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Streamline operations for a large travel operator (Express Quote Desktop) |
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Client |
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A large trading operator in the travel domain since more than twenty years offering
car rental services across Europe, Australia and USA. |
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Challenges
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The client was using a legacy system and multiple databases to manage operations
of its internal business functions. This resulted in data being held across various
systems on the web and locally, causing a management and support nightmare with
multiple points of failure. This resulted in increased overheads and loss in operational
efficiencies.
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The challenge was to devise a new centralised solution by also leveraging the existing
IT investments.
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WebExcel Team had to integrate the knowledge of existing systems, practices, technology
and to provide a cost benefit analysis for the proposed solution. |
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Solution
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WebExcel, in its role as strategic IT consultant, analysed & evaluated the entire
supply chain for the operator along with the manual systems, and developed a solution
strategy to achieve the business objectives defined by the client. WebExcel visited
the different sites and identified the issues faced by the client and helped the
client to improve the processes, and suggested various alternatives for the supply
chain improvements. As part of this exercise, the various approaches and roadmap
were discussed. In order to achieve the vision laid out by the client, WebExcel
identified the tools and the IT initiatives to be implemented across the entire
chain, and recommended the best approach. |
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The solution was phased out and implemented using a modular approach. The solution
envisaged was scalable, available 24x7, and maintainable. The proposed solution
was built using the latest Microsoft Technologies
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The first approach was to start with replacing the existing call centre software
with new desktop application and also migrate the existing data onto the new software.
This was then extended to the web and subsequently to include other revenue channels
like affiliates and integration with other third parties. |
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Key features of the implementation were: |
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• To provide car rental bookings on a worldwide basis from a central database
on the web and in house
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• To allow Travel Agents and Tour operators to book offline via the call centre.
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• To allow Introducers / Affiliates to book online or offline via the same
system.
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• To provide marketing reports like commissions, account outstanding and booking
statistics.
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• Ease of Housekeeping via simple interfaces to maintain data entry
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• Ease of maintaining currency fluctuations across the system
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• Providing stop sale features for the various seasons as needed.
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• Providing management and financial report including statutory and mandatory
reporting.
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Business benefits
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• Reduction in duplication of rates and orphan data, thus avoiding redundancy
and increasing performance
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• Operation Efficiency was improved with lesser bugs, system failures and centralised
management.
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• Improved business benefits with quicker time to market new products.
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• Improved Staff morale & service level
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• Improvement in forecast accuracy and MIS reports
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• Centralized logging of all bookings helped in tracking and logging the bookings.
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• Detailed documentation of applications enabled ease of maintenance and support
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• Providing traceability of bookings and tasks ensured audit requirements within
the system.
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