travel tech insights

The Importance of Content Mapping for Travel Agencies

It’s something we’ve all experienced before: You input the wrong address on your GPS and you suddenly find yourself completely lost in an unfamiliar section of town. It’s easy to get frustrated and blame the GPS for this error, however, the GPS didn’t know you entered the wrong address - rather, it simply directed you to the right location based on the information you provided. This equates to lost time, more money spent on gas, and more wear and tear on your car.

Sounds familiar, right? This same concept holds true when it comes to content mapping for travel agencies. The process of content mapping - which helps travel agencies and suppliers coordinate the availability, inventory, and pricing of various accommodations and services - is much like using your GPS to help you get to where you’re going. Enter the right information and the GPS is likely to guide to your destination quickly and efficiently. On the other hand, enter the wrong information, not enough information, or poorly sourced information and you’re likely to lose your way entirely. A content database that is not consistently mapped can result in travel agencies using wrong or outdated information in their supplier and customer relations.

Topics: travel agent Databases Static databases travel agencies Content mapping content matching

Inside the Locker Room: How Tour Operators Prepare for A New Season

Think about your favorite sports team as they begin to ready themselves for a new season. The team meets to watch and discuss game film; they work on game strategy, conceive new, and revise old plays; they engage in individual and team practices to sharpen or refine their skills; and they work closely with coaches and other levels of team management to ensure optimal levels of fitness and mental readiness for the long season ahead.

For tour operators in today’s global travel industry, the preparation necessary to ready themselves for the next travel season is not unlike the measures teams take to prep for their next campaign. The operational, back-office, and even customer-facing duties and tasks tour operators engage in before the season directly reflects business outcomes by the season’s end. Of course, tour operators aren’t watching game film of an opponent or taking part in intense practice sessions, but strategizing about which products and services to offer, where and how to source them, selecting the right itineraries to promote, and more are critical drivers for tour operators in ensuring an efficient, productive travel campaign.

Topics: travel Tour Operator Tour Companies Tour Operators

5 Processes Travel Agencies Can Automate with a Travel ERP

20 minutes may not sound like a lot of time. It’s a quick lunch or a long shower, but it doesn’t seem like enough time to worry about how efficiently it’s been spent. But multiply that 20 minutes five thousand times and you begin to see the way that best use of 20 minutes compounded over a month or a year can turn into real time and real money. If a small travel agency spends 20 minutes manually processing each of the 5,000 airline tickets it sells in a month, that 20 minute process takes up nearly 2,000 hours worth of work—the work of several employees.

Even in today’s increasingly digitized travel industry, this is still all too common of a scenario, especially for smaller travel agencies or travel companies. Yes, it’s true these tasks are important and a large part of a travel agency’s operations. Of course, tickets need to be processed—just as travel policies need to be enforced, invoices need to be managed, and 3rd party bookings need to be recorded. Just because these tasks are crucial, however, does not mean that they still need to be done by hand. Agencies utilizing a travel ERP solution ought to be able to automate these processes and many others, thereby saving time and money while freeing up employees to focus on providing value and completing more useful tasks.

Topics: erp travel erp travel erp system travel process automation process automation travel agencies

Wondering what's new in TINA 3?

TINA 3 reflects 14 years of experience in the mid back office area, gathered from more than 45 markets. In order to be validated, all the new features of the product have been tested against the normal day to day operations performed by more than 300 travel agencies across the world.

'We have focused on several major areas: 

  • Improved user experience
  • Increased number of automated processes
  • Big Data Aggregation with new features in the reporting module
  • Addition of processes control tools
  • Customized Deployment and implementation depending on project size

 

Topics: travel erp process automation

WTM London 2016 is over - we're back in the office

 

World Travel Market London has come to a close and dcs plus team is back in the office, celebrating the outcomes of a successful event. The travel fair, which had been revamped this year as a three-days event – between 7 and 9 November in the ExCeL London Convention Centre, once again exceeded our expectations.

Topics: Industry Events WTM 2016

Lufthansa City Center International – General Assembly ROME 2016

 

Last week (9-12 November), Lufthansa City Center Franchising Network held their annual General Assembly in Rome.

dcs plus is proud to have been part of this event as LCCi strategic partner for technology worldwide.  

