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| WEB-ENABLED TRAVEL MANAGEMENT SOLUTION |
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| In its effort to establish a network
of travel service providers or franchisees, our client required a complete
B2B and hybrid B2C Web-based business management solution. The
organization teamed with Icreon for developing
a complete travel management application. It had to be developed
as a process-driven tool for managing customers, franchisees,
online bookings, and the entire tariff structure for our client's
network. Visualizing the need for complete process automation
throughout the network, we designed the solution as an integrated
set of modules for synchronizing operations and managing customers.
While franchisees can access the application to view latest
updates on their business or check for other travel service
providers, customers can search for various travel destinations
and book tours online. The uniqueness of this application lies
in its ability to make our client's network ubiquitous and constantly
updateable with real time data. The solution revolutionized our client's
operations by integrating the services of reputed travel service
providers within and outside India, offering higher customer
satisfaction, and of course, increased revenues for our client and
its network of franchisees! |
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| Business
Requirement |
| Our client wanted to establish a community of
reputed travel service providers, specializing in one or more
travel services such as, package tours or airline reservations.
Travel service providers include travel agents, tour operators,
hotel and airline reservation providers, car rentals, and cruise
organizers. Our client required a Web-enabled business management system
using which these service providers would be able to search
for other travel service providers and offer an entire range
of travel services to customers. Travel service providers would
be able to customize travel packages as per specific customer
requirements. The solution required to be a B2B and B2C Web-based
system, which would manage the network of travel service providers
and customers, displaying real time travel information and synchronizing
operations throughout the network. |
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| End-to-End
Travel Management for Diverse Sets of Users |
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| Benefits |
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Reduced customer-response time |
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Automatic management of commission structure and payments
between our client and franchisees |
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Customized management of franchisee operations |
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Real-time information on transactions, new tour packages
and destinations |
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Centralized management of franchisees, customers, and
our client's operations |
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| Technologies used in developing this web application are: |
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Travel service providers, operating from
distant locations and providing specific services to customers,
can only meet a portion of customer requirements. For instance,
if a traveler needs to tour Agra, a travel agent may be able
to manage the airline reservation for the traveler, but perhaps,
not the hotel reservations. Similarly, another tour operator
may offer the hotel bookings service but the costs may not be
feasible for a traveler. On one hand, travelers need to search
for multiple travel agents to plan a single tour and on the
other hand, travel agents are confined to their specific areas
of operations. After identifying and isolating these problems
in the travel industry, our client wanted to develop a solution that
would act as a ‘single point of contact’ for travelers,
while allowing travel agents the opportunity to grow & expand
their business, without incurring any extra costs. They pictured
the idea of a network of travel service providers, who would
be able to utilize each other’s services to offer an entire
travel package to their customers. To implement this, our client required
a Web-based travel management solution that would allow specialized
travel service providers, (such as, a hotel reservation provider
or a tour operator), to offer each other’s services to
their customers. The solution would enable our client to create travel
franchisees, who in turn, would be able to create and manage
their customers, view their business status in real time and
utilize the services of other franchisees. In addition, the
solution would allow customers to search for travel service
providers and book tours online.
Endeavoring to develop an effective system to meet its goal
of mutual profits and cost-effective management, our client teamed
with Icreon to develop the solution. We had to develop the application
as a feature-rich, easy to use, and scalable application that
could be accessed and administered ceaselessly. |
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The solution is a Web-based travel management
application that can be accessed by franchisees, administrator(s),
and customers. The way our client planned to operate was to create
travel service providers as franchisees and then let them manage
their individual operations and customers through the application.
The strategy was to market the services of one franchisee through
other franchisees.
For instance, if a travel agent operating in New Delhi specializes
in providing airline reservations, needs to make hotel reservations
for a customer, then the travel agent can search for hotel reservation
providers in our client's network, through the application. Once
the agent finds the most suitable hotel reservation provider,
a booking for the customer can be placed. The hotel reservation
provider can check for the booking request through application and
confirm the booking status. This way the travel agent can provide
value-added service to customers, without any incurring extra
costs.
