Case Study: System Procurement

A tour operator wished to purchase a new reservation system, having outgrown the in-house developed system that had been used for several years. The concern was to ensure that the new system would match users' requirements and provide a useful service life of at least eight years. Genesys' travel technology consultants reviewed the company's operations and prepared a business requirement specification. This formed part of a written invitation to tender (ITT) carefully developed by Genesys to ensure a comprehensive and uniform response from suppliers.

Genesys recommended a short list of suppliers to receive the ITT and facilitate meetings with the suppliers.

Genesys prepared a comprehensive, multi-level, hierarchical spreadsheet scoring system with which to assess the suppliers and their tenders. The system allowed the tour operator to weight its priorities in order to understand what factors were more important than others in choosing a preferred supplier.

The outcome was the selection of a system that offered the most optimal fit to the tour operator's requirements. As the ITT and suppliers' responses were in writing, these formed part of the contract so minimising the risk inherent in procuring a complex computer system.

With our extensive experience of system supplier negotiations, Genesys was able to save the tour operator a considerable sum of money off the preferred supplier's quotation.

Case Study: Website Audit

A client had invested heavily in an online booking system but was extremely disappointed in the low number of bookings being achieved. Genesys was invited to carry out a detailed audit of the website. In addition to a forensic examination of the booking process, we reviewed factors such as the website's capacity for inspiration, page layouts, navigation, information provision, performance, brand integration, community facilities and search engine optimisation.

The result of our work was the identification of a range of tangible reasons why the website was performing so poorly. These have been addressed by the client, resulting in a substantial boost in online bookings and revenue.

Case Study: I.T. Strategy

A travel company was concerned that its use of information technology had developed in a haphazard manner and that it was not truly benefiting from its investment in I.T. Genesys was requested to assess the current situation and make recommendations for the next five years that would see the company making more efficient and effective use of I.T. and gain competitive advantage over its competitors.

Genesys reviewed all aspects of I.T. including effectiveness of reservation and administration systems, deployment of PCs and PC networks, utilisation and transfer charging of I.T. personnel, performance of third party suppliers and development of electronic distribution.

We then formulated a five year roadmap to transition the travel company from its current position towards a position where I.T was streamlined and truly serving the business.

The result was substantial financial savings realised through increased efficiency and re-structuring of supplier contracts and increased effectiveness in the marketplace through improved electronic distribution.

Case Study: Business Process Re-Engineering

A cruise line wanted to ensure that efficiency gains would be maximised when rolling out a new sales and administration system that it was developing. Genesys was called in to conduct a full review of the project from every aspect. This included an audit of system usability, planned functionality and a full review of all business processes; the purpose being to map system usage against processes, so identifying any efficiency gaps.

We made recommendations in several areas. These included adjustments to the look and feel of the system's user interface to improve usability, changes and enhancements to planned functionality and adjustments to working practices so that full advantage could be taken of the gains in automation.

The outcome was a substantial improvement in the effectiveness and efficiency of the organisation, allowing staff to be re-deployed from mundane administrative tasks to business winning activities.