Magazine Issue: June, 2011
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Illusions is a global travel technology company providing online enterprise solutions software for tour operators and destination management companies. Implementing the latest automation technology, Illusions provides consumers with a simple, cost-effective way to book travel. The New Europe speaks to CEO Faisal Memon about innovation and strategy…
It is a tremendous feat of technology how the travel and tourism industry has evolved with the demands of the modern traveller. Bridging continents and narrowing the planet's horizons has become a recipe for commercial success as travel companies harness the wanderlust in everybody, making the reality of international travel simpler. Illusions Online has led the way in providing a multi-user platform that makes the interaction between the traveller and the world beyond seamless, beyond expectation. In a nutshell, Illusions brings into play the latest technology, enabling the automation of travel companies to bring more choice than ever to the customer's fingertips.
Illusions' products have become integral to the travel industry, because they cut through the operational nightmares and complications by providing a complete solution for an entire travel business under one roof. There are many products in the Illusions portfolio depending on the nature of the travel business; be it a tour operator, a travel agent or a DMC, Illusions have a solution for all to fit the brief that will simplistically adapt and respond to the ever-changing market conditions. "Each company is unique in its own sense," Illusions CEO Faisal Memon tells me from his office in Dubai, "so it puts extra responsibility on our shoulders to make sure we do end up providing the ultimate service and the best platform to partners in the same market."
And deliver they do, an achievement recognised two years running as the World's and the Middle East's Leading Travel Technology Provider at the World Travel Awards 2009 & 2010.
Automated vision
Like all leading entrepreneurs, Faisal Memon built his company from the bottom up, seizing new opportunities as they arose and investing with courage, believing all the time in his vision of a multi-solutions provider for the online travel industry. Illusions began life in 1997 as a general software provider before branching off into the travel and tourism space. "It all started with the first customer," Memon explains as a simple matter of fact, when I ask him how the diversification into the travel market came about,"In 1999 a wholesaler in London was looking to automate his business and provide online booking facilities for his tour operator customers around the world." Illusions delivered a complete automation platform in less than six months. Furthermore, it was one of the very first online booking systems for tour operators on the internet. So the gap in the market was apparent, all that was needed was some very bold decision making, Memon confirms this: "In those days the internet was all about surfing and email, so it was a brave decision to shift the entire focus of our company over to the web."
Operational efficiency
Illusions encapsulates industry requirements in a holistic manner by providing complete product management, including: contracting, pricing and tariff management, internet booking engines for travel agencies (B2B) and consumers (B2C), dynamic packaging, CRM, XML/Web services integration capabilities with partners and suppliers and an outstanding reporting and business intelligence framework. This enables distribution of products to the travel industry and to consumers efficiently. Therefore new products are on sale much faster than ever before. Specifically, Illusions helps to target operational efficiency, increase product choice and thus maximise a company's capacity to trade. Equipped with a dedicated research and development team Illusions always ensures that its clients are up to date with the latest business intelligence data and thereby at the forefront of their particular market.
Staying at the vanguard of technology has provided the key to Illusions' success. The company is now in the 13th version of their product, for a company that has been involved in the travel sector for 12 years that's some intensive research and development. Illusions use every stage of product development to build partnerships with customers. Throughout the software testing process, dedicated customers will put Illusions software through its paces, allowing the Illusions team to get a handle on real-time performance while the customer stays ahead of the curve by being on board with the R&D process. It's immaculate business evolution. "People talk about the cloud, we've been on the cloud for years, and it allows us to distribute our platform to the different segments within the travel industry," Memon adds.
21st Century pressure
The enduring phenomena of the internet is as new technology becomes available so people's behaviour changes. This is especially true in the travel industry where the phrase "last-minute" has become an integral part of the lexicon, and the tug of war between supply and demand is at its most intense. It is a trend that offers opportunities and challenges in equal measures and has given Illusions the platform to prosper, but only through hard work borne of the pressure from rapidly evolving technology, Memon agrees: "Gone are the days when somebody sends an email, or phones and waits for you to reply, it's either 'now' or I'm going somewhere else." This is the pressure that the tour operators and agents are under from the customer and is precisely what Illusions equips its clients to cope with. Illusions ensures that their clients are the ones doing business by providing them with a platform that offers the ultimate in streamlined efficiency. Illusions' clients can give the customer what they want when they want it.
Market insight
The specification for the technology depends on the user requirements; there is an edition of the OnDemand platform – one of Illusions most popular editions – which is free to travel agents, with another license available to small to medium inbound and outbound tour operators, and then licenses with bespoke features available for the big enterprise companies. The bewildering array of variables catered for within the platform encompasses every part of the supply chain. Memon explains the possibilities: "Our clients might be selling in multiple markets, through multiple currencies, and with multiple mark-ups, all of these are managed within the platform." The system then offers the powerful booking engines for the client's staff to access, within which are B2B options for selling to trade partners and options to go straight to the consumer. Everything is connected throughout the client's administration side: contracts, accounts, sales and marketing, reservations, planning and logistics. If you were looking to start up your own tour operator, Illusions can cover every last detail to get you up and running.
The project that seems to particularly excite the Illusions CEO is the creation of their own travel exchange: "We are creating our own B2B marketplace, where we allow our customers to trade off each other," says Memon, "The idea is to be able to connect through our exchange where we have all of our customers' products (inventory) available in one marketplace; it allows them to cross-sell to each other and adds another dimension to the distribution." Just through being part of the Illusions exchange a customer can be getting revenue from other businesses around the world that they have never heard of; "We are moving on from being another software provider to becoming a distribution partner," Memon adds.
24/7 partner
No one is more acutely aware of the need to stay ahead of the technological curve than the Illusions CEO. But Faisal Memon is equally aware of how important it is that clients understand what it is that they are buying and how it should be implemented. He highlights a common failure for travel businesses is to invest in technology providers without fully understanding how to get the best out of the technology itself: "We are not just in the business of providing software – I make that clear from the beginning", he asserts, "We want to make sure the client sees the bigger picture, and we pride ourselves on introducing best practice along the way. If we see a problem, we will highlight it."
Illusions is developing strategically into an new exciting phase and an exciting new contract recently secured with Go Vacation Thailand – one of the biggest DMCs in Asia and part of the German REWE Group – has laid a cornerstone to what promises to be an exciting period of growth. The deserved success is a product of a studied business model that adapts to and then marries advances in technology to the needs of the customer. The way that we travel is evolving. Illusions Online are at the heart of that evolution.
Source: http://www.theneweurope.co.uk/
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The New Europe - Illusions: Taking travel technology to new levels
