Hoseasons Group Application Story

Background
Hoseasons Group Ltd., a privately owned UK company, is the largest independent tour operator for UK self-catering holidays. Established in 1945 the company was recently awarded "Best Domestic Operator" by the British Tourist Authority. In 1998 Hoseasons, whose primary market is in the UK, sold £150 million worth of holidays.

Hoseasons is a marketing and sales company representing holiday parks, country cottage and boatyard owners and partners in the UK and Europe. Their holidays are sold through travel agents from Hoseasons brochures 4 million of which are published annually. Customers select a holiday from a brochure and then check with Hoseasons Call Centre or their travel agent for availability. Travel agents confirm bookings via a Videotext on-line booking system directly into the Hoseasons reservation system.

A New Business Strategy: Web Technology and E-commerce
Initially, Hoseasons viewed the Internet as a marketing tool to promote their brand name and to help users contact them. The first Web site was published in 1995. As their interest in E-commerce increased, Hoseasons started to look at how on-line services could benefit their owners, customers and business partners. They foresaw how this would work within their own business environment:

Solution Requirements
Of major interest to Hoseasons was a Business-to-Consumer solution which required a complete range of Internet based E-commerce services interacting with their existing reservation system. Hoseasons also required a Business-to-Business extranet solution whereby holiday park and boatyard owners could access the reservation system directly via dial-up access or VPN and make bookings themselves or review the status of the Hoseasons bookings/availability.

The existing host platform for the reservation application is an ICL mainframe running the VME operating system. The host system is connected to the Web server via an OSI LAN through a firewall. Current Web services also include e-mail. Hoseasons IT personnel have ICL programming skills and are responsible for the existing Web page graphic design.

Hoseasons made a strategic decision to use Microsoft NT® and the preferred solution would need to run on either a Netscape® or Microsoft® compliant Web server. Host applications that require extending to customers include brochure requests, booking status, availability search, quotations, booking, payment confirmation and acknowledgement, and travel instructions. Unlike many E-commerce projects, the Hoseasons implementation strategy was to roll out on-line services in a series of steps rather than take a big bang approach. The functionality, performance and user friendliness of each step was to be fully tested with selected users before being implemented on the live Web site.

Selecting the Supplier
Hoseasons considered three possible solutions:

After careful review it was decided that options 1 and 2 would be too costly and take too long to roll out. Hoseasons decided to search for a UK supplier with a proven product and the expertise to implement the Web applications.

Two suppliers with ICL and Web integration expertise were selected. After a review of the companies' products and skill sets, proof of concepts were arranged. The proof of concept demonstrated how the mainframe application could be presented to an owner/partner as a terminal emulation window within a standard browser. This also showed how selected screens and host applications could be redesigned for public use as interactive Web HTML pages.

MODCOMP proposed a state-of-the-art solution detailing the business benefits of implementing ViewMax™. The ViewMax solution would provide a rapid roll out of E-commerce services and there would be no disruption to existing in-house call centre or external agents' Viewdata access to the reservation system. ViewMax was a low cost solution for entry into the E-commerce world and would fit the strategy for the "browser only" client requirement model. There would also be no bespoke code.

A reference site visit to a ViewMax customer using an ICL mainframe was arranged and subsequently MODCOMP was selected to participate in the project.

For Hoseasons, the critical ViewMax selection criteria were:

The ViewMax Solution

MODCOMP's unique Web server software, ViewMax, enabled the rapid build and development of the Hoseasons Web site. The selection of this product also provided a long term strategic goal to implement multiple phases in small steps.

In the initial phase of the project MODCOMP designed the interactive ViewMax applications to mirror the host services on-line while the Hoseasons team provided the Web site corporate image and design. Users now have online services that include:

Plans for the second phase of on-line services include implementation of two new models. A Business-to-Business model that replaces agents' Viewdata booking systems and a Business-to-Consumer model that includes an addition of an on-line brochure that has direct links from availability search results to images and brochure details.

One-Stop Travel Source

The Hoseasons E-commerce solution has restructured their IT presence into these categories:

PUBLIC INTERNET — has almost 24-hour on-line service for UK holiday package bookings from anywhere in the world. This is available to anyone with Internet access and a browser.

PRIVATE EXTRANET —

INTERNAL INTRANET —

Hoseasons is in a leadership position within the UK tour operator industry. They are the first organization to roll out an on-line reservation service to the public over the Internet.

Increased revenues are expected from overseas visitors to the UK. Example: Within five days of the availability search being put on-line a customer from Moscow booked a country cottage holiday for his family.

Early e-mail responses show that new and existing Hoseasons customers are delighted with the service. Booking inquiries are running at 25 per day, availability searches up to 1500 per day and brochure requests 50 per day. Customer feedback includes many testimonials such as, "Thank you for an easy-to-use Web site. I found the holiday I wanted and booked it with you. Many Thanks," Mr. D.P., London.

Conclusion
Hoseasons was pleased with the ability of ViewMax to enhance the functionality of their mainframe applications. "We would not have been able to roll out this project as quickly as we did without ViewMax and the expertise of MODCOMP's team. They guaranteed a result and they did it within the budgeted project cost," said Richard Overy, Hoseasons technical director.

Hoseasons anticipates that with the growth of Internet access and in particular the introduction of Web TV the travel industry is set for a revolution in E-commerce. They expect 30% of their business to come through this route within the next three years.

Hoseasons is a leader in the UK holiday market business. As the first holiday company in the UK to offer an on-line booking service they intend to maintain this No. 1 position through quality of service and choice.

MODCOMP is an independent company offering E-commerce and Web integration solutions to corporate clients in the distribution, retail, travel, finance and healthcare markets.

Founded in 1970, MODCOMP specialized in real time computing systems and networks for industrial, defense and data communication organizations throughout the world. In 1980, MODCOMP systems created the backbone of the CERNET, from which the Internet, as we know it today, evolved. Over the past two decades MODCOMP has provided data communication solutions to front-end mainframe applications enabling remote access to data and on-line transaction processing.

Today, MODCOMP is a leading innovator in WWW and E-commerce integration projects where the need for secure browser access to mission critical business transaction systems is a core prerequisite. MODCOMP prides itself on its relationship with its customers and offers a full range of support services from project management, consulting, Web page design and integration through training and full 24x7 support.

MODCOMP E-commerce clients in the UK include JVC, Panasonic, Philips Consumer Electronics, Sharp Electronics, ITT Cannon, Tatung, NYK and Mitsubishi Motors.