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With Web technology playing an increasingly critical role in shaping
the travel industry - with systems suppliers developing innovative
dynamic packaging solutions, online developments and Web-based booking
systems - it seems that only progressive agents are likely to survive.
For a consortium such as Advantage, the challenge is to provide members
– existing and prospective – with leading edge Web technology.
The Result
To meet the challenge, Advantage recently launched its new intranet
site, tailored to members’ needs, which allows members to evolve from
being traditional agents to travel providers.
The new intranet is a huge leap forward from what the company had
originally, which was a cumbersome, static, information-only extranet
for its members. Two key factors enabled Advantage to arrive at its new
destination: leading-edge Web design and development by agency
Monochrome, and a new enterprise content management (ECM) solution,
Shado from Straker Interactive.
Bill Taylor, Advantage’s Web Development Manager, takes up the
story: “Initially we had an extranet that we designed ourselves - it
was basically an FTP file transfer into different directories which was
updated weekly. It wasn’t very flexible or timely and was largely
ineffective as a communication or selling tool for us.”
Business driver
There was a key business driver that led to the development of the
new intranet. “We embarked on a major re-structuring of the business,
changing from a non-profit making company to a commercial enterprise,
in May 2005,” explained Taylor. “All of our members have become
shareholders and it was therefore essential to improve communication
with them, and provide them with selling tools online to help them
compete in a crowded market.”
The company recognised it needed to get away from a ‘one size fits
all’ approach and develop an intranet that would improve communication
with its 800 agents, the individual staff within the member companies –
over 3,000 – and over 150 suppliers, including tour operators,
airlines, and so on.
User-driven
To ensure the new intranet met members’ needs, a technology team was
set up which included selected members, as well as senior Advantage
people. Brainstorming days were set up to look at what Advantage wanted
to do internally and how it presented information to members. These
consultations played a major role in the planning and development of
the new intranet.
“We wanted the intranet to be user-driven,”
added Taylor. “We set out to build a profile of all the outlets,
including specialisations such as cruises, and also profile individual
staff so that we could provide them with tailored information and
offers according to their interests. It is a very personalised,
targeted communications tool.”
Because Advantage’s business was in transition, the intranet had to
be delivered quickly. After sending out a tender document to around
seven Web design/development companies, Taylor whittled them down to a
shortlist of three. He explained: “We wanted a company that not only
had the skills to design and build the intranet, but also provide the
software that would enable us to manage our own content.”
‘Dream team’
Monochrome and Shado emerged as the ‘dream team’. Future proofing
was the main driver when selecting Shado to power the new intranet,
according to Taylor. “We wanted a solution that could be used to create
and manage not just the intranet, but also future internal and external
Web sites that might develop. We wanted control of our own destiny and
to train our own people to use the solution, rather than be tied in to
outsourcing. By combining our internal IT skills with Monochrome’s
design and development skills and Straker technology, we realised we
could build anything we wanted.”
He added: “As well as helping us design and develop the intranet
from the ground up using Shado, Monochrome also helped us integrate
features from our existing extranet. This involved enabling the
retrieval of sensitive data from the company’s internal database, such
as payments to members, commercial agreements, etc. via a gateway
server and software, which Monochrome developed and configured. There
was also a requirement to write customised applications to manage
internal user administration data, a calendar system for both public
and private events, company notices and user authentication with page
permissions.”
By building in personalisation, members’ staff can tick boxes to
receive information about different topics, such as cruises, on their
intranet home page, or get an email notification that new information
has been put up on the site. Workflow processes enabled by Shado mean a
document on a cruise offer can be created, proof-read, authorised and
published by Advantage staff and then an email notification sent out
automatically to any member with an interest in cruises.
The content of the site also needed to reflect the type of agency.
“If the main focus is Business Travel, the agent would see a slightly
different logo on the intranet to make it more business-oriented. Menu
items can be changed and set up to relate specifically to the agent’s
business,” explained Taylor.
Monochrome has also enabled Advantage to set up notice boards on the
intranet that enable members with multiple branches to post messages up
on their home pages that only their staff can access. An administrator
at the member company can control all security and access rights for
their staff.
“The Shado solution is so powerful and flexible that Advantage can
create bespoke own-brand Intranets for its members that can be
underpinned with all of the relevant commercial information and
security,” said Taylor. “This level of personalisation was a key
reason for choosing to work with Straker, Their people showed us
examples of their work in education, where Shado had been used to
provide different logins and screens to administrators, lecturers and
students. We could relate that easily to our own requirement for member
profiles.”
The Lasting Benefits
Advantage agents now have a comprehensive, feature-packed intranet
that has evolved from a communications tool to a powerful online
selling tool. “We launched the intranet to members at a series of
bite-size conferences in March, did live demos and issued passwords and
IDs, and got some great feedback,” said Taylor. “We very quickly got to
the stage where we had over 3,000 staff registered and using the
intranet on a regular basis, which is a significant improvement on what
we had before. We can now analyse traffic, the pages that are accessed,
and so on, and gear up our communications accordingly. We can encourage
less active members to produce more business by focusing on their
needs.”
He concluded: “The intranet is a lot slicker, quicker and easier to
use than what we had before, and it’s easier for us to update and
maintain. We’re now planning a member recruitment drive using the
intranet as a prime marketing vehicle to grow our business.”
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