Coach Software :: Travel Manager

August 12, 2009 – 4:38 am

We have been working on the tours functionality for the last few months and have been in a closed beta environment for the past 2 weeks. We expect to have the completed functionality available within the next couple of weeks to a select group of companies keen to take advantage of some of the most cutting edge technology available. What can you expect from the TravelManager tours solution?

Real-Time, Database driven - so you enter your tours in once and they are available in real-time across the Internet

Widgit based - yout tour information is available on your website, on your partners website, on your resellers websites and even within your / their emails. Enter once – use many many time to maximise your exposure and drive sales!

Export to PDF / Word – dont create seperate word or PDF documents. The solution will automatically convert your tour information into a visually impressive PDF or Word document without you having to lift a finger.

Multi-Lingual – Currently sell in English but want to sell in French also? Easy – let the solution translate the data for you in real-time.

Payments online – take credit card payments online using the power of Google Checkout. No Fuss! Just a simple elegant payment solution – available worldwide.

SEO Friendly – make sure your at the top of the search engines with a unique SEO friendly approach to getting your tours listed properly.

Images & Video - allow your visitors to really experience what you have to offer on your tours by providing unlimted photos and video clips. You just upload them and our platform will do the rest.

We’ll have more information on the tours module soon.

Regards

Dean

June 22, 2009 – 1:36 pm

We have been working on the next phase of the tours module over this past 6 weeks and have prototyped the solution that will allow tour operators to embedd their own tours into their own website and allow customers to book tours online.

When a custoemr / prospective customer visits your site they will be able to choose from your tour list.

and see a detailed itinerary of your tours.

and any other information you with to include.

including videos.

before the book

We will put up a demonstration site within the next week or two so you can play with the functionality with some demonstration data / tours.

If you would like further information on this functionality – don’t hesitate to contact us.

March 15, 2009 – 5:33 pm

The TravelManager testing team has successfully completed the ISTQB certification exams.

By following an internationally recognised standard throughout our testing process we can be assured that the quality and integrity of our solutions is of the highest level.

Well Done guys!!

Dean

March 6, 2009 – 12:16 pm

I read a great article in Fortune Magazine yesterday that really captured the conflict that nearly every business finds itself today regarding pricing for 2009. By using a Pricing Power Matrix smart companies are using this tool to analyze their customers perception of their product or service.

Getting your customer to pay more

It works by identifying two things are your services a Commodity or Unique and are they Discretionary or Necessary?

With a lot of uncertainty for 2009 it’s so important that the Motorcoach Industry resist the pressure on pricing. Short-term pain of falling revenue is leading Motorcoach Operators to discounting, which can impact long-term effects on customer perceptions.
So what do you do to increase your pricing when everyone else is dropping them? You need to looking becoming more:
1. Unique: Make your Service as unique as possible with lots of value add that your competitors are not willing or capable of doing
2. Necessary: Focus on the customers or sectors that need your service more than ever
As TravelManager focuses on Customer Facing side of your business we can help you do both by marketing more effectively, increasing the understanding of your customers needs, identifying new opportunities for your business and more..

So are up for the challenge? By updating the software every week we can make you more UNIQUE not to mention with all the rising costs of Travel (environmental and financial) the Motorcoach can become very NECESSARY!

February 12, 2009 – 10:20 pm

While the techies are enjoying themselves this week at iTM 2009, developer conference it’s good to remind our users what TravelManager is all about, YOU the end user!

It’s a lot more than just a fancy looking software system with a “Dashboard” it’s actually something that can make you day-to-day life easier as Motor Coach Operator. By providing some easy to user tools “Widgets” for handling quotations via your website or over the phone TravelManager can save you time, make you look good to your customers and also give you a better understanding of how you’re performing.

The additional benefits include that we take your ideas and feedback to improve TravelManager with our weekly updates means that you’re more in control of how things should work. Better still you’re getting all those great ideas from other users, sometimes things you’d have never thought of. It’s amazing how much we’ve learned from our users feedback.

