Thomas Cook Airlines today became the first user of CrewCall 4, the latest version of Cobalt's acclaimed CrewCall product. This marks the end of an era, as logs within the old hardware based solution, which was shut down after a short period of parallel running, had shown the CrewCall Version 1 software to have successfully answered over 3 million phone calls since installation.

"We are delighted by some of the clever new functionality" said Mark Hodgkinson. "I was involved in the original procurement of CrewCall back in 1999 for Flying Colours, a predecessor of today's airline. Looking back, I don't think we realised how critical a tool it would prove to be."

CrewCall 4 is provided as fully hosted service. Calls made to the service are initially handled using Intelligent Network functionality within the Energis network. Those callers that then require detailed flight information are then routed onwards to Cobalt's Fareham datacentre. As well as bringing many new features, the hosted architecture also creates a direct cost reduction. Because calls are now answered by Cobalt, Thomas Cook no longer needs to rent 36 analogue telephone lines from Manchester Airport Telecoms. This gives a return on investment (ROI) of over 35%.

The major change for the employees who call the system each day is the need to identify themselves at the time of calling by entering their payroll number. This change allows the automated system to "call-snatch", when necessary. This feature pulls individual calls out of the automated environment. The caller can then be connected directly to a member of the crewing team. The primary benefit of this change is significant. It reduces the need to disturb crew members whilst off duty particularly at times when they might be sleeping in preparation for a flight.

As it supports a round-the-clock operation, the cutover to the new system had to be to slick. However, as CrewCall 4 is provided as a service, it proved relatively easy to establish the new service to run in tandem with the old system. This cautious "parallel-running" approach meant that there was no risk of disruption to the core operational business of the airline

Jane Cave, Crewing Manager for Thomas Cook Airlines who oversaw the introduction of the new version is delighted with the result. "The latest version of CrewCall is very powerful. It is clear that the product designers really know our business. We thought we might have to ask for some bespoke features, but we have found that everything that we need is already built in."