Client Overview
Established in 1976, in Sharjah, as a full service travel agency, our client is recognized today as one of the largest travel management companies in the United Arab Emirates. The company has presence all across the UAE, offering comprehensive travel solutions to the retail and corporate sectors. Our client is also the first travel company in the UAE to achieve the ISO 9001 Certification, in 1999, and the first company to win the Sharjah Economic Excellence Award in the travel and tourism category, in 2004.
Engagement Overview |
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Client: |
One of the largest travel management companies in UAE |
Industry |
Travel |
Project Start Date |
2006 |
Project End Date/ Status |
Completed in 2006. Version upgrade in 2008. Ongoing support |
GSA |
For over 14 leading Airlines like Emirates, Singapore Airlines…etc |
Project Locations |
2 Regional Entities with over 30 locations across UAE |
Number of current Users |
150+ |
ID Team Size |
Onsite: 2 Offshore: 5 |
Technical Details
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Oracle 9i Database, Oracle9i iAS, Oracle Forms, Pro*C & ASP.NET |
Application Integration |
Amadeus, Galileo, Sabre, Airmiles, Emirates Bank & Integration with their Group Financials |
Client’s IT scenario before ID association
Automation at client’s IT environment was initially limited to a basic application software for few of their business functions such as accounting but many of their critical business functions were yet to be automated. Very low levels of automation and integration made their operations to be highly labor intensive. This scenario also led to repetition of work, many errors due to large amount of manual work, decreased efficiency and increasing costs. Furthermore, their entire critical mid office functions were manual which resulted in delayed Operational and Financial MIS.
Why/How ID was chosen
Client is one of the largest and reputed Travel companies in the UAE with complex activities covering Corporate, Retail and GSA operations. Their core objectives while evaluating a new solution were
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A system which supported the highest level of automation with the flexibility to address all current requirements and grow with them in future
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Improve resource efficiency especially of the Front Office Revenue Generation team by automating their entire Mid-office process with interfaces to Reservation Systems
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A vendor with Travel Domain expertise who can support them with the incorporation of features due to dynamically changing market practices and trends as well as automate multiple business streams such as Travel, Holidays, etc
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Save substantial amount of resources which could be reinvested in their core business activities
When our client evaluated the options available, eTravel2000 emerged as the winner as it met all of client’s needs and also because it is a market leading product tried and proved by other leading reputed Travel companies. The key product differentiators identified were
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Online GDS Interface to Multiple GDS (Galileo, Sabre and Amadeus) and Interfaces with other entities like Airmiles, Banks, Airlines, Lodge Cards, etc
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Complete Front-Mid-Back Office Integration from issuing Tickets & Holiday Vouchers, Generation of Delivery Orders until Client Invoicing and MIS
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Auto Alerts for Business Exceptions (Wrong Fare Codes, Wrong Deal Codes, Credit Limit Exceptions etc), Auto BSP and Bank Reconciliations
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Corporate Portals, Auto Report Schedulers, Business Intelligence & MIS Tools
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Availability of integrated modules such as Finance, Personnel & Payroll, Fixed Asset Management, Cargo Management, etc
ID Solution- eTravel2000
ID provided a comprehensive solution that is fully integrated from Sales & Inventory Management to Financial MIS. The eTravel2000 solution offered to our client was built of modules that included
- Travel
- Finance
- Cargo
- Tours
- Assets
- Payroll
Client also uses ID’s Tours/Holidays System “eXplore” to manage their Holiday Operations.
Implementation/Installation Challenges
Due to the complexity of the project and the size of the organization, project challenges were well anticipated and a proactive team comprising of members from ID and client organisation contributed to a successful deployment. Some of the challenges were
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Migration of historical data from the legacy systems
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First Time Automation of the Mid office (which was entirely manual)
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Training all Locations and Users
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Delivering against ambitious deadlines
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GO LIVE without a Parallel Run
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Delivering continuous enhancements unanticipated earlier due to non automation of certain areas of business
Client Benefits
The following are some of the tangible and intangible benefits of the project
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Online and real-time data interfaces with all Reservation Systems/GDS’ like Amadeus, Galileo and Sabre has helped client eliminate redundant data entry and the associated human errors apart from reducing operational costs
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Automate Mid-Office operations and Deploy Online Invoicing and automated Collections
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Reduce Excess Billing from Suppliers like BSP due to online tracking of Wrong Fare Codes and Deal Codes
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Better Credit Management with stringent and automated Credit Control practices including Online Alerts to the staff and Supervisors
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Automated Reconciliation with Airlines and Banks have resulted in reducing operational cost substantially as they had 3 resources dedicated for this purpose
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Availability of enhanced MIS has translated into better and quicker business decisions
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Automation of Holiday Operations which helps in tracking, analyzing and conducting the business better
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Automation of HR and Asset Management has replaced manual management of the same