OpenTravel CRM™, a new web based travel customer relationship management (CRM), marketing and back office solution for travel agencies, has reported that its user base has grown to over 2,000 users in a little over 4 months since its launch. OpenTravel CRM™ is a novel offering that provides travel agencies with free use of travel software. Its business model is based on travel supplier advertising and offers which place travel suppliers in front of the agent user audience through the business desktop. This next generation advertising medium has been coined by some in the internet commerce space as “appvertising.”
Joseph Mazzarella, president and CEO of Travel Sciences, which developed OpenTravel CRM™ said, “we are very gratified with the exceptional growth we have experienced. It still continues to amaze us. New users join everyday and our community just continues to grow and grow with no end in sight. I think most importantly, these are users that are actively engaging the web application unlike other communities with passive user counts.” Mazzarella also highlighted that “interest from travel suppliers is also rapidly increasing as our community size has reached critical size and mass. OpenTravel CRM™ is a phenomenal way for travel suppliers to effectively reach their channel partners while, demonstrating an investment in their success. The benefits are synergistic because suppliers have an effective and targeted venue for their messages while also providing a unique and real benefit to travel agents that helps them sell and market more effectively. This builds long term channel partner loyalty. We think sponsoring and supporting OpenTravel CRM™ provides suppliers with great ROI.”
OpenTravel CRM™ was designed to reach out to the agent community and help organize, maintain and grow their businesses. It helps facilitate the growth of existing and new customer relationships by knowing those customers better, understanding what they like and bringing them products that they want. It also has a set of “easy to use marketing and selling tools that can be used everyday to grow the business,” says Mazzarella.
OTC broke new ground with the first Web 2.0 based business management tool for the travel professional community. OpenTravel CRM™ is also built on a high scalability, enterprise foundation. It was built from the ground up with the newest web technologies available. “This is not out-dated technology resurrected and repackaged around a pretty web front-end. This is brand new, best of breed, enterprise level software,” says Mazzarella. Commercial paid license versions of the software with no advertising are available for larger travel agencies, tour operators and other organizations.
The core functions complimented by advanced Web 2.0 features include an integrated RSS reader, instant messaging and online presence monitoring, Skype and interactive mapping. Also, online community networking technologies, such as integrated blogging and publishing, and online forums, are meshed into and part of the business solution. In November, OpenTravel CRM™ announced it had completed integration of its CRM customer profiles with FaceBook profiles, providing additional insight into who customers really are.
All that travel agents need to do to get up and running on this robust, new platform is log onto www.opentravelcrm.com and enter a user ID and password and their account will be created. OpenTravel CRM™ also offers optional, but non-essential, premium pay based services that to users, however these services are not required in order to fully use the core CRM, marketing and back office features of the solution.
Formed in 2001, the Hartford-based Travel Sciences is a leading developer of intelligent, web-based software solutions for the travel industry. It offers reservations, distribution and business automation solutions for cruise lines, tour operators and retail travel business