Open Destinations CEO Kevin O'Sullivan discusses the quick win approach to technology projects. Open Destinations continues to see a trend among tour operators for a balance of short-term, tactical plans running alongside the long-term technology strategy. Open Destinations has published a new report of the Top 5 Quick Wins for Tour Operators. To request a copy of the report, visit opendestinations.com/quickwins

1. Quick wins for tour
operators: Interacting with your
customers and partners online
Kevin O’Sullivan
CEO, Open Destinations

2. • Automate additional manual processes
• API connections
• Product information management
• Customer satisfaction monitoring
• Process outsourcing
5 quick wins for 2017

3. About Open Destinations
• 2015 & 2016 – ranked as one of the fastest
growing companies in the UK by the Sunday
Times BT Business SME Export Track 100
• Provide reservation systems for
tour operators, wholesalers &
DMC’s
• 10,000+ users per day using our
software in over 30 countries
• Growing at rate of over 25% per
year for the last 5 years
• Team of 400+ spread between
London and Goa offices

4. Clients in over 30 countries
across all continents

5. Our approach to technology
• Every tour operator needs to approach a technology project with ‘quick
wins’
• Has to be flexible and adaptable
• Mature, agile development process
• Need experts from different backgrounds to achieve the quick wins
– tour operator, OTA, wholesaler experts
– large team of developers, testers, outsource people

6. • Modular software gives
you a platform that you
can build on for the future
• You can implement your
software in stages
alongside your legacy
systems
• Implement what you need
for the short term
• Also think about how your
business is going to change
for the long term
Implement business change in
stages
Will you have multiple brands?
Expand from B2B to B2C?
Open more offices?

7. • Automating more of your process and getting more efficiency from
your existing staff is key to increasing your bottom line
Quick win #1: Automate more
of your manual processes
• Always a struggle to get rid of manual
processes, it takes time for change to
happen in your business
• Draw up a “To-Be” showing where you
want to go
– Product Management
– Rules and Special Offers
– Confirmation / Enquiry emails
– Checking price updates
– Reviewing Flight Savings
– Automated Sales Invoicing / Reminders
– Automated Purchase Approval processing
– Margin Analysis

8. • The right product at the right price is key to winning new
customers
• You need a booking system with API compatibility so that you can
replace different components of your business at different times
Quick win #2: API plug-ins
Financial
systems
Costing Reservations
CRM Documentation
Flights
Your
website
FITGroups

9. • It’s critical that you are storing your
product information in a central place
– product & supplier data
• Other parts of your operations can
still operate independently
• For example – using contracting
system offline
– You can uploading booking
information without using a
booking engine
– powering cost or selling price
searching from a contract library
– storing products and or contracts
– optional ability to interface with
supplier extranet and channel
manager API
Quick win #3: Product
information management
Contracts

10. • Customer satisfaction & retention is key to success
• Ideally you will have all the components of CRM integrated with your booking
information
• There are 3rd party systems that can help
Quick win #4: Customer
information monitoring
• What components that you
need to integrate with CRM?
– sales lead tracking
– Booking/payment
history
– B2B & B2C customer
portals on your website
– Post purchase follow up
(ie. questionnaire, email
marketing)

11. Quick win #5: process
outsourcing
• Not every quick win needs to
involve software
• Are there processes or systems that
are working inefficiently and
stressing the organisation?
• Are you lacking expertise in-house?
• What challenges that are limiting
your growth?
– Struggles with
recruitment/retention
– Challenges with QA
– Office space limitations
– Support for new time zones

12.  Don’t outsource your key USP’s – ie. specialist
knowledge
→ That probably includes your sales process
 Performance metrics that justify the spend
• Crucial to get detailed reporting
• Different types of frequency
• Involvement of the management team
 Invest the time in defining a tight process
manual and keep refreshing it
→ Many of our clients make frequent visits
 Frequent and relevant reporting ensures the
process delivers to key stakeholders
How to make outsourcing
succeed
Outsourcing teams work
towards team objectives &
individual targets

13. • Increasing demands on administrative processes as company has grown
• Decided to outsource mid and back end processes
– Hotel contract loading
– Supplier invoicing and reconciliation
• Created dedicated teams at our offices in India
• Bespoke training programme with targets and priorities
Case Studies – Business
Process Outsourcing (BPO)
• Comprehensive procedure manuals
• Detailed reporting & business reviews
– Content tailored to management requirements
& the defined business processes
– daily/weekly/monthly

14.  Look for a company that understands your industry
 Open, flexible partner that has resources and
expertise
 Ability to solve specific issues, enterprise level
issues and everything in the middle
 Team that has a proven track record of improving
and maintaining quality
 Long standing client relationships built on
performance and reliability
 Quality HR processes, an ethical partner
Next steps – finding a
technology partner

15. Thank you
www.opendestinations.com
@opendest