UK operators and agents are being targeted by an Indian technology company claiming to offer the ability to develop their own travel systems.
Indian tech firm targets UK with open source travel system
UK operators and agents are being targeted by an Indian technology company claiming to offer the ability to develop their own travel systems.
Open source system Trabacus was launched this month, appointing Travel Systems Associates (TSA) as its European general sales agency.
It claims to enable customers to change it in any way they want, fine-tuning all aspects such as reservations or accounts to their exact requirements without running up huge bills.
A company that buys it actually owns the source software which it can then develop to fit its needs at any time.
Monthly fees start at around £80 per user, with public cloud hosting included.
With all other such systems the customer only buys a licence to use it. All extra work to the software is done by the company that supplies it, with all that means in terms of time scales and costs, Trabacus claims.
Trabacus believes this is the future for travel systems by enabling companies to either own the source code of the software if they buy it, or rent it with no capital expenditure and low monthly fees.
The operating system can be learned by in-house system developers. Features that are specific to the user company’s business can be added in a matter of hours rather than being developed by external suppliers at high cost.
Typically, this will save travel businesses tens of thousands of pounds a year plus the cost-savings of initial development amounting to six figure sums, according to Trabacus.
TSA managing director Richard Bristow said: “We can see an exact parallel in the mobile phone market. The Android system became dominant worldwide because it is an open system – anyone can develop an app and they have done so. At the last count there were over 700,000 available.
“The old model of paying a fortune up front to buy a licence and then more each time you need some work done is no longer sustainable. Open source software is the future – and Trabacus is the first travel system to offer it.”
