Obi Wan,
The idea of licences for Ops and Crewing staff has been arround for some time. However, the last major attempt I know of was in the early 90's. From what I have heard the plan was to base the training and qualifications on the Birdseed training programme. However BALPA went to the CAA and objected because they saw this as the first step towards FAA style dispatchers. From what I have heard this was never the plan, but it was dropped anyway.
Regarding systems there are 4 I have seen:
Acrobat - Good flight watch system, if a little unreliable at times. Not the best crewing system. (Used by Monarch & easyJet)
RM - Good system, all visually driven, but a little poor in the database side, very expensive. (Used by Jersey, KLMuk, Manx)
AIMS - Good alround system from what I've seen (Air2000, Debonair, GO)
Sabre - Written for Ammerican Airlines, very expensive from what I hear, but, I don't have enough knowledge for an evaluation (Used by Britannia)
[This message has been edited by opsbod (edited 22 August 1999).]