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MakeMyTrip.com (MMT) was launched in the year 2000 to address the booming
‘USA – India’ air travel market. Since then the company has been growing at a
fast pace and has emerged as the largest online travel company in India with a
robust offline presence. MMT launched its domestic Indian operations in the year
2005 – which became an instant hit. The company is expected to achieve gross
bookings of U.S.$ 400 million during the fiscal year 2008 - 2009. MMT, which
controls almost 50 percent share of the online travel business in India, needed
to integrate the diverse aspects of its rapidly growing business operations. The
company wanted an integrated software solution that would help to streamline the
current business processes and meet its expansion needs™. Teaming up with All e
Technologies (Alletec) a highly customized travel industry specific solution was
built on Microsoft® Dynamics™ NAV. The solution – with a browser based interface
for the agents – tightly integrates the mid-office and back-office operations,
and pulls data from www.makemytrip.com in real time.
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| Situation |
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MakeMyTrip.com (MMT) was launched in the year 2000 for the booming 'USA to
India' travel market. It empowered NRIs with unmatched convenience of a 24X7
online travel portal and travel consultancy support. With early success, the
company launched India operations in September, 2005 with over six years of
experience in the real time servicing of travel needs of niche NRI market in the
US.
MMT began as a great idea and has gone on to pioneer the online travel industry
in India. It was the first comprehensive online travel site and since its
inception, has been growing at a fast pace to emerge as the foremost travel
website in the US to India market. Customers can book online or call up a
MakeMyTrip agent to book - flights, hotels, holidays, cars, buses and trains.
The company crossed U.S.$ 250 million of gross sales in FY08, which is
approximately 100 percent growth from registered sales of the year before (U.S.$
125 million).
Continuing with its focus on technology innovation, MMT has also pioneered
‘travel m-commerce’ in India by offering the complete search and booking
experience on the mobile. In this short journey of just a few years, MMT has
bagged several awards and recognitions. These include awards for being the ‘Best
Online Travel Company’ from Galileo Express Travel World, ‘Most-visited Travel
Website in India’ award by ComScore Media Matrix and ’Emerging India Award’ by
ICICI Bank and CNBC-TV18.
The young pioneer in travel was voted one of Asia's hottest technology startups
after undergoing a stringent review process, by Red Herring's editorial team. In
a recent development, Red Herring adjudged MakeMyTrip.com among the top 100
companies in Asia. It is also the top seller among online and offline travel
companies for all the major airlines and hotels in India.
Although an extremely tech savvy and technology driven business from the time of
its inception, to cope up with huge surge in business volumes, was a challenge.
Therefore, MMT needed to upgrade its IT systems both at the mid and back end.
Besides, the biggest challenge faced by MMT was the lack of integration between
its various business applications. In addition, given the huge transaction
volume, transaction tracking was also becoming inconvenient. With much of the
time spent just on ensuring basic operational checks and balances, key areas of
operational efficiency lagged behind.
MMT management very quickly realized that an efficient business application was
going to be the lifeline of an online travel company. Keeping in mind their
growing business, the company wanted a new, single integrated business solution
that would enable the organization to increase operational efficiencies and
streamline business processes. |
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Our travel business required tight integration of our partners and customer care centers. Yet, we required flexibility in operations. That's why we opted for Microsoft Dynamics ERP solution. With ease of customization, and simplicity of usage, employee productivity has increased by 15 percent in post sales and fulfillment.
Rajesh Magow
CFO, MakeMyTrip.com
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| Solution |
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Continuing its tradition of being a pioneer, MMT took another visionary step
that strengthened its position as a leader. Instead of looking for a travel
specific business application, and a separate backend financial accounting
system, the management team at MMT realized that the company needed a robust,
world class Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, which extended from its
back-office to the mid-office, and also tied up its website. An intense
evaluation and analysis of various offerings available across the world, ranging
from top end ERPs to travel specific enterprise applications, finally led MMT to
choose Microsoft® Dynamics™ NAV as its enterprise systems backbone. MMT took the
help of Alletec, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, to implement Microsoft®
Dynamics™ NAV.
Microsoft® Dynamics™ NAV is a completely customizable business solution geared
to align with business needs.
Unlike several other businesses which might have relatively simple business
processes, travel industry business processes are extremely complex and need to
work in conjunction with several other external systems. Providing solutions for
this industry requires very deep domain knowledge. It is the uniqueness and
complexity of the travel industry business processes which has made
implementation of ERP systems in this industry a rarity.
Alletec convinced the MMT team that an ERP could indeed be tailored to meet the
back-office and mid-office needs of a travel company. “All e Technologies helped
us overcome this challenge by demonstrating proof of concept on customizing some
of the core processes,” says Chetan Uberoy, CTO, MMT.
Being the largest and the most experienced Dynamics NAV partner in India,
Alletec leveraged its Microsoft® Dynamics™ NAV and technical expertise to make
this possible. The ease of customization and development productivity provided
by Dynamics™ NAV enabled them to get MMT’s high volume air business ready for
deployment within six months.
The solution is the first of its kind, not just in India, but across the world -
the first time ever that an integrated back-office and mid-office business
application has ever been developed and deployed on Dynamics™ NAV. It is used by
almost a 750 NAV portal users concurrently.
