REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AGENCY ONE NORTHEAST SELECTS AGILISYS FOR MULTI MILLION POUND INVESTMENT IN REGIONAL E-COMMERCE TOURISM PLATFORM
Agilisys, EVIIVO and New Mind work with One NorthEast in the biggest investment of its kind to bring SMEs in the NorthEast online
26 April 2006
London, UK, 26 April 2006 - Agilisys, the leading technology and business process services provider, today announces that it has been selected by Regional Development Agency One NorthEast to deliver the North East England Tourism e-Business Platform. Together with EVIIVO and New Mind, this multi-million pound investment will bring up to 5,000 providers, such as guest houses, B&Bs, hotels and local attractions, online through a fully integrated regional solution.
The EVIIVO frontdesk™ solution has been developed to give tourism businesses a low cost 'out of the box' e-commerce enabled website that can connect not only to regional tourism hubs and destination management systems, built by partner New Mind, but also to the UK national tourism channel VisitBritain.com and other major travel portals. Features include a fully e-commerce enabled web-site, with an installation time of less than two hours, and the ability to add a 'book now' button to an existing website. All of this is underpinned by one single product database. VISIT Services Limited will provide additional services such as user training as part of the three-year contract.
By bringing additional tourism businesses onto an integrated platform, One NorthEast aims to revolutionise its approach to tourism development, management and delivery by improving visitor access to quality and comprehensive information about the region and its destinations. EVIIVO frontdesk™ is also a business management tool for owner managers, reducing their reliance on paper records by electronically recording all bookings. This is expected to increase the overall efficiency of tourism businesses in the region and improve customer service.
Louise Davis, Head of Tourism for One NorthEast, says, "Technology will play a fundamental role in helping us achieve our ambitious targets set out in the North East England Tourism Strategy 2005-2010. Working with Agilisys, EVIIVO and New Mind, we are enabling a step change in the take-up and use of tourism e-Business opportunities in the region by engaging with large and small businesses at an unprecedented level, offering businesses in North East England access to the international market and the ability to compete in the global marketplace."
Charles Mindenhall, Agilisys CEO, comments, "The UK's tourism industry is worth close to £80 billion. For the first time ever, a 5-bedroomed B&B has access to some of the same distribution channels as a large hotel chain. Before now it was impossible for them to compete - but with this investment they are now able to harness the power of the Internet at minimal cost."
Ian Griffin, EVIIVO's Chairman comments "Agilisys has assembled one of the finest teams of UK tourism technology companies to deliver this solution for One NorthEast. The combined offering of EVIIVO and New Mind along with the support and training services offered by VISIT Services Limited will firmly position One NorthEast as a leader in the adoption of tourism technology, that not only delivers to the visitor, but also provides an opportunity for the region's visitor economy to access and exploit a wide range of e-commerce services. This represents a significant milestone in the Regional Development Agency's push towards e-commerce enabling small and medium businesses in this core industry sector."
For further information:
Christine Grady
Agilisys
christine.grady@agilisys.co.uk
0208-237-6111
About Agilisys Ltd
Agilisys is the UK's most innovative IT and business process service provider, transforming the way our clients deliver services to their customers through the use of strategic, affordable, shared service platforms.
Working for both the public and private sector, we have earned a strong reputation and hold deep domain expertise within local government, travel and tourism, retail financial services and healthcare. Agilisys has over 1,000 employees in the UK, Ireland and India. (www.agilisys.co.uk)
About EVIIVO frontdesk
EVIIVO is a global licensor of software solutions headquartered in the UK. In a global setting we target National Tourism Offices and Destination Management Organisations as well as private sector partners. In a local UK setting we are focused on targeting accommodation, tours, attractions and event businesses with our revolutionary product, EVIIVO frontdesk™ (www.eviivo.com)
The EVIIVO frontdesk solution has been developed to give tourism businesses an extremely low cost 'out of the box' e-commerce enabled website that can connect not only to regional tourism hubs and Destination Management Systems, built by partner New Mind, but also to the UK national tourism channel VisitBritain.com and other major travel portals.
Its product is unique because it enables accommodation, tours, attractions and event businesses to create their own fully e-commerce enabled web site; manage yield and inventory for a number of distribution channels as well as other key aspects of their business in a single application.
About New Mind
New Mind specialises in delivering positive business results through innovative web design, inspirational on and off-line marketing campaigns, high performance database-driven e-commerce sites and sophisticated search engine optimisation techniques. They offer a fully integrated approach providing a range of marketing services from a single source. This strategy guarantees consistency of design, strong technical foundations and a marketing orientation throughout every project they undertake. (www.newmind.co.uk)
About VISIT Services
VISIT Services delivers customer-drive e-business solutions incorporating a fully web-enabled Destination Management System (DMS), project management services, training, customer care services, operational and technical support and the platform for specifying new developments to meet ongoing local market and business operation requirements. The partnership between VISIT Services and New Mind was formed in 2004 and brings together sector leading technology and first class customer service to provide an unbeatable solution to Tourist Operators in the UK.
About One NorthEast
One NorthEast is the Regional Development Agency (RDA) covering the North East region of England, comprising Northumberland, Tyne & Wear, County Durham and Tees Valley.(www.onenortheast.co.uk)