TUI Nordic

Why PLM and Why TECHNIA?

In the travel business, charter trips used to be a pretty straightforward product: basically a flight and a hotel. There were few options, if any. Travel agencies developed their IT systems for bookings and the Internet, but detailed information on hotels, flights and other services were limited and hard to find.

“Such information was scattered in different systems, individual Excel lists or stored in some mainframe computer,” says Ulwahn. TUI Nordic includes Fritidsresor in Sweden, Finnmatkat in Finland, Star Tour in Norway and Denmark.

“We would guess what customers wanted, and it took months, sometimes a year, to produce a new travel product. We printed a catalog with our offerings twice a year,” says Ulwahn.

“More and more, customers were asking for additional services such as paying extra in order to have more luggage, for a baby carriage, or a golf bag on the flights. Customers wanted to know how much this would cost, what the seating and food options on the plane were, the kind of hotel rooms offered, or the tours and deals available at nearby restaurants. Something had to be done,” says Ulwahn.

The base for new offerings

“We needed all of this information in one place and to have it accessible for relevant staff at any time,” says Ulwahn. PLM started o in the manufacturing industry, to keep track of every nut and bolt in aircraft production. TUI Nordic was evaluating the system for a small project concerning hotels.

“We then realized that PLM could be used to keep track of all detailed information. We called in three suppliers to find out how it would work,” says Ulwahn.

TECHNIA had experience not only from the manufacturing industry, but also from Haglöfs and other apparel companies. That made an impression.

“PLM is a great support when you have a lot of information to keep track of, regardless of what product or service you are selling. The system gives you an overview and the base for new offerings,” says TECHNIA’s Sales Executive Arik Gilboa.

TUI Nordic named its PLM system the Travel Product Generator, TPG. It is integrated with all purchasing information. All products are updated and distributed to all systems, with one master.

Works for banks and telecom

By keeping track of all the details, TPG makes it easy to tailor customer demands and to make new products, even when they are complicated.

“For instance, we may have a hotel with 18 restaurants in the neighborhood with which we have favorable deals for our customers,” says Ulwahn.

“Or say, we have a hotel in Tenerife which does not sell as well as we hoped. Now we can reconfigure the offering and include tickets to the huge Tenerife Siam Water Park.”

The two-times-per-year printed catalogs have been replaced by 19 releases on the web. TUI Nordic is probably the first travel agency in the world to use PLM.

“PLM can work just as well for banks, insurance companies, and telecom operators, any company with a lot of products in different combinations,” Ulwahn says.

The next step could be equipping staff with TECHNIA’s TVC Mobile Access which would enable them to punch in information anywhere, for instance when visiting a new hotel. And the next generation travel sites may be when customers are allowed directly into the PLM system and are able to make their choices on their own and give feedback.