While the council's aim is primarily to create easy inter-departmental communications, the benefits for the Tourism Team are enormous.

WDDC had already created a tourism website at westdorset.com, which, as more and more families become familiar with accessing information through the Internet, generates an increasing number of holiday guide requests.

In this latest development, the network has linked WDDC's five Tourist Information Centres - at Dorchester, Bridport, Sherborne, Lyme Regis and West Bay - and its Visitor Services Section to a single database containing all the updated information for the whole area.

The dynamic new network means that each of West Dorset's busy TICs is kept constantly up-to-date with the latest information on new events and attractions and - most importantly - accommodation availability.
Working from one database makes WDDC's 'Easy Book' accommodation booking information completely reliable, since every change is reflected simultaneously across the whole network.

The WDDC network, believed to be the first of its type in the UK, is based on CTV's TIM4 Destination Management System installed on a Microsoft NT Terminal Server in the District Council's offices at Dorchester.

The system includes a server farm of five Dell Servers, together with dual File and Print Servers and dual Microsoft Exchange Servers. Microsoft's NT Terminal Server 4 is used in conjunction with Citrix Metaframe 1.8. The servers are accessed through PCs or WinTerminals using ICA Client.

Nick Thornley said: "We wanted a system which would be right for the new Millennium: we want to go forward, not rely on older methods of destination management."

"The CTV DMS is updated constantly, as changes occur, so these are shown immediately in the TICs, through the Public Access Terminals and on our Website."

"Other networking systems, which depend on periodic data synchronisation to compare and share information, are simply not good enough."

"Data synchronisation may be satisfactory for databases such as events and attractions, but is totally unacceptable for accommodation, where any scheme using availability needs to be current to operate effectively. "

"Our project has been an excellent opportunity to work in partnership with CTV, in our view the most progressive supplier of Destination Management Software in the UK."

"We have been working with CTV software for nearly ten years, and knew that they could provide us with the most up-to-date networking system."

"West Dorset is a beautiful area with glorious rural scenery as well as our lovely coastal resorts: that means we have a great number of visitors who deserve the best service modern technology can provide."

"With our new network, we have achieved just that."

CTV's Call Centre is a further development of its unique TIM Destination Management System.

The West Dorset Tourism Team, with help from CTV, is also working through a Bookability project to implement an Advanced Reservation System where 'One Phone Call Does It All'.

The new system will be promoted through all West Dorset publications and on the Internet as 'Easy Book'.

Chris Sims of CTV said: "We supply the UK's most advanced Destination Management Systems, providing practical solutions to the tourism industry."

"WDDC is a long-standing client of ours, and we are delighted to be a part of this exciting project"

"We believe that we supply the UK's most advanced Destination Management Systems, providing practical solutions to the tourism industry."

"The user-friendly aspects of the TIM software belie the highly complex programming that goes into our systems - it's simple to use but delivers the most comprehensive results of any Destination Management System."