CASE STUDY: FLIGHT CENTRE

Flight Centre Limited is Australasia’s best known travel agency group. In 2008, in line with the company’s increasing focus on corporate sustainability and with the rising cost pressure of Brisbane’s office space, Flight Centre Limited decided to outsource to an external data centre provider to allow its IT team to focus on supporting the business’ 900-plus stores and eight head offices nationally.

According to Peter Wataman, Flight Centre’s Chief Information Officer, cost efficiency and floor space were key drivers for the decision to move to Interactive for its data centre solution.

“We’re a lean company and aim to dedicate our resources to our core business wherever possible, outsourcing to selected partners for the other areas,” he said.

“We previously hosted the majority of our data centres ourselves, which was a major undertaking for the business, both in terms of cost and staffing. Given

Flight Centre takes off with Interactive’s managed services solution

our IT engineers were not being trained in this area, we were spending valuable time and resources negotiating with data centre vendors, refrigeration and cooling providers.

“Also, in Brisbane’s CBD, floor space is very expensive and, when you combine this with the investment in infrastructure and high power costs associated with data centres, we could no longer justify operating an in-house data centre,” he said.

The challenge for Flight Centre Limited was to find an external provider to manage its data centre solution that would enable it to move its ageing data centre with minimal impact to the organisation and its customers.

After an exhaustive review of the market, Flight Centre Limited selected Interactive’s fully managed data centre solution to support their business critical applications in South-East Queensland and Sydney.

“Their engineering team was faultless and,

with them on hand, we were able to free up

valuable resources and time for other jobs.

Without Interactive, we would have needed

to hire staff for the physical moving and

facilities side of the project.”

Peter Wataman, Chief Information Officer,

Flight Centre.

ChallengeFlight Centre Limited were looking for an external data centre provider to allow its IT team to focus on supporting the business’ 900-plus stores and eight head offices nationally. SolutionInteractive migrated the ageing data centre of Flight Centre Limited to a fully managed data centre solution to support the business critical applications in South-East Queensland and Sydney. ValueFlight Centre Limited received a tailored solution to maximise their IT systems availability and meet their wider business objectives, at a significantly reduced cost to an in-house data centre option.

IndustryTourism and travel

www.interactive.com.au

“Interactive already had an excellent

working relationship with Flight Centre

Limited, providing hardware maintenance

for its Intel, IBM and DELL systems in

Australia and New Zealand since 2006.”

Peter Wataman, Chief Information Officer,

Flight Centre.

Interactive already had an excellent working relationship with Flight Centre Limited, providing hardware maintenance for its Intel, IBM and DELL systems in Australia and New Zealand since 2006.

“It was a huge task – we were shutting down some of our ageing hardware for the first time in some years. We didn’t know the kinds of problems we’d be facing, but had to be prepared for whatever came our way,” he said.

“Interactive worked well with our people to ensure the project was implemented without any problems and to extremely tight deadlines. They provided us with a more comprehensive audit of all our equipment, their age and maintenance requirements. They thought of things we wouldn’t have and outlined every possible problem that could occur during the move.”

“Their engineering team was faultless and, with them on hand, we were able to free up valuable resources and time for other jobs. Without Interactive, we would have needed to hire staff for the physical moving and facilities side of the project,” he said.

The relationship between Interactive and Flight Centre Limited is strengthened by their mutual “green” business values. Interactive was the first data centre

provider to be internationally recognised for moving its operations to 100 per cent renewable power in November 2008, with its entire business now operating Carbon Neutral.

“We’re increasingly moving to be a ‘green’ corporate citizen and it is rewarding to work with a company like Interactive who shares and understands our business objectives. They support us in our business goals,” said Wataman.

Simon Durkin, Interactive’s Director of Sales, says its customers continually look to Interactive to provide flexible solutions as their business needs change.

“We work closely with our customers to identify real risks, ranging from everyday issues through to worst case scenarios, and ensure they have the most effective risk management to meet their current and future needs,” Durkin said.

“As Flight Centre’s case demonstrates, a business’s priorities can shift significantly and we pride ourselves in providing tailored solutions to maximise their IT systems availability while also meeting their wider business objectives, whether it be cost-driven factors or sustainability objectives,” he added.

The relationship between

Interactive and Flight Centre

Limited is strengthened

by their mutual ‘green’

business values. Interactive

was the first data centre

provider to be internationally

recognised for moving

its operations to 100 per

cent renewable power

in November 2008, with

its entire business now

operating Carbon Neutral.

Interactive Pty Ltdwww.interactive.com.au

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