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| Travel
Manager |
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IMPORTANT:
Due to a Non-Disclosure
Agreement (NDA) with our client, the names of the
solution and the client have been changed. All changed
names have been prefixed with an asterisk (*).
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Travel
Ma nager – Web-Enabled
Business Management Solution for Travel Management
In its effort to establish a network of travel service
providers or franchisees, *OurClient required a
complete B2B and hybrid B2C Web-based business management
solution. The organization teamed with DevelopmentIndia
for developing Travel Manager as 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 OurClient’s network. Visualizing the need
for complete process automation throughout the network,
we designed Travel Manager 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 OurClient’s network
ubiquitous and constantly updateable with real time
data. Travel Manager revolutionized OurClient’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 OurClient and its network
of franchisees!
Business
Requirement
OurClient
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. OurClient 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.
Solution
Benefits
Reduced customer-response
time
Automatic management of commission structure
and payments between OurClient and franchisees
Customized management of franchisee operations
Real-time information on transactions, new
tour packages and destinations
Centralized management of franchisees, customers,
and OurClient operations Technologies
Used
ASP.NET
SQL Server 2000
JavaScript
IIS
Windows NT
Requirements
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,
OurClient 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, OurClient 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 OurClient 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,
OurClient teamed with DevelopmentIndia to develop
Travel Manager. We had to develop the application
as a feature-rich, easy to use, and scalable application
that could be accessed and administered ceaselessly.
End-to-End Travel Management for Diverse Sets of
Users
Travel Manager is a Web-based travel management
solution that can be accessed by franchisees, administrator(s),
and customers. The way OurClient planned to operate
was to create travel service providers as franchisees
and then let them manage their individual operations
and customers through Travel Manager. 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 the OurClient’s network, through
Travel Manager. 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 Travel Managerand
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 Travel Manager include –
Real-Time Data
that shows Up-to-the-Minute Details
Facility to Vet and Scrutinize Real-Time Information
for Determining Transactions and Profit Ratios
Proactive and Enhanced Customer Management
Facility to Search for Reputed Travel Service
Providers
Automated E-mail Alerts for Passport and Visa
Expiry
Instant Tour Booking Facility for Customers
Travel Manager
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 Travel Manager as
a process-driven application that could be easily
accessed by different types of users – Super
Administrator, Sub Administrator, Franchisee &
Customer. To make Travel Manager extremely effective
and feature rich for each of its “User Types”,
we developed four interfaces for Travel Manager,
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 OurClient’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, Travel Manager offers a multi-faceted
interface. Franchisees can login with the username
and password assigned by the super administrator.
With Travel Manager, 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. Travel
Manager 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 Travel Manager
through a particular franchisee. The username and
password supplied by the franchisee, is used by
the customer to login to Travel Manager. 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 Travel Manager
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.
Travel Manager 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 Travel Manager. |
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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.
Summary
The travel industry is growing at a fast pace and
OurClient seized this opportunity to implement a
strategy that would allow travel service providers
to grow & expand as a community of reputed travel
franchisees. With Travel Manager, OurClient’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,
Travel Manager is designed to meet the present and
future growth requirement of OurClient’s network.
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| Technology
@ DevelopmentIndia |
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| Windows
NT/2000 server, Sun Solaris, LINUX Apache, Lotus Domino |
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