SOUTH EAST ENGLAND TOURIST INDUSTRY FIRST TO BENEFIT FROM MULTI MILLION POUND INVESTMENT IN NATIONAL E-COMMERCE SHARED PLATFORM FOR SME TOURISM PROVIDERS
9 November 2005
Agilisys and Eviivo launch first ever national ‘out of the box’ e-commerce shared platform for SMEs
London, UK, 9 November – Agilisys, the leading technology and business process services provider, today announced that over 2,500 hotels, B&Bs and attractions in the South East of England will be able to benefit from a major national upgrade of the UK tourist industry’s e-commerce capability with the launch of EVIIVOfrontdesk™. Developed by Agilisys and Eviivo, the global provider of software to the tourism sector, EVIIVOfrontdesk gives tourism businesses an extremely low cost ‘out of the box’ e-commerce enabled website that can connect to the UK national tourism channel VisitBritain.com, the equivalent regional sites like visitsoutheastengland.com and major travel portals such as lastminute.com. In addition, it does not preclude hoteliers from using travel consolidators, and allows them to manage allocations in one place. Recent research conducted by VisitBritain shows that 50% of people now use the Internet when choosing a holiday.
By getting more tourism businesses online, Tourism South East expects EVIIVOfrontdesk to improve choice for leisure and business tourists, increase the popularity of the region, as well as attract additional investment in the region. In addition, South East tourism businesses listed on VisitBritain will also be able to attract a greater number of international travellers to the region. By standardising on EVIIVOfrontdesk Tourism South East will be able to carry out detailed analysis of visitor expenditure and the effectiveness of marketing campaigns.
EVIIVOfrontdesk works by giving tourism businesses the power to exploit the benefits of online distribution through an open platform connecting them to the main tourism distribution channels. Features include an up and running e-commerce enabled web-site in under two hours and the ability to add a ‘book now’ button to an existing website. EVIIVOfrontdesk also allows businesses to pick and choose which sales channels they want to use including local destination websites, regional websites or national sites such as VisitBritain.com.
For the first time ever, small accommodation providers in the UK tourism market will be able to harness the power of the web by creating their own fully e-commerce enabled web site with minimal upfront investment and low ongoing costs. Until now tourism businesses have been unable to fully benefit from the estimated millions of pounds UK consumers spend online a year on accommodation and leisure activities. Instead they have been limited to advertising on other third party websites or preparing their own simple brochure-style websites with no ecommerce capability. Consumer concerns about giving out credit card details over the phone, and the impracticality of sending cheques in the post, mean they have struggled to compete with large businesses.
EVIIVOfrontdesk 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.
Charles Mindenhall, Agilisys CEOadds “Agilisys’ experience in developing world class robust and complex technology solutions combined with Eviivo’s unparalleled knowledge of the travel and tourism sector has resulted in a product which is set to change the industry. Tourism businesses in the South East are very much at the cutting edge in being the first to adopt this technology. By delivering EVIIVOfrontdesk as a shared service for the UK tourism industry, consumers can now view and book from a much wider pool of attractions and accommodation, without having to send cheques in the post or disclose credit card details over the phone. EVIIVOfrontdesk is also a fully integrated management system which puts business owners in total control.”
Byron Woodmansee, Eviivo CEO comments “EVIIVOfrontdesk opens up a world of opportunity to businesses in the South East that have previously had to deal with a number of barriers in relation to the uptake of e-commerce. EVIIVOfrontdesk enables them to retain complete control of the inventory, pricing and distribution, and the cost of reaching new customers is now lower than ever. The impressive nature of the technology platform built in partnership with Agilisys will ensure we are well positioned to meet the growing demands for e-commerce needs of both tourism businesses and their consumers.”
Bob Collier, Managing Director of Tourism South East comments ”Tourism South East is permanently looking to improve the way in which tourism providers in the south east are supported. In EVIIVOfrontdesk we believe we are offering a genuinely compelling product to our members that will help them to generate increased business and to help them compete with larger international businesses on an equal footing”
For further information:
Becky Kiely/Helen Chung
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7608 2500
Email: agilisys@hotwirepr.com
About Agilisys Ltd
Agilisys is a leading technology and business process services provider for the UK public and private sectors, dedicated to helping our clients transform their customer services through innovation, flexibility and partnership. We design, build and operate technology-enabled business solutions and have earned a strong reputation across many sectors, particularly within local government, travel and tourism, and retail financial services. Agilisys has over 1,000 employees in the UK, Ireland and India. www.agilisys.co.uk
About Eviivo
Eviivo is the global licensor of a software solution known as EVIIVO tourism OBX (Open Bookings Exhange). Its core product is a booking engine that connects tourism businesses to sales channels in real time. 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. 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)