Travel Manager



As part of the Multi Vehicle / Day / Movements update to TravelManager we’re changing modules to support the new design. This involves adding more options and fields as well as updating the reports and widgets.

This week we’re going to be updating the Vehicles module with 2 minor changes:

1)   “Vehicle Type” will now use the same vehicle types used on the online quotation widget. This gives you total flexibility on the name and types of vehicles you present to the customer and use internally to reference vehicles

2)   “Details” has been added to allow for a short description for the new design e.g. Motorcoach with 54 seats has: “Leather Seats, Restroom & Airconditioning”

Changes to vehicles Updates to Vehicles Module (in development)

Update to Vehicle Module in TravelManager

*This feature is not on the live server yet but we recommend that you check you vehicle types in Account Information -> Admin -> Charter Settings (Private Hire Settings).

Eamonn

eamonn Updates to Vehicles Module (in development)

In the latest rollout we’ve added an upload facility to attach files to Charter / Private Hire Quotes / Booking. This facility allows for TravelManager users to attach documents that a client or subcontractor may have provided.

File Upload Facility in TravelManager Quotations Updates to Quotation Process and Email Templates

File Upload Facility in TravelManager Quotations

File Upload Facility in TravelManager 2 Updates to Quotation Process and Email Templates

File Upload Facility in TravelManager (part 2)

The email templates section has also been updated with the addition of some new Merge Fields such as “Customer Company/Group Name” and “System Generated Reference”. The layout of the fields have also been improved by grouping them into Customer, Quote and User/Company details. We hope this makes it easier to create your dynamic email templates.

New Layout Email Templates in TravelManager Updates to Quotation Process and Email Templates

New Layout for Email Templates in TravelManager

Finally, the HTML email template has now been moved ahead of the plain text template. The HTML email template is the default template and the plain text template is only displayed if the customer opts to view plain text rather than HTML.

Regards,

Eamonn

eamonn Updates to Quotation Process and Email Templates

As part of the ongoing improvement of TravelManager we’re always interested to hear from users on how they find the latest changes. So to make things easier here’s a few recent updates we’ve love to get feedback on.

  1. Mandatory Fields on the Quotation Widget (screenshot below)
  2. Ability to edit the vehicle types requested by a customer
  3. Upload facility to attach files to quotes
  4. General feedback on the email templates

We’ve already had some great comments and changes are already in development for this Saturday’s rollout.

Quotation Widget Mandatory Fields Latest Updates – Feedback Welcome

Mandatory Fields on the Quotation Widget

Regards,
Eamonn

eamonn Latest Updates – Feedback Welcome

As promised in last weeks blog post we’ve rolled out Email Templates this week so you can now create a range of emails to handle regular scenarios during the charter process. You have the full flexibility to have different templates for every step of the process from sending a quote, to confirmations and payment acknowledgement emails and more…

You’ll find the setup under MyAccount -> Admin -> Email Templates and to send this emails just click on the new button in Quotes.

TravelManager Template New Email Button Email Templates – Now LIVE in TravelManager

TravelManager New Email Button

Some of the advance features include:

  • Send both plain text and HTML emails
    TravelManager Email Template Email Formats Email Templates – Now LIVE in TravelManager

    Send HTML and Plain Text Emails from TravelManager

  • Automatically have attachments to your email templates

    Email Templates Email Templates – Now LIVE in TravelManager

    Automatically Attach Documents to Email Templates

  • Preview your emails before sending

    Email Templates Preview with Image and Attachment Email Templates – Now LIVE in TravelManager

    Preview with Image and Attachment

Emails are stored in Notes

TravelManager Email Templates Copied to Notes Email Templates – Now LIVE in TravelManager

TravelManager Emails are copied to Notes

We’ve more updates to follow next week to automatically trigger Status changes based on the email templates you use but more to follow on that early next week icon smile Email Templates – Now LIVE in TravelManager

*I’m running Webinars this week for any TravelManager user that wishes to get some training on this new feature. Email info@gotravelmanager.com for more information.

Regards,

Eamonn

eamonn Email Templates – Now LIVE in TravelManager

**To keep up to date with the latest news and feature updates you should subscribe to our RSS feed and follow our going effort to make TravelManager the best software solution for the Bus,  Motorcoach & Chauffeur industry.

Knowing your customer segments is an obvious one for Business Intelligence and every business has slightly different customers and segmentations depending on your location and operation size. So in this latest update to TravelManager we’ve add the facility to customize your list of customer types.

Customization of Customer Types2 Segment your Customers with TravelManager

Segment your Customers with TravelManager

(You can find this new feature in Account Information under MyAccount).

