National Aardvark Day, on the 19th March, is when we like to celebrate all things aardvark, including our business!
It goes without saying that the last couple of years have been immensely challenging and distressing for people around the world. It has also had severe impacts on businesses in certain sectors, including the Travel Industry, where we do a lot of our work. We were initially hit badly right at the start of the pandemic, with existing contracts reduced and new projects dropped, but our clients soon realised the benefits we could bring through process efficiency and automation projects. Others took the opportunity to use the downtime to get major IT projects done. By the end of 2020 we were the busiest we ever have been.
Travel is now bouncing back strongly, and we had the great news this week that the final UK incoming restrictions were lifted. Our travel clients are increasingly adopting a more confident outlook, with strong sales for this summer and even recruiting again to support the increased volume of bookings.
We are still working hard to deliver efficiencies and improvements with our clients. Here’s some of the many things we have been working on over the past year:
Integrating the mTrip travel app with a tour operator’s Travel Studio reservations system, to provide guests with their itinerary and pre departure information on the app and online
Creating new integrations between a tour operator’s manage my booking site and Inspiretec’s Travelink Reservations systems though their CE API
Building an automated supplier invoice management and approval system using Laserfiche Forms, workflows and SQL
Fully automating a tour operator’s process for consolidating bookings on cancelled tours using workflow automation tools and API requests to their reservations system
Developing SQL procedures to automate client documentation and manifesting tasks with a Ski operator
Introducing automated gross profit reporting in Power BI using SQL connections to booking and loyalty systems at a tour operator
Integrating a new FX payments provider with our trade finance client’s transactional system, including beneficiary creation, rate quoting and completion of trades.
We’re looking forward to another busy year ahead.
Sadly, just as we start to recover from the pandemic here in the UK, we have been shocked and appalled to see what is happening to our friends in Ukraine. Every day we learn about atrocities that seem so unnecessary and barbaric, and like many people we feel angry but helpless that this is happening. As a token of recognition and support for all those whose lives have been shattered in Ukraine, we have made a £1000 donation to the British Red Cross Ukraine Crisis Appeal.
