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Calsoft ODC reengineered & migrated legacy apps for an European Travel & Event Management company
The Client
The client is a European leading hotel reservation, travel and event management agency providing services for the past 30 years to leading blue chip companies, public sector and SMEs. Major chunk of the client’s business comes from booking hotel rooms for blue chip companies. Having businesses with more than 60,000 hotels worldwide, the client books over 2 million room-nights worldwide every year with over 600-member call centre to support their business. Calsoft has been continuing as a software solutions partner with the client for more than 4 years.
Business Needs
The client was struggling with the legacy apps developed in early 1990s. The system was Unix based, developed using proprietary Language (Metaphor) and accessed through dumb terminals.
Outdated technology and maintenance of the legacy crippled the business effectiveness of the client. For e.g. there were two disparate systems – one managing supplier-information and the other managing client-information with no integration between the two systems. Further, end customers could only post booking requests and had to wait for booking confirmation. Since booking and confirmation processes were carried out manually in the background there were delays in response time and service delivery.
Given this background, the client was looking for an IT partner with strong Travel expertise that could prepare a blueprint for re-engineering their legacy application that would integrate with their suppliers and customers. The IT partner also had to have robust process and development methodologies for implementing the blueprint.
Calsoft Solution
Calsoft was chosen as the IT partner because of its strong technical and domain capabilities coupled with its proven expertise in running Offshore Development Centers (ODCs).
Calsoft conducted a Business Process Mapping exercise to understand the gaps between the legacy system and business goals. Based on above exercise a blueprint was created for re-engineering the legacy system along with distinct integration points for suppliers and customers.
As part of the implementation, Calsoft setup a Project Management Office (PMO) which would manage and report on the various projects. The key components of the re-engineering were:
- Migration from Legacy system
- Booking Exchange and Confirmation system
- Booking Portal
- Message switch for integration with suppliers like GDS
- Product Management
- Inventory Management
- Customer Portal – customizable for various clients
- Metrics & Reporting
The solution was built using component architecture and communication using XML messaging. This design allowed individual components to be developed, extended and if needed replaced at a later date with minimum impact on other components. Scalability can be achieved by running different components on different servers and operating systems. Standard frameworks like Struts were used to reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO) of the solution.
For a secure and scalable solution with minimum investment on proprietary software and licenses, Calsoft developed, tested and deployed the new system on J2EE Technology with Linux, JBoss and SQL server.
Technical details for system development are shown below:
- UML for Application design
- Application design and development on J2EE compliant framework and design patterns
- Interface development with 3rd party system and legacy system through REST web services (XML messaging)
- Automated and remote deployment
- Manual/ Automated system and performance testing
Customer Benefits
- Expanded distribution through customisable portal
- Increased system availability from component based architecture
- Improved customer experience through Flexipages
- Flexible messaging switch allowed for addition of suppliers without having to disrupt operational system