Account Information Segment your Customers with TravelManager

Understanding your segments will help with online marketing as well to identify opportunities for targeted marketing in new media like Social Media and niche websites. We see some really nice reporting to follow this update later in year to help extract even more information basis on segment buying patterns, travel patterns and more..

Why focus on the mass market when niches can provide more loyal and profitable customers? Do you really know your customers?

If your answer is No or not really….. then you should be using TravelManager icon smile Segment your Customers with TravelManager

Regards,

Eamonn

eamonn Segment your Customers with TravelManager


We’re fortune enough to work with a diverse group of Bus and Coach companies ranging from 1 vehicle businesses to 1,000+ vehicle business. Not only do we work with different size of operations our TravelManager users are geographically spread from areas as far as Australia to Iceland as well from Asia to North America so we really get a global perspective on the industry.

A key area for all customers is how then can become more efficient in managing the large amount of administration that occurs during the booking of a Bus or Coach. The client communication such as emails, phone calls, quotations, confirmations, contracts etc are all time consuming and critical in converting leads and providing good customer service.

So over the last few weeks we’ve been documenting all the feedback and building a really strong process to implement in TravelManager factoring all the different states of a quote from “New” right until Invoicing and Payment.

I think we have it cracked by giving our users the facility to track the status of every Charter/Private Hire and an email template engine to create multiple emails for every step of the booking process.

**Here’s a couple of screenshots for some of new features rolling next week.

Email Template Convert more leads with Email Templates in TravelManager

Email Template Engine adding default File attachments and Labels

*This feature allows users to create multiple email templates with the ability to label, associate with a “Status” of a quote and select files that will be attached by default e.g Terms & Conditions PDF or a Company Overview PDF etc

HTML Email Template Custom Fields Convert more leads with Email Templates in TravelManager

Create your own HTML Email Templates

*This new feature gives you the ability to create you’re own email templates so you can send nicely designed / styled emails with your logos and branding. Really helps your correspondence stand out from your competitors.

Regards,

Eamonn

eamonn Convert more leads with Email Templates in TravelManager

We’re testing some of the new features at the moment on the Beta server and if we’re happy with the results I think we’ll push out an early rollout next Tuesday rather than wait until the usual Saturday update!!!

We at TravelManager believe in open systems. Its your data after all.

So we have been working hard on a set of API’s which will allow you to access your data and integrate with your own systems.  Next week we will be published the APIs on the website so anyone can extend their own software based on TravelManager functionality.

Regards

Mike

We are working on a new website for TravelManager (www.gotravelmanager.com) and we expect it to be live within the next 2 weeks. We will have more info, more video, more help and more ideas.

Watch this space.

Regards

Dean

picture 3 DevDays 2009   iPhone Developer Workshop

The TravelManager team in Ireland attended “DevDays 2009″ to meet with other iPhone developers as well as Apple Engineers. It was a great opportunity to meet with fellow iPhone developers and we’ve even got a few people interested in developing on the TravelManager API’s!!

Everyone really liked the look of our iPhone App so we thought we’d share it a few pics with you:

tm iphone app menu1 DevDays 2009   iPhone Developer Workshop

***Main Menu in TM App

tm iphone app my open quotes DevDays 2009   iPhone Developer Workshop

***Open Quotes in TM App

One developer in particular has created an iPhone App for Dublin Bus timetables so that was really interesting for us to meet someone providing solutions for the same industry. More on that in the next few weeks as we start to finalize on iPhone apps (yes we’re going to have more than 1 App).
The conference highlighted the need to have a few Apps in the iTunes store and also for focus on multilingual offerings as most iPhone users really like to work in the native language (so lucky TravelManager can be language independent them icon wink DevDays 2009   iPhone Developer Workshop )


**We’re thinking about attending WWDC in June as the DevDays 2009 event really highlighted just how huge the iPhone is going to be after the next update in June. Any iPhone developers interested in developing iPhone Apps for TravelManager should  join us in attending WWDC before the end of  April.
(If the interest is high, in even just attending the event in June it makes sense to go as a group??)

I suspect this event is going to be a huge one that could the trip of a lifetime icon smile DevDays 2009   iPhone Developer Workshop

Regards,

Eamonn

*Weekly TravelManager rollout today will be posted about tomorrow..

The BBC has an interesting update on Microsofts next generation operating system once it retires windows.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7540282.stm

Currently named, Midori, it has the Internet at its centre and focuses on user mobility.

All the stuff we believe in at TravelManager then icon smile Microsofts next generation operating system is NOT windows

Dean