Flybe flying high with Swan Communications

Flybe is Europe's largest regional low-cost airline. With its head office at Exeter and major bases at Birmingham, Southampton, Belfast City, Manchester, Jersey, Guernsey, Inverness, Edinburgh and Glasgow, Flybe is the UK’s number one domestic airline and serves more UK airports than any other operator.

Flybe headquarters have grown quickly and include operations, administration and contact centre functions dispersed over a campus network.

The Challenge

Flybe were seeking to find a services partnership with a company that had the flexibility to support the existing distributed architecture, the technical knowledge to update & stabilise the installed platforms and the skills to develop & enhance the systems in pace with Flybe’s rapid development plans.

Flybe provides services 24 hours a day so the provider had to demonstrate the ability to provide an effective response to service calls quickly and with the necessary skills and resources to fix any faults.

The Swan Solution

Swan took an unusual approach to the challenge. Rather than provide percentage based support pricing Swan spent time listening to their requirements and understanding their development plans. Engineers visited the site and undertook a full technical review of the existing installation. The three core elements identified were;

1. The immediate and ongoing support requirements on the existing hardware in a 24x7 business environment
2. The upgrade of the existing software to a manufacture supported level 
3. The equipment to provide a stable platform, and the infrastructure development plans of Flybe

Swan proposed a services contract based on a monthly retainer and a schedule of engineering charges payable only when called upon. The monthly retainer guaranteed availability of Swan qualified engineering resource in accordance with agreed SLA’s, whilst the monthly retainer included a dedicated spares holding of compatible components at Swan Communications Woodbury site. The combination of retainer and charge schedule rewards the customer for less service calls whilst guaranteeing spares availability and 24 x 7 engineering resource. 

The services arrangement provides Flybe with the knowledge that the existing business critical operations are supported and the confidence to move forward with their technology development plans. 

Nathan Burden Head of IT Services commented “we were looking for a company that had the flexibility to meet our immediate needs and the technical ability to develop our Alcatel-Lucent platform as we grow. Swan was the only company that fulfilled all these requirements and more, we look forward to working closely with them.” 

Peter O’Shaughnessy Service Director here at Swan added “We are delighted to have been selected by Flybe as their Alcatel-Lucent partner. The decision reflects the success of our “customer first” flexibility and in-house technical skills that have helped us to continue growing our business in the current market.”