Thomas Cook Financial Services


“The pilot project involving PowerPlay was a learning achievement which highlighted the fact that all other business areas were crying out for the tool. Based on the knowledge gained, the business now has the power to see a whole new range of data.”
Jon Sandall, IT project manager, Thomas Cook Financial Services.

Challenges Faced
  • Respond to changing market conditions.
  • Monitor the performance of existing and new products.
  • Take pressure off IT resources.

Thomas Cook Financial Services operates in a particularly challenging market. Most notably, sales of travellers' cheques are steadily declining as the world moves to plastic payment, while the single European currency will undoubtedly impact the foreign exchange business. However, Thomas Cook has long recognised these issues and is already developing new products, services and distribution channels to prepare itself for the 21st century.

Against such a background, it is essential to monitor the performance of both new and existing products. However, until recently, Thomas Cook Financial Services found that compiling effective management information was challenging because of the lack of appropriate technology. The situation became more challenging given that the IT resources became increasingly committed to the Y2000 issue and the European Monetary Union (EMU).

Success Strategy
  • Provide end-users with powerful Business Intelligence (BI) tools.
  • Implement Cognos PowerPlay and Impromptu for reporting and analysis.
  • Set up a successful pilot project with assistance from Cognos.

Thomas Cook Financial Services identified a need for BI tools that could be used by managers without recourse to the IT department. Says IT project manager Jon Sandall: "We were looking for a supplier with an established track record in BI, a good customer base, and a high standard of support."

The company chose to implement PowerPlay and Impromptu from Cognos. A key factor in the decision was the pre-existing integration of Cognos’ BI tools with the CODA-Financials accounting system used by Thomas Cook.

In early 1997, a three-month pilot project was carried out involving the use of PowerPlay to monitor sales of travellers’ cheques. Cognos was closely involved with the initial implementation, and also provided training for users and administrators.

The pilot project was a successful learning experience, and further PowerPlay datacubes, a subset of meaningful data, were developed to provide information about a range of business areas, including product sales, dealing operations and customer profitability. For additional information, Impromptu is used to query operational databases including foreign exchange and incentive payments. Apart from the NT-based customer-profitability datacube, PowerPlay runs entirely on PCs. In total, there are about 200 users.

Business Benefits
  • Make more informed decisions.
  • Manage the customer base more effectively.
  • Identify new opportunities to sell products.

Managers within Thomas Cook Financial Services are now able to obtain the information they need and to choose the level of detail that suits them. Queries can be answered immediately rather than days or weeks later.

"Take the customer-profitability datacube, for instance. It tells our relationship managers the profitability of every product as sold by each of the financial institutions and business partners who make up our customer base. This information is vital for informed decision-making and proper customer management, and it is only through using Cognos tools that we have been able to put it at our managers’ fingertips," explains Sandall.

The Cognos tools will also help to boost sales. By quickly identifying customers who are successful at selling one particular product, the company is able to pinpoint the best opportunities to sell additional products.

Next Step
  • Provide access to data over the Intranet.
  • Use Cognos tools to monitor the success of Thomas Cook Global Services.

To enhance its managers’ ability to analyse data, Thomas Cook Financial Services aims to consolidate all the finance-related databases into a single data warehouse. Managers all over the world will also be able to use the company intranet to access data for analysis. By the end of 1998, the intranet will replace the present system whereby cubes of data are mailed electronically to remote Cognos users.

Use of Cognos tools will soon be extended to Thomas Cook Global Services, the new Thomas Cook division that aims to support travellers with information and services covering all their needs.