Business Intelligence with ERP - Summary

Large travel companies can no longer act like overgrown “mom-and-pop” travel agencies. Whether the TMC has multiple branches in different countries or multiple branches in a single country, a consolidated view of revenue and expenses is a business imperative. TMCs need an integrated travel accounting and travel ERP solution to manage all aspects of their business.

Beyond Travel Accounting: Managing a Large Enterprise

In today’s tough economic environment, TMCs must seek out every opportunity to be more efficient and provide differentiated services for their clients. The inherent inefficiency of individual “silo” applications, where integration between systems is often on a “batch” basis, means the data flow from GDS to travel accounting to internal financial systems is incomplete. TMCs need an integrated ERP solution that allows them to evaluate the true costs of each customer so they can ensure that customer behavior doesn’t detract from overall profitability.

Understanding the Cost of Poor Technology

Incomplete and single-function technology may appear less expensive than integrated enterprise-level systems, but often the true cost of poor technology is masked by the lack of quality information these disparate systems provide. Manual processes are by their nature inefficient and error-prone; if poor data reaches the customer, the entire relationship with the TMC may be put in jeopardy. TMCsmust adopt an integrated, end-to-end system that takes the GDS information and populates a single true view of the customer across departments.

Turning Accurate Business Intelligence into a Competitive Advantage

In today’s highly competitive business environment, information is the key. Providing customer dashboards is a vital service but if the underlying information contains errors, the value of the dashboard is lost. The archaic backoffice technology still present at many TMCs is notorious for inaccurate management reporting of corporate accounts. Integrated travel ERP solutions however have their own dashboard technology, and more importantly, the underlying information is automatically cleansed and therefore represents a more sustainable BI solution. With all the data in a single integrated ERP system, travel companies can track the true cost of sales and the value of individual corporate accounts. They can also differentiate themselves from the competition by offering their clients BI services that track expenses and highlight possible areas for savings.

The Substantial ROI of a Fully Integrated Enterprise-Level Solution

When calculating the ROI of an integrated solution, TMCs need to look at all aspects of their company and their cost drivers. Are disparate systems installed across branches? Is there only partial integration between GDS driven data and corporate information systems? Are unnecessary personnel employed due to weaknesses in individual systems? Can a single system be easily queried to extract complete information about a customer, employee or supplier? It is by answering these questions that an investment in a truly global enterprise system can be justified. The cost of an integrated back-office solution is significant, but the ongoing benefit such a solution provides far outweighs the initial cost of the system.

Establishing a Business Case for Integrated ERP

Sometimes TMCs need help looking beyond the “sticker-price” on an ERP system. If they don’t fully understand all the real costs of their current system, these costs can get buried or even taken for granted but they add up fast and can quietly jeopardize the business. Establishing the true value of an ERP system is much easier once dollar values are attached to the many inefficient processes, errors and deficient commission collection. Consider some of the following estimates and see how dramatically CentralCommand can impact your revenue.

Recommendation

An investment in an enterprise system clearly outweighs the up-front and ongoing costs. Corporations in other industries have abandoned standalone, function-specific applications and are on board with the trend toward ERP. Travel companies can no longer afford to keep information in individual, insular applications. Competition will continue to drive down service fees and progressive TMCs can turn an investment in an integrated solution into a vital competitive advantage. Sabre CentralCommand with Agresso stands alone as a truly robust enterprise-level solution for TMCs that are still growing and need to compete in the marketplace.