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Clients > Case Study
Red-Dot Tours Case Study
Synopsys
Red Dot Tours Sri Lanka wanted a travel itinerary planner for visitors of Sri Lanka where they would be able to make their itineraries for themselves with adequate travel distances, location, information, historical significance and hotel/villa, attractions and availabilities in selected locations.
There were many applications available in the global market when it comes to online travel planning system but red dot was needed a customizable, dynamic and Interactive system to fulfill their requirements. All the hotel/villa room rates and traveling cost should be up to date and their customers can view there running total (the cost) when there building the Itinerary. Flexibility was a key requirement to change the itinerary and rebuild it according to the requirement of the user.
Red dot has assigned us ( Cryptodyne) to find a solution which best meet the requirements of the problem. They have suggested the solution to look like a well known Sri Lankan web site operating in hotel & leisure industry to wake up our imagination. Although we had experiences in providing solutions to Hotel , travel & leisure industry scope of the problem was very much different to our previous problem domains. We were also convinced that this is a problem which is common to many operators in travel & leisure industry and the solution to it could cater for a wider market. Any how our travel itinerary solution was initially designed to cover Sri Lanka as the only destination but now it has the potential to support any destination with some alterations to support country maps ,key destinations , roads , hotel & accommodation.
Red dot requirements were demanding with our limited resources we had to provide the solution within strict timelines. We possessed experience and skillful designed team & application development unit to design and develop an optimal software solution for it.
There were many applications available in the global market when it comes to online travel planning system but red dot was needed a customizable, dynamic and Interactive system to fulfill their requirements. All the hotel/villa room rates and traveling cost should be up to date and their customers can view there running total (the cost) when there building the Itinerary. Flexibility was a key requirement to change the itinerary and rebuild it according to the requirement of the user.
Red dot has assigned us ( Cryptodyne) to find a solution which best meet the requirements of the problem. They have suggested the solution to look like a well known Sri Lankan web site operating in hotel & leisure industry to wake up our imagination. Although we had experiences in providing solutions to Hotel , travel & leisure industry scope of the problem was very much different to our previous problem domains. We were also convinced that this is a problem which is common to many operators in travel & leisure industry and the solution to it could cater for a wider market. Any how our travel itinerary solution was initially designed to cover Sri Lanka as the only destination but now it has the potential to support any destination with some alterations to support country maps ,key destinations , roads , hotel & accommodation.
Red dot requirements were demanding with our limited resources we had to provide the solution within strict timelines. We possessed experience and skillful designed team & application development unit to design and develop an optimal software solution for it.
Solution
Prior to designed the solution we did an analysis to understand the potential users of our solution. These users could come from broader geographical , cultural domains with different level of technical experiences and we decided to provide simple but aesthetically rich interfaces.
Customer is given a free hand to decide its own travel itinerary and we had to decide what information the system need to capture from the user. Here Red dot was appreciably corporative in guiding us by providing useful information to make a smooth progress. We can call our solution as Interactive Itinerary planner. In order to bring the ultimate solution we had to go through stages of requirement collection , design and development of application.
Requirement analysis was very comprehensive and we were very objective in identifying , documenting and even scoping the requirements despite request for continuous changes in the requirements.
Our technical solution is made up of latest tools and technologies available to provide technologically rich functionalities in our solution. Dynamic and interactive nature of the solution given life through Flash Action Script 2.0, in addition ASP .Net , C# .net were used in developing the application and communicating web services with flash objects. Backend support was given by SQL server 2000 and it is now geared to support SQL server 2005 as well.
The solution is supported by an admin panel to help red dot to maintain travel planner permanent/semi permanent information such as hotels ,roads , activities , national parks and historical sites in the system. Interactive Itinerary planner is a web-based holiday planner and booking engine which enables travelers to plan their entire holiday within Sri Lanka in one site.
From the start customers can select options like solo planner or assisted planner.
Solo Planner
The Solo Planner is designed for those who want complete freedom when building your itinerary. The travel prospect can decide its own travel plan according his requirements and budget. Flexibility is available to change destination points to meet the requirements. It is perfect for those who have travelled to Sri Lanka before or who have a clear idea as to the route they would like to take.
Assisted Planner
The Assisted Planner is designed for those who would like some help while planning the trip. RDT have provided skeleton itineraries of the most popular trips they organize. The customers have to do is to select their accommodation, transport method and activities.
Interactive Itinerary planner is a fully fledged interactive itinerary building tool. Visitors are given several user friendly options to build the itinerary of their choice depending on various factors involving seasons, hotel room availability, travel methods, activities and attractions around the destinations etc. In simple technical solution is a flash application which uses of web services to get accurate information from database. The system look and feel is very much user-friendly and fully creative. All the information displayed is in real time and displays all available options depending on the time order and time of arrival. Users are first shown a screen with four panels like shown in project plan.
Customer is given a free hand to decide its own travel itinerary and we had to decide what information the system need to capture from the user. Here Red dot was appreciably corporative in guiding us by providing useful information to make a smooth progress. We can call our solution as Interactive Itinerary planner. In order to bring the ultimate solution we had to go through stages of requirement collection , design and development of application.
Requirement analysis was very comprehensive and we were very objective in identifying , documenting and even scoping the requirements despite request for continuous changes in the requirements.
Our technical solution is made up of latest tools and technologies available to provide technologically rich functionalities in our solution. Dynamic and interactive nature of the solution given life through Flash Action Script 2.0, in addition ASP .Net , C# .net were used in developing the application and communicating web services with flash objects. Backend support was given by SQL server 2000 and it is now geared to support SQL server 2005 as well.
