X-TANT is planning to launch a booking and office management system TravelEye for independent agents next month. The company claims it will cut down on the time spent with each customer, leading to a quicker sale and higher productivity.
Managing director Daman Singh said: “As an agent, you want to get people in and out very quickly. In some of the tests we’ve run, you can shave 12-15mins off a booking. Imagine what that does to your productivity.
“Agents are crying out for an integrated system that does everything on one screen. TravelEye gives you access to e-mail, it searches for deals across tour operators’ systems, does on-line credit-card validation. It also keeps track of outstanding balances, amendments to bookings and whether tickets have been issued,” he added.
TravelEye can search simultaneously across many operators’ systems – an improvement on traditional viewdata systems where an agent can only connect to one operator at a time. “The new product will help the client find a holiday an awful lot more quickly,” said Singh.
A second feature that will speed up the sale is its database of operators’ brochures with pictures of resorts. “If a customer wants to go to the Maldives, TravelEye will tell you which operators go there. Ask any sales consultant that today and they will most likely have to guess.
“Our system could immediately shave five minutes off the time spent searching various operators’ brochures. It will also save the agent the embarrassment of not knowing who goes where,” said Singh.
Agents can also use the system to answer basic client queries about a destination’s climate and culture, as TravelEye links over the X-TANT network to TravelGuide, a source of information the company has pulled together on the most popular destinations.
As Internet access is included in the deal, agents will have further sources of information on tap – such as the Foreign Office travel advice Web site. “If a client suddenly remembers that the destination has been in the news recently and wonders if it is safe, you can first go into a tour operator’s system and lock a package and, with a click of a button, search the Foreign Office’s Web site to get an update on the current situation,” said Singh.
The new browser-based system is targeted at small independent agencies. “Many of these people have been wrestling with how to move from viewdata – which was designed 15 years ago – to the new browser-based technologies. Agents running older Sony viewdata text terminals will need to upgrade to a PC to run the new product. We can put agents in touch with our hardware partners,” said Singh.
The price has not yet been decided. Singh said: “We haven’t yet fixed the cost, but it will be affordable. We are targeting independent agents so it is no good coming up with an unrealistic price.”