Some of the features of the solution include – |
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Real-Time Data that shows Up-to-the-Minute
Details |
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Facility to Vet and Scrutinize Real-Time Information
for Determining Transactions and Profit Ratios |
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Proactive and Enhanced Customer Management |
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Facility to Search for Reputed Travel Service Providers |
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Automated E-mail Alerts for Passport and Visa Expiry |
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Instant Tour Booking Facility for Customers |
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The solution allows franchisees to manage
their operations 24/7. This Web-based Business Process Automation
solution manages the usage and availability of services provided
by franchisees, to organize customized tour packages with airline
tickets, hotel bookings, and other services that the customer
demands. Franchisees can share their resources online to provide
upbeat and ‘top of the line’ services to customers,
while incurring minimal costs.
For us, the aim was to develop the solution as a process-driven
application that could be easily accessed by different types
of users – Super Administrator, Sub Administrator, Franchisee
& Customer. To make the solution extremely effective and
feature rich for each of its “User Types”, we developed
four interfaces for the application, corresponding to each user
type.
The super administrator module is used to create and manage
the accounts of sub administrators and franchisees. The super
administrator is responsible for assigning roles to the sub
administrator. The role of a sub administrator includes managing
a particular service or various services, in one or more cities
and states. A new franchisee is authenticated and added to the
network, by the super administrator. In addition, the super
administrator can add different countries, states, and cities
in which our client's franchisees are operating. The sub administrator’s
role revolves around monitoring travel services such as hotels,
packages, restaurants, car rentals, and airline reservations
in various travel destinations. The services that the sub administrator
monitors depend on the role that the super administrator assigns.
For franchisees, the solution offers a multi-faceted interface.
Franchisees can login with the username and password assigned
by the super administrator. With the application, they can store
information about their services and create packages with complete
details about the cost and availability of the package. It tracks
the reservations and bookings offered by franchisees, within
the network. The data available to franchisees is real-time,
providing them the current status of the required information.
The application provides franchisees, the ability to manage existing
customers and add new customers. Franchisees can configure automated
email notifications for passport and visa expiry and resolve
customer queries. A franchisee can add tour packages, hotel
services, transfers, car rentals, and a host of other services
to the list of services. The sub administrator needs to validate
these services, to allow the franchisee to sell these services.
For customers, the interface offers innovative services such
as, information about various travel destinations, hotels, restaurants,
airports, and other services available for the customer’s
destination of choice. Customers are associated with our client through a particular franchisee. The username and password
supplied by the franchisee, is used by the customer to login
to the application. They can view information about the weather
and currency of the destination and book tours accordingly with
the services that they require. The customer can provide details
about the people for whom the tour is being booked. The associated
franchisee will book the tour along with the entire range of
services for the customer. This way, customers need not go to
various different travel agents, and hotels for bookings. They
can simply login to the application and book their entire tour from
their desktop.
We designed all the interfaces with highly interactive features,
providing useful tips right when the user needs them. The application
includes a comprehensive Help Desk to allow users complete ease.
The application was developed for high scalability, compatibility,
and long-term use. With these considerations for a Web-based
solution, a 3-tier architecture based on .NET framework, was
the best alternate. We suggested and designed the architecture
based on these considerations. Following is the technical architecture
for the application. |
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| The front-end application was developed
on the .NET framework using ASP.NET. SQL Server 2000 is used
to function as the database or back-end. The entire application
runs on IIS 5.0 web server. We selected these technologies to
ensure optimum management of network traffic and high application
performance. |
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| Summary |
| The travel industry is growing at a fast
pace and our client seized this opportunity to implement a strategy
that would allow travel service providers to grow & expand
as a community of reputed travel franchisees. With the solution developed by Icreon,
our client's network offers a cost effective alternate for franchisees
to offer customized and value-added services to their customers.
A high-end travel management solution that automates and manages
various tasks for franchisees, the application is designed to meet
the present and future growth requirement of our client's network. |
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