Travo@10: Comtec and Eysys profile

The recent coming together of Comtec and Eysys, which saw founder Simon Powell instated as chief executive, means the firm now offers three separate technology products. Comtec is focusing solely on Travelink, the widely used tour operating system that provides dynamic packaging capabilities for mainstream holidays, tours, groups and tailor-made trips. Legacy technology, now redeveloped … Continue reading Travo@10: Comtec and Eysys profile

The recent coming together of Comtec and Eysys, which saw founder Simon Powell instated as chief executive, means the firm now offers three separate technology products.

Comtec is focusing solely on Travelink, the widely used tour operating system that provides dynamic packaging capabilities for mainstream holidays, tours, groups and tailor-made trips.

Legacy technology, now redeveloped on a modern platform, it has been built for use by high street agents, call centres and online retailers and has been a mainstay of the UK travel sector for more than two decades.

Eysys’s Holistic system includes four core products: a front-end Content Management System (CMS); a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system; a personalisation engine; and an automated paid search marketing platform.

It uses machine learning to match product attributes supplied by third parties to known preferences of customers and generate marketing specific to them.

The third plank of Comtec’s technology is Highway, a nextgeneration travel component caching technology created from a mixture of new and existing Comtec systems.

Eysys and Comtec remain separate businesses but now have a single support desk, a single sales and account management team and single service-level agreement (SLA).

Comtec is currently building a new platform for a Canadian customer combining Holistic, Travelink and Highway, which it will then introduce to the UK as the “next generation retail selling system”.

Powell added: “The selling experience has not advanced very much in the past five years. I see the coming together of Eysys and Comtec as harmonising the customer experience.”

Comtec timeline

1995: Comtec is formed. Initial products are EasyComm and EasySearch

1999: Comtec launches EasySell for travel agents

2003: Comtec wins Queen’s Award for Enterprise & Innovation

2005: Comtec acquires TraveLink Systems for £2 million

2006: First international customer, Tourinter of France, is won

2008: Wins first major US tour operator customer, Travel Impressions

2010: Simon Powell and management team leave the business

2014: Powell reacquires the business, backed by Finance Wales

2015: The company returns to profitability, reporting an EBITDA of £1 million

Eysys timeline

2012: Eysys Limited is formed; all of the original Comtec management team are involved

2013: The company secures its first international client, Adriatica, and a prestigious grant to support its research and development work

2014: The company secures a major new client, Feefo, to develop its new platform

2015: The business acquires PPC agency Bloc Marketing, and is listed as the 12th-fastestgrowing business in Wales in the FastTrack 50