Tour Operator & DMC software - Illusions Online Travel Technology - Articles - TTG Middle East

About Illusions Careers

Illusions Enterprise Illusions OnDemand

Hot off the Press
Illusions Online Articles

Articles	News & Updates \| Advertisements \| Articles \| Video

TTG - Middle East, Automation for the people
Magazine Issue: June, 2010

Click above image to zoom

A proactive approach to technology investment can no longer be underestimated, stresses CEO, Illusions Online Arabia, Faisal Memon, who explained to Claudio Saghbini about the company’s own award-winning products

TTG: Please give us a brief overview of Illusions Online Arabia.
For over a decade now, Illusions Online has been focusing on providing unique and customised technology solutions for the travel industry, more specifically for end-toend outbound and inbound tour operators and DMCs. We have been in Dubai since late 2002, and since then we have had fantastic feedback from the companies we’ve been working closely with, which include some of the biggest names in the region and internationally. The real culmination for us however was winning the World Travel Award (WTA) last year for the World’s Leading Travel Technology Provider 2009. That was the biggest highlight in the company’s history. And we have followed this success by winning this year as well – the prestigious WTA for the Middle East’s Leading Travel Technology Provider.

TTG: How can Illusions Online help tour operators and DMCs achieve their goals?
Our philosophy, and a big part of our vision, is to make sure that we are always ahead in technology. With this in mind, we use the latest technologies to enable the automation of travel companies and provide consumers with a simple and cost-effective way to book travel.
The idea is to enable all travel technology solutions under one roof, so that our clients can steer clear of operational complications and improve their high levels of service. What we bring to the table is automation across every function of the business – contracting, reservations, operations, accounts, sales and marketing, and planning and logistics – everything is connected. We are much more than just a reservation system. Our services include providing complete product and supplier management, client management including pricing and tariffs and Internet booking engines for B2B and B2C, dynamic packaging, CRM, XML/Web services integration capabilities with partners and suppliers, and an outstanding reporting and business intelligence framework.

"Customers don’t always understand what sort of benefits automation can bring to their business."

All these enable our clients’ distribution of their products to the travel trade and consumers efficiently with contractual changes, offers, and new products on sale – much, much faster than ever before. TTG: What are some of the challenges that your company faces in the region? One of the key challenges we face is that customers don’t always understand what kind of benefits automation can bring to their business. In general there’s two kinds of companies we come across – those which do not have any automation at all (or which is far too basic), and those which have automation but which they are not able to change in line with new trends and demands or new technologies.
Which ever the case, our aim is to help those who do not provide real time and online services to their customers, and who are looking to get to this level of automation. Our product allows our customers to run their business effectively and still be able to distribute to customers at minimum costs.
Traditionally the whole thing was manual. But now more and more customers are demanding better connectivity and real time access to products. Business today is becoming much more last-minute. Our clients have a very small window to be able to distribute those holidays, and so they need to have online real time information to succeed.

TTG: How has technology investment changed over the years in the industry?
We are seeing a huge change in management thinking when it comes to technology. If I go back to 2006-07, investment in technology was quite limited. I’m mainly referring to traditional companies here in the region – those family-run businesses which have been around for a long time and ask why they should spend money on technology if business is already strong.
What we’re seeing though, is that people are starting to appreciate the value of technology – looking at technology as an investment instead of a cost. Getting to that stage was a big challenge for us.
Of course in this industry it’s all about the people, skills, and entrepreneurs, but technology makes people work smarter.
It allows you to give consumers the services they are increasingly demanding. With Illusions Online technology, the biggest advantage is that our clients are online immediately, 24/7 in real time. And our technology brings a huge change to the business as well – above all it alleviates staff of time, allowing them to work on the more complex bookings.

TTG: How would you advise travel professionals looking to invest more in technology?
Automate, innovate or die! This may sound harsh, but it’s absolutely true. It’s a reality. And the sooner companies realise and accept this, the sooner they won’t be just another number. It’s all about automation and innovation – you’ve got to be different. If you are just like any other company out there then why would I come to you? Technology helps you to achieve things beyond just a strong company vision and quality staff.

"People are starting to appreciate the value of technology investment looking at technology as an investment instead of a cost. Getting to that stage was a big challenge for us"

TTG: What are your overall plans for the MENA region?
Well with regards to our latest version – Illusions V12 – the client feedback both in the region and globally tells us that it’s been absolutely amazing so far. I think the amount of functionality we have built in the platform has been tremendous – about a million dollars investment has gone into developing the latest version of our product.
And the third quarter of this year is going to be very exciting as well. Our focus so far has been mainly on big organisations – we’ve realised this and so what we are looking to do is add a more ‘scaled-down’, ‘off-the-shelf’ platform to allow smaller-sized enterprises to access our similar technology. We want to take our product to the masses at a fraction of the cost so that we can allow these smaller companies to enjoy the benefits of our technologies. That is going to be a huge part of our plans for later this year. There is also another large project we are working on but we will announce that closer to the time of launch – watch this space!

Source: www.ttgmena.com

Quick Links:

TTG - Middle East,
Automation for the people
Magazine Issue: June, 2010