Atos Origin completes Phase Two of the Transport Direct Portal

For phase one which was completed in December 2003, Atos Origin delivered the portal infrastructure. In phase two, the company has implemented software upgrades to improve the functionality. Improvements include a more sophisticated search facility, for example, the option to search on a partial postcode; a direct link to National Express and Scottish City Link to purchase tickets and improved presentation of the latest travel news. Atos Origin has also managed hardware enhancements to improve the capacity of the portal now allowing the portal to service over 2 million page requests per week.

During phase two Atos Origin also managed the integration into the central journey planning system of the real-time travel news provided by Serco and the travel data from the 11Traveline regions – including timetable information for services to and from 330,000 bus stops and 2500 train stations across the UK. Comprehensive systems testing has been conducted continuously to validate the data and ensure that it is accurate and easy to access. The data in the Transport Direct portal now represents the best data set available and indeed, in the case of local public transport, the only complete national data set.

“Transport Direct is very complex project involving data from many sources,” said Nick Illsley, chief executive, Transport Direct. “Atos Origin, working closely with Transport Direct, has managed this process extremely well. Once we’ve finished trials later this year the service will be available to help the travelling public plan their journeys, compare costs and keep up to date with real time travel conditions.”

Construction of Phase one of the Transport Direct portal was completed in December 2003, less than twelve months after the contract was awarded to Atos Origin. Under a three year contract worth L15 million, Atos Origin is responsible for overall project management including the design, build and managed service operation of the portal. Atkins is providing the journey planning software; BBC Technology designed the user front-end; ESRI (UK) is delivering the mapping software and solutions; RTEL is supplying air information solutions and Microsoft is providing the .Net framework

“ Drawing on our strong understanding of the transport industry, we have worked together with Transport Direct and the consortium members to design and build a world-class travel portal that should make life easier for the UK travelling public,” said Dominic Arcari, vice president for Transport, Atos Origin.

About Atos Origin

Atos Origin is an international information technology (IT) services company. Its business is turning client vision into results through the application of consulting, systems integration and managed operations. The company’s annual revenues are more than EUR 5 billion and it employs 47,000 people in 50 countries. Atos Origin’s clients include ABN AMRO, Akzo Nobel, Alstom, BNP Paribas, BP, Ericsson, EDF, Euronext, Fiat, France Telecom, ICI, ING, KPN, Lucent, National Express, Network Rail, Philips, Renault, Royal Bank of Scotland, Saudi Aramco, Schlumberger, Shell, Telecom Italia, UBS, Unilever, UK Department for Work and Pensions, Vivendi Universal and Vodafone.

Atos Origin is quoted on the Paris Euronext Premier Marché and trades as Atos Origin, AtosEuronext, Atos Worldline, Atos KPMG Consulting and Atos Odyssée.