The army of almost 750 MMT agents, spread across various locations and
interacting with customers 24x7 required a web based application that was
integrated with the with the backend MMT systems and the host of other travel
systems worldwide in real time. Taking new bookings, handling change requests,
cancellations, payments, and never ending queries from customers and prospects,
requires efficient and integrated systems. With the new solution, the entire
travel industry functionality, besides being developed on Dynamics™ NAV was also
provided over a web interface – conquering any platform, architectural or
technological limitations perceived.
The new system has enabled MMT to drive in to the B2B space. MMT now has
external travel agencies helping it to extend its reach. These agents use the
MMT systems and have their own credit terms with the company.
Alletec implemented the ‘Advanced Management’ version of Microsoft® Dynamics™
NAV. The solution was customized to cater to the specific needs of the company
and to provide added functionality.
“We chose Microsoft® Dynamics™ NAV mainly because of the automation and
integration features offered,” says Chetan Uberoy. “We were happy with the
functionality and ease of customization offered by Dynamics™ NAV.”
Besides achieving the efficiencies for client facing operations, the system at
MMT delivers the true value of an ERP system. Microsoft® Dynamics™ NAV now
enables MMT a tight financial control. Some of the key achievements include
customer and supplier aging, supplier payments control, and sales agent
performance management.
The new solution based on Microsoft® Dynamics™ NAV has been customized to meet
the bulk of air business, integrate channels, call center, and retail stores.
The flexible architecture of Microsoft® Dynamics™ NAV also supports seamless
integration with third party applications. It connects smoothly with these
products, which helps MMT maximize its technology investment.
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| Benefits |
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MMT’s business has dramatically improved with the implementation of on
Microsoft® Dynamics™ NAV. It provides a flexible business solution, which helps
the company to meet their growing business needs and manage complex operations
better. The company has seen many benefits from this implementation.
Provides Excellent Integration
Microsoft® Dynamics™ NAV provides the company with total integration on almost
every aspect of the business. Along with a clear roadmap and the ease of
customization, the solution helps to consolidate scattered data. This enhances
collaboration and decision making capabilities of the MMT team.
Rajesh Magow, CFO, MMT, comments, “Bringing the mid-office and back-office
together on one single platform with real-time integration with several external
systems was one of the few reasons why we chose Microsoft® Dynamics™ NAV.”
The system has been extended to provide mobile access to travelers on the move.
E-mail and SMS integrations keep the customers connected with any developments
or changes.
Reduces Reporting Cycle Time by 15 Percent
The most dramatic improvements since implementing Microsoft® Dynamics™ NAV has
been the quality and speed of reporting, providing valuable business
intelligence. Not only is the data integrity guaranteed, but the reporting cycle
has also been reduced by 15 percent as many processes are now automated.
MMT now has all the numerous reports that Dynamics™ NAV comes with, effectively
integrating the robustness of an ERP with the swiftness of the mid-office
system. “We are now able to generate customized reports for better analysis and
review,” says Rajesh Magow.
Enhances Productivity by 15 Percent
Microsoft® Dynamics™ NAV provides interconnected information on all the aspects
of the business. The improved visibility and greater efficiency introduced by
the system has had some far-reaching, positive effects.
Rajesh Magow says, “In order to meet the high growth scenario in the company
there was a desperate need to implement an integrated platform to deal with
critical data on the one hand and manage post sales and fulfillment workflow
efficiently on the other. With Microsoft® Dynamics™ NAV we were able to
successfully customize a fairly complex mid office solution involving multiple
integrations with third party solutions and increase our productivity levels by
almost 15 percent.”
Increases Transaction Level Monitoring
Instead of passing consolidated financial entries, MMT is now able to track
individual transactions through Microsoft® Dynamics™ NAV and get transactional
level profitability.
Chetan Uberoy says, “Our air travel business has now been completely customized
on Microsoft ERP. It integrates our portal and people from retail and call
centers into a single unified solution.” He adds, “All processes from ticketing
to after sales, back-office and quality control; have seen a marked improvement
of about 15 percent.”
About All e Technologies
All e Technologies (Alletec) is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner that focuses
on deploying Microsoft Dynamics™ based solutions for its customers. One of the
largest NAV partners in the region, the company has an international clientele –
providing solutions and services to customers across India, USA, Switzerland,
Germany, UK, Singapore, Middle East and Africa. The Indian operations provide
the backbone for global fulfillment and technology competence. The ISO
9001:2000–certified offshore development and services center in India enables
Alletec offer compelling advantages of high-quality global fulfillment with the
‘India’ cost advantage.
Microsoft Dynamics
Microsoft Dynamics is a line of integrated, adaptable business management
solutions that enables you and your people to make business decisions with
greater confidence. Microsoft Dynamics works like familiar Microsoft software
such as Microsoft Office, which means less of a learning curve for your people,
so they can get up and running quickly and focus on what’s most important. And
because it is from Microsoft, it easily works with the systems that your company
already has implemented. By automating and streamlining financial, customer
relationship, and supply chain processes, Microsoft Dynamics brings together
people, processes, and technologies, increasing the productivity and
effectiveness of your business, and helping you drive business success.
For more information about Microsoft Dynamics, go to:
www.microsoft.com/dynamics
For More Information
For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft
Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada
Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing
can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the
United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and
Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information
using the World Wide Web, go to:
www.microsoft.com
For more information about MakeMyTrip.com products and services, call +91 124
4628747 or visit the Web site at:
www.makemytrip.com
For more information about All e Technologies (Alletec) products and services,
call +91 120 4600700 or visit the Web site at:
www.alletec.com
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