Digital Trip, a leading travel technology provider, is challenging Co-Op Director Mike Greenacre’s recent comments that travel tech agencies "overpromise, overprice and underdeliver".
“Having been on the client side for years and experiencing similar difficulties and frustrations, Digital Trip were founded to combat this stigma and can honestly guarantee that this is one agency that could make even Mr Greenacre say WOW!” Laura Rudd, Digital Trip’s Head of Digital Media, explains.
When asked why Mr Greenacre would think agencies are ‘over-priced’, Rudd admitted that “it is true that some travel tech firms charge unprecedented amounts for a travel website because they ‘re-invent the wheel’ each time; this just isn’t necessary because good, proven functionality should simply be used again – essentially having a ‘best practice’ approach. The Digital Trip team are ‘best practice’ ambassadors: utilising tried and tested functionality and packaging it up so technology can be slotted together seamlessly (as if it were Lego) and websites launched sometimes within days, not months. This ultimately means smaller costs for agencies (regardless of overheads!)”.
Laura added “I was very surprised to hear that travel agents are having to continually re-invest in their website technology – why should you have pay for new updates and releases when other technology providers, for example Microsoft, offer it for free? We don’t charge our customers a penny.”
Addressing the issue of websites being delivered on-time, Laura sympathises with Mr Greenacre – “some agencies are making promises that they can’t deliver. From our experience, the keystone to successful delivery of any website is project management, without it – your company, and your clients, will drown. At Digital Trip, we implement a fully managed project lifecycle that defines each stage of the project and provides real objectives. Ensuring every party is clear on the project objectives eliminates all of the hidden costs that some agencies are infamous for. Plus, our process not only guarantees that communication is free-flowing between us and our clients but also that vital specifications are approved and understood by both sides to guarantee delivery on-time – every time.”
Rudd continued “We’ve created our Travel Package solutions to address the huge gap in the market - to deliver fixed price travel websites that save on time and money without compromising on quality. So we can safely say that long gone are unrealistic timescales, extortionate pricing and in its place are functional travel websites that are custom designed, that work from day one and are delivered when promised.”
In a final statement, Laura added “We would welcome a meeting with Mr Greenacre to demonstrate that there are some agencies out there that could still make him say ‘WOW!’”
Original article:
http://www.travolution.co.uk/articles/2010/04/27/3455/tti-co-op-boss-says-tech-companies-are-unrealistic.html