NEWS FACE TO FACE


CHRIS NORTH


Vertical Systems


Chris North reveals his ambitions to modernise and grow Vertical Systems’ suite of tech platforms having taken over at the helm last year. Amie Keeley reports


Chris North was appointed managing director of the business in March last year, having worked for the Vertical Travel Group for 20 years, most recently for its tour operating division Instant Holidays. The business is perhaps best known for its Tarsc back- office yte et  by ro chief executive and industry stalwart Peter Healey in 1981. It is still widely used by agents – about40% of them, in fact – and underwent a major rebrand in November. North recalls: “When Peter


V


approached me I thought I was an odd choice because I am a travel man, without any tech background, but he said: ‘That’s exactly what we need’.


Products


“The word ‘legacy’ kept getting thrown around and one client named Tarsc ‘the old dusty box’, which stuck with me. It was legacy this, legacy that. It makes great rofit year after year bt we needed to modernise the brand.” As well as a new logo and team uniforms, North says he has tried


12travelweekly.co.uk3 January 2019


ertical Systems’ boss is first n remst  tre mn nt  teh mn.


There aren’t that many good search systems out there. Nobody has got the best. A lot look good, but the core fundamentals are not good enough


to “inject more fun” into the team to improve collaboration between staff and has taken them out of the building to attend workshops and more client events. In addition to Tarsc, Vertical


Systems has a suite of products: VHub (gateway); VCRM (customer database); VSearch (booking platform); and VPay (payment). Last year, the business launched


VCruise, a one-stop shop for cruise search, including pricing, dining options and itineraries. The tech can be white-labelled and used in B2B and B2C environments. “Previously there were different


logins for each product,” North says. “The biggest issue was that they each looked different with different fonts. But now everything looks the same and once you use one, you’re 70% there to be able to use another.” By March this year, all products


will be brought under one dashboard accessible through a single VHub login and be available


on any device, rather than just via desktop.


Future


Looking ahead, North says his main focus is to grow Vertical’s client base and beef up its sales and helpdesk teams. Last year, the business teamed


up with Travel Weekly to give away a ‘tech MOT’ to an agency and he said the group is in talks with two “big consortia” and independents. “We need to be out there more


so we’ll be attending a lot more events,” he says. “Tarsc is our core product but I want to get VSearch as big as Tarsc. “There aren’t that many good


search systems out there. Nobody has got the best. A lot look good, but the core fundamentals are not good enough. “The problem has arisen from


tech companies building the tech and not understanding travel. The drive on tech hasn’t been driven by travel people.”


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