Inspiretec founder and chief executive Simon Powell believes his newly released travel agency platform could eventually capture up to 80% of the market.
‘Agent’, launched at World Travel Market London on November 7, aims to make agents’ lives easier and boost their sales by offering a single platform combining the customer relationship management (CRM) system and the travel agent booking system.
Powell told Travel Weekly he is “really excited” about the product – which has already been picked up by Co-op Travel – and he is now inviting interested agencies to come forward.
More: AI is ‘game changer’ but will not replace agents, says Inspiretec chief
He said: “It’s taken us many years to be able to join all the parts of our technology into one seamless delivery, but we’re there now and really pleased to start rolling this out to the retail sector.”
The platform, which received investment from Travel Counsellors founder David Speakman, claims to have a number of advantages over existing technology.
The new system allows users to “easily” import supplier bookings without having to manually re-key all of the details.
It also promises to speed up the time taken to move from quote to booking by harnessing AI-powered features.
A further element is that it allows “precise control” of commission targets for individual agents.
During a webcast with Travel Weekly editor-in-chief Lucy Huxley, Powell said: “I come from the travel retail sector – it’s been a family business – and I’ve always wanted to change how retail operates.
“I think in today’s world we can see that technology is starting to move forward and at Inspiretec it’s about how can we empower the agent and give them the tools that are going to make a real difference around how they interact with their clients.”
Outlining how the new product was created, Powell said: “We‘ve enhanced one of our other platforms – our tour operator platform, which we’ve been using for an awful long time and we have many clients on the platform – and we’ve merged that with our CRM and we’ve put all the agent and management functions on there as well and we’ve combined that with other parts of our platform.”
He added: “We’re very fortunate that we’ve been in the industry for a very long time and we’re a trusted supplier to all of our current clients and therefore when we started showing this product in the marketplace, which we did about six months ago, though we only officially launched it [on November 7], it’s been so well received and that gave us the confidence that the industry is ready for change, ripe for change and requires that change to circumnavigate some of the threats that are coming round.”
Powell said the platform can be used by agencies of every size and it is possible for a business to adopt the technology in stages.
Co-op Travel has had the CRM installed for now, Powell said, with the agency management system set to be applied next year.
Powell said it is a “possibility” that up to 80% of agencies will eventually use Inspiretec’s latest product.
“That would be a fantastic achievement for us,” said Powell, adding: “We would love to talk to anybody who’s interested.”