BEA has announced that Thomas Cook Belgium, a leader in Belgium's travel industry, has deployed a new Web commerce infrastructure using WebLogic Server 8.1. Known as "eCommerce Next Generation" it will further the company's efforts, first undertaken two years ago, in developing complete, scalable e-commerce solutions based on WebLogic that can grow with the company.

The Thomas Cook study illustrates WebLogic Server's scalability and flexibility in integration and growth efforts, says BEA. Thomas Cook had started to plan a company-wide e-commerce strategy years ago. "Our internal project kicked-off at the end of 2002," said Bart De Veylder, project manager at Thomas Cook.

De Veylder explained the various stages leading up to deciding on BEA WebLogic as the vehicle the company would use to achieve its goals:

"The first step was to define the functional requirements and the appropriate technical architecture. The next step was the creation of the technical architecture needed to support eCommerce Next Generation. Our IT staff, together with external consultants, evaluated and selected the technologies needed for the solution. BEA WebLogic Server 8.1 was chosen because of its power and flexibility and its extensive connectivity which allowed us to integrate our existing environments."

The Next Generation project completely replaces Thomas Cook's old e-commerce ecosystem. WebLogic is a very appealing server to many companies, says BEA, because of its open architecture and flexibility within existing systems. Thomas Cook incrementally integrated WebLogic until the server completely replaced the older system.

The new Web commerce initiative integrates independent components, including business logic, multimedia content, and data management, within a stable e-commerce setting. The core component here is BEA's WebLogic Server 8.1, which allows connectivity to back end systems and databases along with provisions designed to provide full-time access of Web sites.

"The component structure has greatly improved visibility and error management," said De Veylder. "Thanks to BEA's solutions, we have been able to make all three of the sites operate independently. If one should go down, the system is designed so that the remaining two continue to run with no downtime. BEA's server technology was superior for several reasons: stability, scalability, pricing and easy integration with our back end system."