Background
Hoseasons Group Ltd., a privately owned UK company, is the largest independent tour operator for UK self-catering holidays representing holiday parks, country cottage and boatyard owners and partners in the UK and Europe. Holidays are sold through travel agents from Hoseasons brochures 4 million of which are published annually. Customers select a holiday from a brochure and then check with Hoseasons Call Centre or their travel agent for availability. Travel Agents confirm bookings via a Videotext on-line booking system directly into the Hoseasons reservation system.
A New Business Strategy: Web Technology and E-Commerce
Initially, Hoseasons viewed the Internet as a marketing tool to promote their brand name and to help users contact them. The first Web site was published in 1995. As their interest in E-commerce increased, Hoseasons started to look at how on-line services could benefit their owners, customers and business partners. They foresaw how this would work within their own business environment:-
- Possible user benefits – Customers would be able to search for holiday alternatives at their leisure. They could book and pay on-line in a single operation.
- New market – A new market of foreign customers wishing to visit the UK could be developed without the expense of traditional direct marketing.
- New route to market – Hoseasons recognised the potential in providing an alternative channel to market that would be open 24 hours per day 7 days per week.
- New user benefits – Users would realise real time, instant booking, instant payment (via on-line credit card), instant confirmation, and instant travel instructions.
Solution Requirements
Of major interest to Hoseasons was a Business-to-Consumer solution, which required a complete range of Internet based E-commerce services interacting with their existing reservation system. Hoseasons also required a Business-to-Business extranet solution whereby holiday park and boatyard owners could access the reservation system securely and make bookings themselves or review the status of the Hoseasons bookings/availability.
The existing host platform for the reservation application is an ICL mainframe running the VME operating system. The host system is connected to the Web server via an OSI LAN through a firewall. Current Web services also include e-mail. The Hoseasons IT personnel have ICL programming skills and are responsible for the existing Web page graphic design.
Host applications that require extending to customers include brochure requests, booking status, availability search, quotations, booking, payment confirmation and acknowledgement, and travel instructions.
Unlike many E-commerce projects, the Hoseasons implementation strategy was to roll out on-line services in a series of steps rather than take a big bang approach. The functionality, performance and user friendliness of each step was to be fully tested with selected users before being implemented on the live Web site.
Selecting the Supplier
Hoseasons considered three possible solutions:
- Rewrite the reservation application
- Write a front-end application in VB or Java
- Purchase a middleware integration software package
After careful review it was decided that options 1 and 2 would be too costly and take too long to roll out. Hoseasons decided to search for a UK supplier with a proven product and the expertise to integrate real time transaction applications.
Two suppliers with ICL and Web integration expertise were selected and after a review of the companies' products and skill sets, proof of concepts were arranged.
Modcomp demonstrated conclusively that it could meet Hoseason's selection criteria, and was awarded the contract.
The ViewMax Solution
Modcomp's unique Web server software, ViewMax, enabled the rapid build and development of the Hoseasons Web site. The selection of this product also provided a long-term strategic goal to implement multiple phases in small steps.
In the initial phase of the project Modcomp designed the interactive ViewMax applications to mirror the host services on-line while the Hoseasons team provided the Web site corporate image and design. Users now have online services that include:
- Property owner access
- Brochure requests
- Holiday booking status
- Holiday availability search
- On-line quotations
- On-line bookings
- Acknowledgement
- Travel instructions
Plans for the second phase of on-line services include implementation of two new models. A Business-to-Business model that replaces agents' Viewdata booking systems and a Business-to-Consumer model that includes an addition of an on-line brochure that has direct links from availability search results to images and brochure details.
One-Stop Travel Source
The Hoseasons E-commerce solution has provided a portal for each category of Hoseason's users:
- Public - has 24-hour on-line access via the internet for UK holiday package bookings from anywhere in the world. This is available to anyone with Internet access and a browser.
- Owners/Partners - can access their individual account status within the reservation system via a private secure extranet.
- Support staff - can monitor incoming Web transactions on the mainframe via the internal intranet.
Conclusion
Hoseasons was pleased with the ability of ViewMax to enhance the functionality of their mainframe applications cost-effectively and quickly. "We would not have been able to roll out this project as quickly as we did without ViewMax and the expertise of Modcomp’s team. They guaranteed a result and they did it within the budgeted project cost," said Richard Overy, Hoseasons technical director.
Hoseasons anticipates that with the growth of Internet access, the travel industry is set for a revolution in E-commerce. They expect 30% of their business to come through this route within the next three years.
Modcomp's solution will help Hoseasons meet this growing demand.
Hoseasons is a leader in the UK holiday market business.