BA CitiExpress saves money with Novell

Regional airline British Airways CitiExpress is standardising on Novell to reduce administration costs and improve network access for mobile staff.

Due to go live this summer, BA hopes the project will lead to its deployment elsewher in the company, including flight operations, which is currently evaluating the technology for its 5,500 pilots.

Gavin Megnauth, head of IT for BA CitiExpress, told vnunet.com that the decision had been prompted by the need to cut capital expenditure in the wake of the 11 September terrorist attacks. But he claimed that savings had already been achieved.

"We have been enlightened as to the quality and total cost of ownership, and it is now a key part of our infrastructure," he said. "We believe we've already seen cost-avoidance of a six-figure sum within a year."

CitiExpress was formed in August 2001 from the merger of BA's own regional subsidiary with Bryman Airways, and the acquisition of the Manx and British Regional companies. It operates 120 routes and is Europe's largest regional airline.

Disparate technology, which included a mixture of Microsoft Windows NT4, Lotus Notes and IBM's Office Vision, meant that the company was forced to look at consolidating a simpler platform.

Novell was being used at Manx Airlines for file and print and email, so the company decided to go with Novell's eDirectory, Netware 6 and GroupWise.

"We are looking to use eDirectory as a backbone technology for moving people data throughout a great many of our systems," said Megnauth.

GroupWise is especially important for CitiExpress because most of its 3,500 staff in the UK and Ireland are pilots or cabin crew who are constantly on the move.

"GroupWise is being used as a tool for email for our mobile workforce. It won in terms of price, ease of deployment and flexibility as a tool," he said.

The addition of Novell's Native File Access Pack will allow users to access applications on the NetWare server wherever they are in the world.

Staff will be able to access their corporate email from a variety of devices, including Hewlett Packard iPaq PDAs, laptops and PCs.

CitiExpress and Novell would not comment on the cost of the deal.