CUSTOMERCOMMUNICATIONMANAGEMENT

BACKGROUND

TUI, a leader in the European travel market, provides a broad

range of offerings, including more than 10,000 holiday options

in its 49 catalogs (summer season), with hotels, tours, holiday

villages, holiday homes, and clubs at all important holiday

locations around in the world.

With the introduction of a new in-line printing system, TUI also

decided to switch over to complete color printing. This meant

that the company would now be producing its travel information

booklets for customers in color.

TUI Deutschland’s supplemental booklets contain many important

travel details. These booklets must be made available to end

customers as travel documents are handed over. After evaluating

several solutions for the creating color booklets, TUI selected the

DOC1 Suite from Pitney Bowes Group 1 Software.

REPLACING A NINE-YEAR-OLD SYSTEM

TUI Vertriebs und Service GmbH manages travel booklet printing,

which had so far been printed in black and white. “However, the

nine-year-old in-line printing system was getting along and had

to be replaced,” explained Frank Kendberg, Account Manager and

Project Manager for IT Operations at TUI InfoTec GmbH.

TUI Integrates DOC1® Suite to Create New, Colorful Travel Booklets for Enhancing Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty

“ With the new in-line printing system, we wanted to switch over to complete color printing, which would enable us to design travel documents that could generate recognizable added value for the end customer, as well as creating an additional quality feature and unique selling point for TUI. That meant redesigning the product, the customer documents, as well as the production process.”

– Frank KendbergAccount Manager and Project Manager

IT Operations, TUI InfoTec GmbH

“With the new in-line printing system, we wanted to switch over

to complete color printing, which would enable us to design

travel documents that could generate recognizable added value

for the end customer, as well as creating an additional quality

feature and unique selling point for TUI. That meant redesigning

the product, the customer documents, as well as the production

process,” said Kendberg.

SOLUTION CONCEPT WORKSHOP APPROACH

TUI InfoTec was in charge of system selection and installation

at TUI Deutschland GmbH. It was therefore looking for a high-

performance and cost-effective output management solution for

its customer.

Four output management solution providers were invited to

present their product and concept for a comprehensive solution.

These solutions were developed in separate workshops with the

suppliers and the requirements defined in a criteria catalogue.

“The solution was supposed to be able to generate the output

data flow in variable PostScript files and the input data flow in

XML, and enable the booklets to be rendered as PDF files. In

addition, the following features were important to us: a high

carrying capacity, sorting options, a graphic user interface, spool

selection, archiving for reproduction prints, colour printing,

single-sheet printing in DIN A3 paper sizes, as well as analysis

and accounting,” said Kendberg.

After comparing the supplier solutions, the DOC1 Suite from

Group 1 emerged as the winner. Comprehensive tests were not

necessary. “Only the test data deliveries and test prints were

performed in order to confirm the technical feasibility of the

solution. Because DOC1 Suite had already replaced black and

white production, there was sufficient experience on hand to

be able to assess any risks. Moreover, the DOC1 Suite met all

technical requirements with the highest performance and lowest

cost compared to the competition. This is why we decided to opt

for this solution so quickly”, explained Kendberg.

The DOC1 Suite is a software package that makes it possible to

generate personalized and needs-based documents on various

platforms that can be subsequently provided to the customer via

hard copy or electronically. The DOC1 Suite has various modules

that enable TUI – through its TUI Vertriebs und Service GmbH

subsidiary – to use the DOC1 Designer/Generate/Print.

“With the DOC1 Designer module, the travel document layouts

can be designed using drag-and-drop. The design component is

used to define the data structure, generate and manage graphics,

images, address fields, as well as to determine logic or conditions

as a set of rules for generating personalized travel documents.

Using the DOC1 Generate production platform, the corresponding

logic and conditions of the set of rules are then linked to the

transaction data to be processed. The module generates the

print data flow in PostScript format. DOC1 Print subsequently

generates the travel booklet that is issued to the customer,” said

Kendberg.

A SMOOTH INTEGRATION

“The DOC1 Suite proved itself right from the start. Integration

went smoothly without any problems. The system is operating

under Sun Solaris on Fujitsu-Siemens servers. All interfaces to

the upstream systems are based on XML. The data is expertly

prepared in a proprietary, rule-based pre-processing process

created especially for this purpose and which uses Java EJBs

and JBoss as middleware. The VPS print data generated by DOC1

is then forwarded to an Emtex or Freeflow Spooler, prepared for

print in a Creo Spire RIP and printed out on one of three Xerox

color laser printers. This IT architecture corresponds to the

current standard at TUI Deutschland for systems of comparable

magnitude, where interfaces and links to legacy systems, such

as mainframe, are more or less standard requirements and

are part of current practice at TUI InfoTec,” said Kendberg. The

system is used exclusively for producing color travel documents

for end customers. The documents are printed and shipped by

TUI Vertrieb und Service GmbH. System hosting is handled by TUI

InfoTec GmbH. TUI Deutschland is responsible for designing the

layouts.

