Our Focus – Travel Industry

A) Main Benefits:

1. Economical (avoids manual interface costs via 24 x 7 availability)

2. Quick (reduces the time of simultaneous response to several enquiries)

3. Aesthetic (no restriction on colors, also can use multimedia)

4. Wider audience (Can be accessed by customers/ suppliers from a distance)

5. No Language barrier (can be displayed in several languages)

6. Future trend (Info accessed and entered online - anytime - anywhere - by anyone)

For over eight years, Broadgate Technical Services (India) P Ltd has, through its UK associate Broadgate Infonet Limited, worked on projects relating to leading names in the Travel Industry.

Client Server - A special area

Speed retrieval and security of data are essential elements in any application, particularly in client server environments in the Travel Industry.

A major example of Client/server development from BTS was on behalf of P&O Travel (Hong Kong) for a complete Tour Management System. This was developed entirely at BTS India and was implemented in time for year 2000. The software has a Delphi front-end with links to DB2/400 being provided by our proprietary database access tool called Aurora. The total development effort was in the region of 10 man-years. Subsequent support has been provided by the UK company with assistance from India.

AS/400 legacy systems

We have had total development and maintenance responsibility for an AS/400 based booking system running at British Airways Travel Shops. The system had been installed in 1996 as a package by another vendor. The package contains several hundred RPG programs. We began by adding new modules to enhance the base system and after a few months took over the complete maintenance and further development work. A typical program runs into 8,000 to 10,000 lines of code and the original comments are in Flemish! We have built several interfaces between various (BA) feeder systems and the AS/400 application database of this application.

We have successfully maintained this system and made significant enhancements since December 2000. At various times, members of the BTS India company have spent several months in the UK and played an important role in these projects.

Interfaces

Over the years, we have implemented a number of interfaces between other systems and the AS/400. These have included links to Unix, different BA feeder links such as from Amadeus. And, of course, PC based systems.

Project Experience

On the AS/400 platform much of our project experience has been with clients in the Travel Industry or AS/400 Systems software marketing.

Travel

Tour Management system
Tours & Holiday Reservations & Back Office
Loyalty Management
Marketing Database and Information
BAROL (a booking system used by BA’s travel agents)
Credit Card data extraction for automatic FTP transmission to one of three credit card companies.

AS/400 systems management

Performance Analyser

Disk Space Analyser

DB2/400 Audit Trail

Tour Management

Quovadis is a comprehensive tour operating software implemented for a client in Hong Kong which Offers a complete booking and operations system for package holidays with AS/400 as data base server, front ended by PC's as clients. Handles all the functions from setting up tours, taking bookings generating invoices, receipts, costing the tour, analyzing the profits and generating management reports Has built-in email and fax communication for sending messages to their business partners like hotels and travel agents.

Reservation and Back office system

This manages a total booking system for a travel company, a typical booking may be a combination of air travel, hotel, car hire and associated services like insurance.

Loyalty Management

Web-based system to manage loyalty schemes and awards. Provides accounting information by promotion and the
ability to capture and amend rejected transactions.

These transactions register clients and, log awards made to them This web-based implementation on the AS/400 provides a user friendly and productive interface and sets the standard for future web based application development.

Marketing Database

The aim is to have an accurate and reliable database of real addresses to mail and a reliable transaction history for current applications. It provides functions to data mine both the customer and the transaction details, stored in current back office files and new easier to use customer files in four areas, relevant to marketing and retail and business sales. This helps in building a quality marketing data base, improving usability of customer profile and providing hooks for a new selling process reducing the complexity of current applications. This improves Travel Consultant productivity.

Other benefits delivered include improvement in ability to meet Data Protection regulations, and the to enable better ticket reconciliation and better analysis of ticket types sold. Reduction in complexity enabled better support to be delivered by the IT Help Desk.

British Airways Reservations Online (BAROL)

The main purpose of the project was to capture data generated by online bookings made in BA reservations
system by travel agents. When a booking is made in BA reservations system, all the related data with regards to booking is exported to BATS (British Airways Travel Shops) as a text file.

This text file is processed and the data is stored in AS/400 database for further enquiries.

Credit card Extraction /Transmission/Enquiry for BATS

A procedure (programs) to create and send files from BA Travel Shops to the respective credit card companies viz., American Express(Amex), Diners, British Airways Card system(BASYS) on a daily basis. This is to do with the use of various cards by customers of BATS in paying for their bookings. At BATS, the source data is stored in the DB2/400(AS/400) database.

Legacy System Extension - Cross Industry

Hotel Property Management System

We have Y2 K enabled and currently support passenger charging and personnel management system for
a large cruise company

Hotel Contracting System

This system developed for a large tour operator enables the maintenance and setting up of contracts with hotels and resorts across various countries

Travel Agency Booking System

We enhanced the booking system for a large travel agency. We currently support this system. It allows business and retail bookings to be set up and covers air travel, hotel, car hire, currency, insurance and holidays.

Support

We currently offer both prime and non prime time support for clients based in Europe and Asia and to
cruise ships around the world.

Data Mining

We have developed an MIS solution that delivers "what if" analysis for a large UK based travel agency.

Our Strengths

Advanced work flow control

To oversee the life cycle of each project, critical components such as structured procedures, a schedule-driven development approach, and quality control must be in place. BTS has developed a project management system that facilitates client participation. Discussion boards, group chat rooms with history, progress tracking are examples.

Aggressive pricing models

Our managerial expertise, experience, our master software developers, and a focus on the project's life cycle, make BTS far more efficient than the average development company and keep our overhead at a minimum. This is how we can offer an excellent service at competitive rates.

Mobile and flexible

Our developers are divided into several development teams. Each team is dedicated to a small group of projects, has a project leader and a staff member dedicated to maintaining clear and constant communication with the client, which makes for a highly effective development organization