Remember YOU will probably come up with better ideas than the TECHIES so make sure you click on “Feedback” when your using TravelManager…

Regards,

Eamonn

February 10, 2009 – 7:25 am

Tomorrow sees the start of the first annual International TravelManager (iTM 2009) developer conference in Sheffield, UK.

We will see developers from many different countries (UK, Ireland, Netherlands, India, China, & North America) come together (both physically and via video uplinks) to discuss some of the exciting technical developments occuring right now and how they may be best implemented into the TravelManager platform for the benefit of our customers.

High on the agenda of iTM 2009 is API extensions using Open Standards, iPhone / Android development, next generation video platforms & GPS systems.

More information to follow soon….

Regards

Dean

February 9, 2009 – 9:56 pm

Today, we have purchased a whole suite of Apple Mac equipment for the office and signed up to Apples iPhone Developer program in anticipation of getting our first iPhone native application for TravelManager out of the door within the next couple of months.

Let us know what features and functionality you are looking for. We are currently thinking along the lines of;-

New Quotes & Quick Respond
Customer Feedback & Quick Respond
Website click through analysis
Industry RSS Newsfeeder
Profile updater
Garage Defect Sheet / Vehicle Check Sheet
What else?

Regards

Dean

February 7, 2009 – 8:45 am

This morning we rolled out the following functionality:

[1] IMG / GPN Member Profiles. This can be found under the MyAccount -> Profile Builder section.

[2] Customisable vehicle types for the quotation widget. You can now add your own vehicle types under the “Charter Settings” screen and these vehicles show up in your quotations widget as options for users to choose.

[3] Documents created as PDF files now have a more obvious naming convention . The file name is the quote or invoice number. eg. Quote 324 will create a PDF file Q000324.pdf etc.

Regards

Dean

January 24, 2009 – 8:40 am

We have rolled out a number of improvements to the platform this morning – as requested by users. They are:-

[1] Ability to change the default terms on quotations

[2] Amendments to the “All Quotes Status” report. We have added the referrer site to quotes so you can see exactly where the quote came in from online

[3] Improved the viewing of emails sent to customers

[4] Improvements to the mileage calculations within North American locations.

[5] Amended the wording and order of certain fields on the North American version of the quotations form.

[6] Improvements to the main dashboard screen from a cosmetic and performance perspective.

[7] Improved navigation of searching for quotes from the quotes listing screen

[8] Improved the performance of 2 reports – brought the run tme down from 8s to less than 1s

As per the previous posting we are also working on improvements to the “Additional Fields” section of the quotation process as well as a number of new reports to help you plan your marketing strategy and gather intelligence on your ROI etc.

We have now clsoed 89 feedback items since December 1st 2008 and have 9 outstanding feedback requests which look as though they will all be completed within the next 2 weeks amongst other items. So keep your feedback coming

Regards

Dean

January 10, 2009 – 9:35 am

This morning we rolled out some new functionality / improvements.

They include:

[1] Included company contact details on all quote correspondance from the system

[2] Multiple users in multiple offices to be able to share / distribute quotes

[3] Quotes status report – showing all incoming quotes and their current status (responded, booked, declined etc.)

[4] Users can now have personalised signatures with their own contact details

[5] Ability to have a “canned” message for all quote correspondance. The message can be updated in real-time and templates can be added on a per company basis.

[6] New report showing where quotes are coming from (your website or 3rd party website)

[7] Customer contact information is now displayed at the top of each quote page

[8] Ability to duplicate a quote so you can create multiple bookings from the one query

We will be posting next weeks development schedule each monday morning and posting a post-rollout article each weekend to keep you abreast of the new additions / improvements to the TravelManager platform. So if you are interested in whats new and whats coming up please subscribe to our RSS feed on the right of this screen – or add the Blog widget to your dashboard in TravelManager.

Regards

Dean

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