in the plasma display rotation as well as control screen colours, times and scroll speeds.

Fares

One of the tools that has made life simple for the reservations department is how fares for their products are managed in TABS. There are a variety of fare structures in place which needed to be simplified so they could be easily managed and then "forgotten".

TABS allows the administration of:

Base fares for adults, seniors, children and families for all services including suburban travel
Sliding scale fares for certain travel agents
Custom fares for product specials
Travel agent commissions, incentives and "special commissions"
Operator charges for buses and limousines
Ticket book prices

Each fare type can optionally be limited by a date range, which TABS automatically removes once it has expired.

Data Warehouse

TABS has been a success because of the ease of use as well as how it has minimised the amount of data entry performed by Brisbane's Airtrain. The biggest advantage of having a centralised database used by the organisation is that every user now has that wealth of information at their fingertips.

The Data Warehouse Tool provides any user with information from any part of the business, cross-linked with any other. Management are now able to get a snapshot of their business including "live" figures on an individual, daily, monthly or user-specified basis.

The Data Warehouse functions write their results directly into an MS Excel spreadsheet and even the most complex operations take only seconds. The information that is now being accessed by the Data Warehouse is shedding new light on how successful promotions have been or where their business has been performing or not.

Within a few months of recording how the business operates, the Data Warehouse Tool will be used to guide marketing and strategic decisions for Brisbane's Airtrain.

Configuration

Because of the diversity in Brisbane's Airtrain, both in location and job descriptions, there was a need to alert users when other users performed an operation in TABS. This ensures that nothing goes unnoticed and all data is kept current.

TABS contains an alert system which raises a balloon alert in the task bar when a user needs to take action. Each user subscribes to their alerts of interest to get the job done. The alert types include:

MYOB invoices that need to be imported that were generated from a computer without MYOB installed
When a web site reservation is received
When a ticket book sale has been entered and needs to be entered into a Queensland Rail OC machine
When a Con-X-ion bus confirmation has not been addressed within 24 hours
When a passenger arrives with a travel agent voucher that has not made a previous booking
When a new Airtrain Connect service has been confirmed at the Airport
When a contact has not purchased ticket books in a certain time frame
When a travel agent has not made a booking in a certain time frame
When a train has been delayed by a certain amount of time, or the service has been cancelled

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