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Tunia Cherian George

Mumbai , July 15

THE International Air Travel Association's decision to introduce e-ticketing by 2007 in airlines across the globe is just one of the many e-commerce opportunities that Kale Consultants, a technology solutions provider for the travel industry, hopes to cash in on.

According to Mr Vipul Jain, CEO and Managing Director, the introduction of e-ticketing would give a fillip to travel industry. And Kale is helping airlines, hotels, and the like with their e-commerce strategies.

"The e-commerce segment is set to grow as airlines, hotels, travel companies, etc., make investments in going online and making their systems and processes Net-enabled," he added.

According to him, airlines could use Kale's solutions to sell direct to customers or help them in relationship management. Similarly, travel agents could provide their corporate customers with direct booking facilities. "As airline and travel companies worldwide consolidate and expand services, they are seeking the services of technology solutions providers to help them achieve efficiency in business."

Mr Jain often participates in travel and tourism conferences. "Since we are focused on travel and aviation, it is important for us to understand where it is headed."

Kale Consultants has more than 50 global airlines among its customers, including Qatar Airways, Asiana, Indian Airlines, and Delta.

On the evolution of the Indian aviation market, he said that as domestic carriers go international, they would seek more complex technology systems to drive their businesses.

"We are seeing suppliers evolve. Earlier, they offered the customer plain vanilla solutions; today, there is a demand for more value-added solutions." Currently, the company offers its clients a suite of products such as passenger and cargo revenue accounting, revenue recovery and protection, cargo operations, cargo ground handling, e-travel, and decision support systems.

On the relative profitability of the three verticals that the company has focused on - passenger, cargo, and e-travel - he said that the passenger vertical was mature and the yield and income on it was good.

"However, the enterprise cargo solution launched about two years ago is also growing in popularity with a number of airlines relying on us for cargo solutions." The solution drives the entire gamut of cargo operations including allotment and booking of cargo capacity, movement of cargo, shipment, building of manifests, billing of cargo, delivery of cargo, and ground-handling services.

"As a company, we consider some solutions to be of significance, including revenue accounting that goes beyond mere accounting to include decision support, strategising, and operations," he said.

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