Topics: Industry Events

Product Updates - November 2016

AIDA tour operator solution updates

Shopping basket for creation of travel packages

  • In AIDA Reseller a new section was added: Shopping basket. It allows the reseller to create  and book packages by selecting accommodation, ancillary services and transportation from the inventory  that is available in AIDA TourOperator. The Reseller user, taking into consideration the services that need to be booked, can search through each section: Hotels search, Transportation and Extra services & activities, and add the services to cart. Once the reservation is added, it is displayed in Reservations list. If the services selected have different currencies, all of them are saved and displayed in the list. If from all services, one of them has RQ status and the other ones have OK status, the final reservation will have RQ status.
Topics: Tour Operators travel booking system Product updates

5 Tips For Choosing the Right Travel Booking Engine

As we’ve discussed in previous blog entries, travel agents, travel management companies, and other players in today’s global travel industry need fast, powerful technology platforms for maximum efficiency and productivity. Whether you’re talking about content mapping tools, travel ERP suites, long-term success in today’s travel industry depends largely on a company’s ability to leverage the right technology at the right time to reach and retain customers.

With networks and partnerships established in disparate regions across the globe, it can be difficult to coordinate sales efforts, particularly due to the need for integrated, multi-functional software solutions with common access points. Travel companies have a wide variety of these solutions to choose from, especially when it comes to selecting the right travel booking engines for a given company’s needs and desires. As such, these travel companies have to consider a number of different elements when selecting a technology partner based on specific criteria and desires.  

But all this choice, while a positive thing for travel companies, begs the question: How do you choose the right software your travel business? How do you most effectively analyze your criteria and needs to ensure the software you select brings the greatest value to your business? And how can you tell which IT provider will be with you for the long haul and which will disappear after simply making the sale?

Topics: travel booking system Booking engines Travel booking engines

4 Reasons Why Travel Agents Need An ERP Solution

Let’s talk about cooking for a moment, particularly the cooking of a stew. A typical stew is made up of many core ingredients essential for a healthy diet: meat, starch, carbs, vegetables, and others. These ingredients are then combined in one-pot for a well-rounded eating experience that is efficient for the diner and often easy for the cook to prepare. The end result, if done properly, is a well-integrated dish of complex flavors that is often simple to execute and easy to repeat in the future.

The same is true when it comes to ERP solutions for travel agents. In today’s complex, interconnected travel industry, travel agents are called to execute any number of disparate tasks at any given moment - everything from travel operations to financial duties to operational or back-office functions. The result of these demands is a complex business atmosphere that can require much in the way of time and resources, which can hamper an agent’s productivity and efficiency in serving customers.

Topics: travel erp travel agency travel erp system travel agents

One-Stop Shop: 4 Ways Booking Engines Can Optimize the Booking Process

Take a look at your weekend to-do list. It probably involves multiple stops at a variety of different stores for a number of varied products. While this use to be the norm, megastores like Wal-Mart and others have made it easy for customers to purchase all the products they need in one convenient place. Everything from groceries to clothing to automotive supplies and beyond. Megamarts like this have become a one-stop shop for customers on a global scale.

The same can be said of online booking engines. For travel agents, there once was a time when multiple interfaces or systems would have to be used in order to search for available bookings, view inventory, coordinate with the client or customer, and finally distribute confirmations or other necessary documents. As online booking sites and other methods of travel bookings rose to prominence, travel agents were significantly hampered by the lack of maneuverability and agility associated with using multiple systems or platforms to complete relatively simple operational tasks.

Topics: travel agent travelers Booking engines Travel booking engines travel agencies

3 Ways Agencies Can Benefit from Updating Static Databases

The travel industry is undergoing rapid evolution, and that evolution can cause the marketplace to appear chaotic from many angles. But in today's travel industry when younger travelers’ first impulses are often to forego travel agents altogether, savvy agencies can take advantage of the chaos and confusion by providing an alternative: order.

Topics: Travel Industry Static databases travel companies travel agencies

3 Ways Travel Agencies Can Help Resellers’ Sales

Be good to your resellers and they will be good to you.

After all, the relationship between a given agency and its resellers stands to be a mutually beneficial value proposition. Agencies that rely on resellers help to ensure their content is reaching the broadest possible audience, which in turn helps to boost sales. Resellers, meanwhile, stand to earn considerable revenue from commissions by establishing valuable partnerships with agencies. But the key phrase here, however, is value. How can an agency provide value for its resellers? More specifically, how can an agency help to boost resellers’ sales of travel services?

Topics: B2B Resellers B2B Travel Resellers Resellers travel agencies sales networks