| Journal: TWUK | Section: |
| Title: | Issue Date: 19/06/00 |
| Author: | Page Number: 2 |
| Copyright: Other |
New service aims to allow agents to compete more effectively with the dot com companies
Hamilton Travel extranet site will compete with dot coms
EXCLUSIVE by TANYA JEFFERIES
HAMILTON Travel has developed an extranet site that it claims will allow agents to compete more effectively with dot com companies.The password-protected site gives agents the ability to search for and book flights, Eurostar trips, hotels and car hire over the Internet.
Its functions include a multi-flight search facility, the opportunity to hold options for a week, a shopping basket in which a number of bookings can be collected, links to relevant external sites and a back office system.
Commercial director David Sadler claimed the extranet was faster, more efficient and offered more product and services than Hamilton’s old, Windows-based Tomcat system.
“Passengers are becoming better informed about the things they are trying to book because they have done their research on the Internet,” he said. “If agents can’t compete with that they won’t get the sales. We want to enable them to compete with the dot com companies.
“If an agency is trying to justify service fees, its customers are going to be more impressed by a modern system than the old Teletext graphics.”
Sadler claimed the extranet’s multi-flight search facility allowed agents to obtain a price in a second and check availability within 12-14 seconds. On Hamilton’s Tomcat system, these jobs took three seconds and 20-30 seconds respectively.
At present, eight agents are testing the private, password-protected site but the company hopes to have around 400 branches using it by the end of this year.
Sadler said more functions may be added to the extranet as time goes on.
Sadler: claims the extranet is faster, more efficient and offers more product and services than Tomcat