ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE
“PortmanOne is a game changer in the industry,” says Adrian Parkes of Portman. “It delivers high-quality, comprehensive, global and local point- of-sale content, ensuring our clients benefit from the best fares and rates, including ancillaries such as rail and ground transport services. “We bring together content from our trusted partner network Radius Travel, Travelport, local ancillary suppliers and global hotels,” he says. “It is a cloud-based technology platform that uses metasearch principles to present content quickly and efficiently, ensuring best results for our clients. It is a privilege to have won this award and we are proud to have our efforts in this competitive field recognised.” Portman’s decision to take control of its point-of-sale technology led the company to start from scratch, allowing it to iron out the inevitable glitches inherent in trying to integrate a number of existing systems. It has designed a system that gives best practice in every element of its function, from fare searches to total trip management.
WHY
The objectives were to create differentiation in a commoditised market, answer the client price challenge, improve consultant productivity, control and increase content and ancillary offering, deliver improved policy compliance for clients, and future-proof Portman for industry and social change.
HOW
PortmanOne stands out because it has the ability to check numerous global and ancillary markets on each search. It provides not only best-in-industry travel policy management, but the devil is in the detail, and trip management is also exemplary. Wide availability of content in the
leisure travel world has made all of us expert leisure travel buyers. However, this has skewed clients’ expectation of fare levels and has made the lives of business travel consultants a nightmare. They have to constantly contend with the cry: “I found it cheaper on Expedia/
“It is a privilege to have won this award and we are proud to have our efforts in this competitive field recognised”
Trivago, etc.” Even when these fares turn out to be less inviting or available than it appears, they still undermine trust in the agent. To unravel this jungle, PortmanOne
searches fares globally, to find a vast array of prices for the same seat. It also pulls content from multiple GDSs, 20 of Portman’s Radius Travel partners, plus a global supply of low-cost carriers from Travelfusion.
All this data is integrated into the company’s processes, providing comprehensive management information and payment references. Just one year after the launch, Portman clients had already made £2 million savings on air fares alone and greater client confidence has resulted in a 40 per cent increase in acceptance of the lowest fare offered. Similarly, Portman’s hotel content is now vastly superior, drawn from Expedia Affiliate Network, multiple GDSs and the Radius Travel Hotel programme. And PortmanOne allows consultants to choose the best hotel, not only by price but also relevance, taking into consideration office locations, proximity to restaurants, rail/ metro services and more. Ancillary products have traditionally
Pictured (l to r): Paul Wait, CEO, GTMC; Simon Ferguson, regional managing director, UK & Ireland and Nordic countries, Travelport; Steve Allen, CEO, Portman Travel; Paul Broughton, commercial director, Travelport; Adrian Parkes, chief commercial officer, Portman Travel
been offered on demand, which limited relevance and volume of sale. Starting with Heathrow Express, these are being integrated into PortmanOne, ensuring they are offered as part of trip management, bringing a holistic rather than arbitrary approach to the process. Delivering improved policy compliance, a pre-requisite of PortmanOne, is achieved by applying the finer details of travel policy to the search procedure to ensure content best matches policy. This has resulted in better compliance and improved ROI.
WHY
Adaptability and flexibility are key to future-proofing, so PortmanOne had to display those attributes to keep up with constantly changing technological and social advances without needing major development or investment. Portman had two advantages: it started from scratch and therefore was not limited by existing and often flawed systems; and it created a system that responds instantly to demand.
Portman has also addressed the diminishing source of employees by launching a talent academy, which focuses on service delivery, industry knowledge and sales skills. And PortmanOne contains a networking product that allows instant messaging across the Portman office and its content partners in Radius Travel, facilitating shared knowledge and best practice. Clients are also about to gain further benefit from all the advantages and attributes of PortmanOne with the launch of the PortmanOne self-booking tool by Q3 this year.
IT DOESN’T STOP HERE Planned additions to PortmanOne include the integration of ground transportation content from Groundscope; and automatic fare and rate re-checking and rebooking, to ensure that if the price of a room or ticket drops, it can be rebooked at the cheaper rate and the customer refunded. PortmanOne Radar will
allow the company to track online bookings on third party tools to identify savings opportunities; further hotel content will be sourced from the biggest global wholesaler; and automated reading of customer emails will inform reservations, taking account of client buying behaviour and travel policy, before being added to an agent’s queue for checking.
In short, PortmanOne will leave no stone unturned to find content from an unprecedented breadth of sources. It is, possibly, the Holy Grail.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92