[London, ENGLAND] E-business consultancy Cambridge Technology
Partners announced Tuesday the delivery of a multi-lingual WAP
service to Touring Club Suisse, enabling drivers in Europe to
get real time traffic information.
Touring Club Suisse, the Swiss automobile association, will
provide the service to its 1.4 million members. As a result,
users will be able to avoid typical traffic problems such as
congestion, road works, accidents or extreme weather conditions.
Philippe Oertlé, head of communications at Touring Club
Suisse, said his organization was keen to provide members with
WAP-enabled traffic information because this medium is currently
the most convenient way to keep drivers up to date while traveling.
“We turned to Cambridge for the solution as the company has
successfully completed a number of projects for us and demonstrated
a lot of wireless knowledge and experience,” said Oertlé.
The new service is the first of its kind to be provided by an
automobile association in Europe. Touring Club Suisse appears
to be at the forefront of the information revolution, despite
its antiquity. It was founded in 1896.
Jean-Louis Morel, an engagement partner at Cambridge Technology
Partners, commented that the project has been both exciting and
fast-paced.
“The multi-lingual requirement added an extra challenge, as did
the need to support a wide range of WAP devices. The project was
about 90 percent systems integration work and 10 percent WAP
specific, which we find is the usual split for most WAP
implementations,” said Morel.
Designed specifically for phone access, the user interface
is said to be simple to navigate, with all the information
grouped geographically as well as by category — such as road
condition, road works, passes, tunnels, etc.
With 3,800 employees in 19 countries, Cambridge Technology
Partners is one of the major operators in the market for
global e-business solutions. Its 2000 revenues were
US $586.6 million.
To use the new service developed for Touring Club Suisse,
connect to www.waptcs.ch with a standard WAP phone.