“…the DOC1 Suite met all technical requirements with the highest performance and lowest cost compared to the competition. This is why we decided to opt for this solution so quickly,” explained Kendberg.

POPULAR WITH USERS

Right from the start, the solution was widely accepted by the

employees. As part of the project, Rasterpunkt, a Group 1 partner,

provided training in DOC1 for layout work. Training sessions

lasted about a week and were held in TUI’s own training rooms.

During training, employees had already begun practicing on

concrete booklet pages, thus promoting acceptance of the new

system early on. This was particularly important because the

users of the color system were not the same as the previous

users of the black/white system. “Our long-term experience and

excellent cooperation with Rasterpunkt provided a lot of support

during the process,” commented Kendberg.

“We are very satisfied with the solution because our requirements

were able to be fully implemented and the system is also running

very reliably. First and foremost, the solution we selected allows

us to change over to color printing at the required standard

cost effectively. The difficulty was that the layout of the print

system for realising the overall system and for the software

specified a narrow solution corridor. The high complexity of

individual technical requirements in some areas, along with

the simultaneous need for the greatest flexibility possible for

future requirements further complicated the project. Only by

systematically laying out all the components to form a highly

efficient ‘motorway’ or overall process was the end product finally

able to be implemented as an attractive, cost-effective solution for

the customer,” said Kendberg.

MORE PERSONALIZED, CUSTOMIZED DOCUMENT

CREATION

Even in terms of the commercial benefit, the solution has

proven itself again and again. “The end customer is addressed

directly and personally, and customized travel information can

be incorporated into the travel booklet. This contributes to

stronger customer loyalty over the long term. TUI Deutschland

is again able to offer the end customer tangible added value that

underlines its own quality demands and represents an advantage

over its competitors. At the same time, it enables TUI to have a

great deal more influence on the design of the end product than

before. This is because it now has its own internally developed

control option for business logic and can prepare the layouts

independently using the DOC1 Designer module,” said Kendberg

in explaining the benefits of the solution.

ON-TIME DEPLOYMENT

Last, but not least, the project was successfully implemented

on time, thanks to the excellent cooperation with the technical

consultants from Group 1 Software. “The project was completed

fully within the budget and quality framework. Everyone involved

has considered it a success and is completely satisfied with the

results. The new color booklets have been very well received by

travel agencies and customers. Currently, other corporate brands

and operators are migrating to the new system, which will mean

expanding our own brand-specific booklet layout in the future,”

said Kendberg in conclusion.

MORE ABOUT TUI

TUI InfoTec GmbH is a joint venture between the leading Indian IT

consulting and software company Sonata Software Ltd. and TUI

AG, Europe’s largest tourism company.

At its corporate headquarters in Hanover, 420 employees develop

innovative IT solutions that are available to customers in computer

centres and networks. TUI InfoTec ensures the operation of 900

servers and data networks at 2,300 locations worldwide. Through

a joint venture with Sonata, the company provides customer

support in the form of more than 1,900 additional IT specialists

from India.

The company reported revenue of 5.8 billion euros for the first half

of the 2006 fiscal year.

“ Even in terms of the commercial benefit, the solution has proven itself again and again. The end customer is addressed directly and personally, and customized travel information can be incorporated into the travel booklet. This contributes to stronger customer loyalty over the long term.”

About Pitney Bowes Group 1 SoftwarePitney Bowes Group 1 Software turns data into results, providinginnovative software solutions that enable our clients to betterunderstand and connect with their millions of customers,prospects and partners. Group 1 helps over 3,000 organizationsmaximize the value of customer data to improve profitability,increase effectiveness and strengthen customer relationships,through consolidating, cleansing and enriching corporate data, andgenerating personalized business documents for multi-channeldelivery, customer care and efficient business processing. Ourcomprehensive Customer Communication Management (CCM)solutions span from database to delivery, adding value to everyaspect of communication and allowing clients to integrateintelligence throughout their mailstream.

Group 1 Software4200 Parliament Place • Suite 600

Lanham, MD 20706-18441-888-413-6763

For more information about our products andservices, please log onto our web site: www.g1.com

For more information about Pitney Bowes,visit www.pb.com

Group 1 and DOC1 are registered trademarks of Group 1 Software, Inc.

Pitney Bowes is a registered trademark andthe Pitney Bowes Process Bar Design

is a trademark of Pitney Bowes Inc.All other trademarks are the property

of their respective companies.

©2007 Group 1 Software, Inc. • All Rights ReservedAn Equal Opportunity Employer. • Printed in U.S.A. • CS36/12/07G1