As the travel industry bounces back from a historic low through the COVID-19 pandemic, TMCs, agencies, and CTDs (Corporate Travel Departments) are looking at the best ways to refine their operations. And for many, that means exploring new and better technology to help increase efficiency and lower overall costs.
Cloud hosting is a popular option for TMCs, agencies, and CTDs who are looking to outsource infrastructure while cutting down on the costs and effort associated with maintaining servers.
GraspCLOUD is designed for placing TMC, agency and CTD technologies into the cloud for access from anywhere. Technologies can include GDS, back office, CRM, Microsoft Office, etc.
Importantly, GraspCLOUD ensures that your data is protected and recoverable in case of disaster.
Travel expertise is paramount when things go awry and experience in Travel technologies can make the difference.
Bringing In New And Better Technology
Valvoline Inc. is one of the largest manufacturers and distributors of automotive oil and lubricants in America, with over 1,000 locations across the country. But when it came to their CTD, their infrastructure was in need of an update.
Jenny McClintock is the Corporate Supervisor of Travel and Expense at Valvoline. The main issue that she and her team were facing was one of outdated equipment and poor efficiency. Access to their back office had to be done through a single, older desktop located in their office. The biggest concern for Jennifer was that, “When it dies, we lose everything”.
Adding to the challenge was that a member of Jennifer’s team was working remotely and because of that, that individual was unable to access the back office conveniently. Jennifer needed a way for her whole team to access the necessary information.
Jenny knew that cloud hosting was a possible answer but the next challenge was finding the proper solution that would allow for her to essentially move her entire back office, including reporting, Sabre printer and Sabre QC, etc.
Cloud Hosting Designed By Travel Experts, For Travel
In a seemingly fortuitous sequence of events, Jennifer received an email in 2019 from Grasp Technologies reminding her of GraspCLOUD and she knew the timing was right. Implementation began, and in just 2 to 3 weeks, it was completed and ready to go. Once the entire team at Valvoline shifted to GraspCLOUD, they saw an immediate boost in back office work speed and efficiency.
For Jenny, her priority was getting everything off of that one desktop and onto GraspCLOUD. This included the Sabre QC, which at that point, Grasp Technologies hadn’t done before. With no issues or bumps in the road, Grasp was able to accommodate and implementation went smoothly.
Valvoline implemented GraspCLOUD in 2019 and it could not have come at a better time. Not a single person would have predicted what would come next, but when the COVID-19 pandemic began, Jennifer and her team at Valvoline were set. They no longer relied on that single desktop in the office.
With GraspCLOUD, Jennifer’s team can now run their operation 24/7, from anywhere.
Eliminating High Costs And Stressful Maintenance Work
Market Square Travel is one of the most successful travel agencies in Minnesota and Western Wisconsin, United States. And like many others, they didn’t want to house their own server. The maintenance was too much and the expense was too high.
Why Consider Grasp?
The importance of a good Support Team should never be underestimated. And for Virginia Peterson, Director Of Finance And Operations at Travel Leaders - Market Square Travel, if it wasn’t the technology itself, then it was the Support Team at Grasp that helped her feel confident and safe with her decision to choose GraspCLOUD.
Virginia has two experiences with the implementation of GraspCLOUD. When she was with MSP Travel Group, the transition to GraspCLOUD went very smoothly. However, with Travel Leaders - Market Square Travel, some challenges occurred. Because of the size of the business, load balancing was recommended for their implementation. However initially, the power needed was underestimated which caused some server outages. This made the transition more challenging. Every customer uses applications and resources differently and there is no easy way to gauge true usage in advance. Granted, these kinds of issues don’t happen at all anymore, but at the time, it was a speed bump for the implementation process.
Market Square Travel went with GraspCLOUD and the reasoning was quite simple, “Because it was the support team. They’ve always been really, really good with helping us through issues.”
Modern Technology For Modern Travel Programs
GraspCLOUD removes the pressure and high cost associated with managing in-house servers while deploying the highest-level security practices. For TMCs, agencies, and CTDs that have technology users in multiple locations, GraspCLOUD is a way to stay connected. It introduces congruence in terms of shared access to critical systems. And on-boarding and implementation is seamless.
For more information on GraspCLOUD and what it can do for your travel program, please contact sales@grasptech.com.