Mark Warner buys £300K ‘agent friendly’ booking system

Mark Warner claims to have invested £300,000 in reservations technology which it says will make it easier and faster for agents – and consumers – to make bookings.

The operator will be the first company to implement Blue Sky’s itour browser-based system which has been designed using technology from Oracle.

The new system, which is being implemented in October, will allow agents to add components like child care, scuba diving and tennis lessons at the time of the initial booking. Mark Warner says this will abolish the need for bookings forms and cut down on administration.

Mark Warner managing director, David Hopkins told TravelMole: “It is a windows-based web system and the key is speed of access and availability. It is a cutting edge system, and we believe it is more sophisticated than any thing else out there.”

Mark Warner has spent 12 months investigating which reservations system to use. It enlisted the help of Genesys’, Paul Richer, who helped whittle down six or seven submissions to the final choice.

Mr Hopkins told TravelMole: “It is a leap of faith because the system is not tried and tested, but we are confident we made the right choice.”

Itour also features a search facility which the company says will be able to automatically select the relevant accommodation with availability based on the clients’ requirements. The system will also enable Mark Warner to control its pricing more accurately. It can provide information on yield performance per individual sale and can also cost each individual sale.

Blue Sky managing director, Steve Driscoll told TravelMole the main benefits of the system. He said: “The technology is written in Oracle, which is a modern, resilient system. It was also written with the current business model and functionality requirements in mind.

“Also, users can search on soft criteria, like child care, which is a priority for some holidaymakers.”

Agents can use the system to find out how much commission they have earned. The company plans to add an agents extranet to the system within the next 12 months. The second phase, which should be completed in the next 12 months is to enable consumers to book through the system.

Mr Hopkins says over half Mark Warner bookings come from consumers at the moment, but the company is trying to increase sales through agents to 50%. Mr Hopkins said: “This system is key to making us more agent-friendly.”

Mr Hopkins says the company has ambitious sales targets – to increase annual turnover from £40/45 million to £90/100 million in five years.