The solution is supported by an admin panel to help red dot to maintain travel planner permanent/semi permanent information such as hotels ,roads , activities , national parks and historical sites in the system. Interactive Itinerary planner is a web-based holiday planner and booking engine which enables travelers to plan their entire holiday within Sri Lanka in one site.
From the start customers can select options like solo planner or assisted planner.
Solo Planner
The Solo Planner is designed for those who want complete freedom when building your itinerary. The travel prospect can decide its own travel plan according his requirements and budget. Flexibility is available to change destination points to meet the requirements. It is perfect for those who have travelled to Sri Lanka before or who have a clear idea as to the route they would like to take.
Assisted Planner
The Assisted Planner is designed for those who would like some help while planning the trip. RDT have provided skeleton itineraries of the most popular trips they organize. The customers have to do is to select their accommodation, transport method and activities.
Interactive Itinerary planner is a fully fledged interactive itinerary building tool. Visitors are given several user friendly options to build the itinerary of their choice depending on various factors involving seasons, hotel room availability, travel methods, activities and attractions around the destinations etc. In simple technical solution is a flash application which uses of web services to get accurate information from database. The system look and feel is very much user-friendly and fully creative. All the information displayed is in real time and displays all available options depending on the time order and time of arrival. Users are first shown a screen with four panels like shown in project plan.
Interactive Map
Key Features
Map Area (Customizable Map)
Users can change up to five deferent map views like
Geographical view
Road view
Activities
National Parks
Historical Sites
Itinerary building area
This is the place where customers can build the tour plan ones they add the information they can edit it later if they need. Increase the number of days in accommodation or change the travel methods.
Description Area
location/ activity/ National Parks / Historical Sites descriptions
there will be 20-30 words description about the selected items and thumb image views.
Running Total
it is an innovative holiday planner for designing your own itineraries. It will help you plan your route and give you a running total so you can tailor to your budget. Once completed, your itinerary will be sent to one of their experienced consultants who will check availability and re-confirm the cost.
Questioner Area
customer has to answer the numbers of questions in the start of Solo Planner.
1. Start date?
2. Number of people?
3. Mode of transport?
4. Starting location?
Multiple controls for building the Itinerary
customers can operate the system in 2 ways by using the map view and answering the question in the questioner can be selected.
Dynamic and up-to-date prices
Full dynamic and up-to-date prices for travel methods and accommodations
Users can change up to five deferent map views like
Geographical view
Road view
Activities
National Parks
Historical Sites
Itinerary building area
This is the place where customers can build the tour plan ones they add the information they can edit it later if they need. Increase the number of days in accommodation or change the travel methods.
Description Area
location/ activity/ National Parks / Historical Sites descriptions
there will be 20-30 words description about the selected items and thumb image views.
Running Total
it is an innovative holiday planner for designing your own itineraries. It will help you plan your route and give you a running total so you can tailor to your budget. Once completed, your itinerary will be sent to one of their experienced consultants who will check availability and re-confirm the cost.
Questioner Area
customer has to answer the numbers of questions in the start of Solo Planner.
1. Start date?
2. Number of people?
3. Mode of transport?
4. Starting location?
Multiple controls for building the Itinerary
customers can operate the system in 2 ways by using the map view and answering the question in the questioner can be selected.
Dynamic and up-to-date prices
Full dynamic and up-to-date prices for travel methods and accommodations
SOLUTION BENIFITS
Our proposed solution was expected to give both quantitative and qualitative benefits to our client in its business operations. Most of the Sri Lanka tourist from the west have very little knowledge and experience about the country , its activities, events , national parks , historical sites etc. Particularly at a time where the parts of the country experiencing a war situation tourist would like to minimise the risk by knowing where they travel to raise their confidence about the tour to the island. I trip tour planner gives all the necessary information to design the own tour package by the prospect tourist within the constraints, an opportunity which is very unlikely to get from any other tour operator. Given that tour planner is sufficiently promoted mainly among the western countries it assumes to attract very high number of tourist whom were previously uncertain about tour to the island due to various reasons such as lack of information about countries events , activities and interesting places , war risk and budgetary constraints.
Time and money is two of the key limited resources for majority in the universe. Planning the tour provides the benefits to both tourist as well as tour operator to make the necessary arrangements ( i.e. accommodation arrangement etc) to avoid unnecessary expenses to improve the profitability. Tourist also gets the timely services with out the need to extend the tour duration due to uncertainties and inefficiencies in the arrangements. This may definitely impacted in improving customer satisfaction and retaining them for future tour arrangements. This invariably helps the countries tourism promotion programs.
This tool also helps to obtain statistical information such as popular locations , events , activities , historical places among wide range global users to arrange the necessary tour promotion campaigns. Particularly to promote locations where the information available to tourist is limited.
Time and money is two of the key limited resources for majority in the universe. Planning the tour provides the benefits to both tourist as well as tour operator to make the necessary arrangements ( i.e. accommodation arrangement etc) to avoid unnecessary expenses to improve the profitability. Tourist also gets the timely services with out the need to extend the tour duration due to uncertainties and inefficiencies in the arrangements. This may definitely impacted in improving customer satisfaction and retaining them for future tour arrangements. This invariably helps the countries tourism promotion programs.
This tool also helps to obtain statistical information such as popular locations , events , activities , historical places among wide range global users to arrange the necessary tour promotion campaigns. Particularly to promote locations where the information available to tourist is limited.