Any travel agency which is a tour operator or a travel management company faces new and ever changing markets. Business mergers to regulatory laws contend with regional and international change in the travel industry significantly compromising a Travel Management Company’s (TMC’s) competitiveness. With bustling competition came the truth that an agency will soon be either copying someone’s success or exceeding it. Since such a turbulent environment is an unavoidable reality, TMCs need every advantage to compete.
To spearhead growth, companies have to implement new product and service opportunities and adjust to change in economic conditions. These measures will allow them to stay ahead of the game. In such a complex industry no business operation can be left to chance. Every dimension of a business will decide whether a travel company’s challenges are met and to what extent ERP software systems play a role to enable it to thrive.
A travel ERP, Enterprise Resource Planning system, is one such software system that is made to increase analytic integration with a third party. ERP systems determine whether monetary investments support forward looking change in the travel industry.
Transforming travel technology from a premise based product to a cloud-based service is an indication that a company’s installed ERP is ready for rapid deployment and increased productivity.As a result of ERPs, the travel industry has put into place new computerized management systems that standardize many business processes.
All these changes when combined have been demonstrated to increase the information flow of the company thereby accelerating its growth. Furthermore, increased efficiencies in the back office and front office ensure faster and smarter organizational productivity that delight executives with lower overall costs and good decision-making.
When ERP systems first came into the scene, they dealt solely with the manufacturing industry. As is well known in business parlance, growth is driven by cutting edge products and services.Today, innovation has opened up the technology to fit in industries such as travel. While ERPs’ legacy systems have good standing they have been resistant to new ways of doing business. With the technological revolution, the travel industry is now an indicator of how agencies deliver flexibility and adaptability to the market. The ERP software is easy to configure for new business endeavors.
There is no longer an urgent need to extensively train management as they can now generate reports with the point and click of a mouse. Employees are able to securely check orders and access information such as financials, procurement and human resources remotely or onsite.Unlike previous ERP systems, two shifts have enhanced the capabilities of ERP software with regard to the travel industry. First, previous ERP software featured running business transactions during the day and leaving the report generation to take place at night.
Such habits have not served the best interests of TMC’s. Secondly, today’s ERP software have been designed to possess tablet functionality. By leveraging GPS, barcodes, imaging, etc., management and workers enjoy greater returns for their work and create fresh data for further growth and provides companies with larger profit margins.
Vendors who sell ERP legacy software should differentiate early on between older management systems run by trained employees who are knowledgeable of the nuances of data entry, reports and business processes and travel management software that is recent. New technology can be accessed via cloud interfaces that are intuitive, consistent and designed for mastery via computer keyboards. An interesting aspect of the travel industry is the use of company cards.
While ERP solutions fit the need for integrating them well in all travel industry capacities, travel agencies benefit from company cards such as MasterCard, Visa, and Discover because they are widely used and accepted by merchants and customers.