- Cybertron Systems Ltd -

SMART

SMART is a PC-based enquiry, sales and reservations system used by National Express Limited who are the UKs leading provider of passenger coach services. The system is based on in-house software, local area networks and ATB high-speed ticket printers. Prior to SMART National Express used a manual information and reservation system supported by a mainframe Viewdata system (EXTRA II). Since SMART has been introduced the average time taken to perform a complex booking has dropped from around 10 minutes to as little as 1.5 minutes. There has also been a corresponding improvement in accuracy.

SMART provides many functions including:

Journey enquiries are provided by searching a large database of possible journeys to find the optimum route.
Fares enquiries are performed by searching the National Express fares database for the correct fare for any selected journey and passenger combination.
Automated reservation of tickets on the mainframe EXTRA II system via an X25 interface. High-speed printing of ticket travel coupons using ATB ticket printers.
Credit card sales with an interface to Natwest Bank via Electronic Funds Transfer software (PC-EFT).
Amendment and cancellation of previously reserved tickets on EXTRA II via the X25 interface.
Customer address enquires using postcode lookup software.
Ticket enquiries allow a user to view full details of the current and previous status of any ticket.
Delivery of reserved tickets to remote, SMART equipped sites for customer collection is achieved via the X25 network.
Many reports are provided including sales performance reports and financial accounting reports.

SMART is now available in several variants:

The National Telesales Centre (NETS) variant runs over a large LAN and provides telesales terminals for about 100 users at National Expresses NETS centre in Birmingham.
The National Express Agents variant runs over a small LAN and provides Point-Of-Sale (POS) facilities. Systems have now been installed at most major coach stations throughout the UK.

The Internet variant provides a back-end to the National Express web site, www.GoByCoach.com, allowing users to perform journey and fares enquires and to book tickets online.

The application has been favourably reviewed in the computing press including articles in Corporate IT Strategy and Network Week. The National Express Internet booking facility was awarded a Special Commendation in the British Telecom Award for Innovation in Electronic Commerce.

Cybertron conduct themselves in a highly professional manner and offer high levels of service and quality. I have no hesitation in recommending them to other clients.
David Jones, Head of Systems, National Express Ltd

SMART was developed in Microsoft Visual Basic and Borland C++ and uses a Btrieve database. Working with the National Express development team Cybertron were responsible for a large part of the design and implementation of the application.