IT / Operations Strategy

A UK travel business's operation had grown significantly over a 5 years period due to an aggressive competitor acquisition strategy.

However, at the end of this period the service level was being severely constrained by system limitations, functionality differences. In addition maintenance budget to keep the various POS applications both upto date and, more importantly, legal was spiralling out of control. This meant that functionality was falling behind causing customer complaint and loss.

Analysis revealed that the root of the problem was lack of a robust 'post acquisition' operational integration strategy. The field reality was two suppliers, six different POS applications, two mid offices and two back offices each with a support team, real estate etc. This lead to serious duplication of resources leading to an annual spend in excess of $5mm while still giving a poor user solution and customer satisfaction.