IT outsourcing and consultancy service Capgemini has taken over the prime IT contract for tour operating giant Thomas Cook, ending 12 months of speculation and upheaval.
The agreement will see Capgemini effectively take over the infamous Globe initiative to overhaul the operator's massive tour operating reservation system, a project which saw the collapse of BlueSky Travel Systems in the middle of the contract.
Capgemini is working across the Thomas Cook PLC group but is specifically looking at the UK market in the first phase to complete the Globe project.
Officials say:
"A radically updated reservation and management system will enable Thomas Cook UK & Ireland to market and distribute both custom-designed and traditional package holidays via multiple channels including websites, call centres and travel agents."
Inevitably there is no background information disclosed in the announcement today, namely that Capgemini has taken over from IBM as the prime contract holder for Thomas Cook PLC, and no mention of the fall-out from the BlueSky saga.
Speculation (denied at the time by Thomas Cook) in December 2009 centred on whether IBM would continue in its role following the BlueSky debacle.
IBM handled all the wider IT logistics for the Globe project and worked closely with BlueSky before the company controversially went into administration in September 2009.
Questions were raised as to the role of IBM amid problems with the roll-out of iTour (the system central to Globe) to Thomas Cook’s different tour operating brands around Europe.
There is no indication as to how long Capgemini has unofficially been working with Thomas Cook before today's announcement, but by uncanny coincidence it is almost 12 months to the day since BlueSky collapsed.