TourTailors is a tour operator specializing in organizing self-guided tours in Portugal, Spain, and Italy. Their trips include a personalized itinerary and the selection of hotels and activities based on each customer's interests and budget. They provide consulting services in trip preparation, handle reservations, and offer support before and during the journey, including 24-hour assistance for a worry-free experience.
Due to the digital nature of their business, technology plays a critical role, and the existing system no longer met the evolving needs of the business, market, team, and customers. The main goal of the project was to ensure a significant leap in this area to increase productivity, streamline operations, improve delivery accuracy, and optimize response times, from the initial customer contact to post-trip.
"The Tourism sector requires extensive use of technology to deliver value to customers. Investing in technology and innovation is a strategic factor for us." says Eduardo Melo Claúdio, Founder & CEO of TourTailors.
"We wanted to be more effective and efficient in communication and service to customers, especially in the production of proposals and roadbooks, reservation creation, and travel support documentation." continues Eduardo Melo Claúdio.
To achieve this, the company sought custom software that addressed the challenges of all involved teams and created a competitive advantage over other players.
Create IT was selected to develop the software based on various recommendations and an assessment of its portfolio. As Pedro Duque, IT Manager at TourTailors, highlights, "After the project's start, the satisfaction level with the team justified the decision."
The platform, named TripPlan, includes features such as Enquiry (customer request analysis), Price (travel budgeting), Itinerary (itinerary design), Roadbook, GPS, and email interactions at various process steps. It is integrated with various systems, including ERP, Website, and Communications.
"Our business area had to learn to work with agile methodologies, especially with the SCRUM framework, but we consider it a very quick and easy adaptation. In the transition to the production phase, both teams - TourTailors and Create IT - positively contributed to overcoming any obstacles" explains Diana Ramos, Director of Product Management at TourTailors.
The project involved five people, and the technologies used included C#, .Net, REACT, MSSQL, AWS, and Azure. According to Pedro Duque, "The collaboration between the teams was essential for the project's success. We maintained active and positive communication, exchanging ideas regularly and solving challenges together. The commitment of each member, combined with teamwork, allowed for synergy that drove innovation and consistent results."
With the implementation of the new solution, TourTailors significantly accelerated response times, streamlined processes, and improved the customer experience at all points and phases of interaction with the company. It is now a more agile company, and the motivation of the sales team has increased, contributing to potential sales growth.
"We are still in the early testing phase of the final product but extremely satisfied with the performance level, design, and user experience. Focusing on the essence of tasks and eliminating unnecessary complexities helped optimize the workflow, increasing productivity and keeping the team aligned." adds Diana Ramos.
The future involves redesigning the Library, refactoring internal applications for the new framework, and transitioning the solution to the cloud, eliminating dependence on local infrastructure.