There are only four sets of traffic lights on the 18 Faroe Islands. Tórshavn, the small capital on Streymoy Island, is home to all of them. Sandwiched between the Norwegian Sea and Atlantic Ocean—about 320 kilometers north-northwest of Scotland—this globally ambitious company, Alpha Travel, is quietly adopting the latest cloud-based technology.
But that’s exactly what Alpha Travel is. In an unassuming semi-residential area set several streets back from a colorful harbor bobbing with boats, the CEO and founder of the business, Tommy Næs Djurhuus, is showing its European mainland counterparts just how digital transformation should be done.
Beaming broadly, Djurhuus welcomes visitors out of the cold and into the warmth of the Alpha Travel office. Clearly a happy crew, his 13-strong staff have built a reputation for personal customer service. Currently, the majority of those customers consist of shipping companies who employ Alpha Travel to arrange crew changes for large numbers of people at a time. The whole operation is set to get a lot bigger and broader.
An ideal solution
Djurhuus, who founded Alpha Travel in 2005, wants to take his business to the next level.
“Everybody asks me, how is it possible for a tiny agency from a very small, isolated country to do business all around the world? I always reply that there's no end to the possibilities. If you think it's possible, then you can do it.”
He went looking for a solution that would free his team to spend less time on administration and more time on customers—a solution that offered the flexibility and scalability to grow the business. To think and behave globally rather than locally.
He opted for a blend of a Microsoft business solution and a travel industry–specific software solution provided by the company’s Microsoft partner of choice.
Alpha Travel chose independent software vendor (ISV) TravelOperations. Headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark, this Microsoft partner has developed an all-in-one travel management solution based on Dynamics 365 Business Central, with added travel-specific functionality to support travel agents in their daily tasks.
In the last year, TravelOperations has replaced Alpha Travel’s existing on-premises IT with Microsoft’s integrated three-cloud solution. It seamlessly combines the intelligence of Dynamics 365 Business Central, the flexibility and scalability of the Azure platform, and the collaborative power of Microsoft Teams.
“The TravelOperations’ solution is by far the best we have ever seen,” says Djurhuus. “We checked out a number of competitors around the world, but none of them came near to what TravelOperations offers.”
The rewards of transformation
According to Michael Holst Andersen, General Manager at TravelOperations, “We are really happy with how the solution is working,” he says. “First there’s the obvious benefit that Alpha Travel has automated and structured its existing operation. The team has a single platform where they can access data, harness business intelligence, and automate reports. This has reduced manual errors and the time it takes to correct them, thus freeing up the team to either sell more or provide even better customer service.”
The results are impressive. Alpha Travel has reduced billing and settlement plan (BSP) reconciliation from three days to just one hour, and bank reconciliations from an entire day to only a few minutes. The team can also create and share impactful and self-explanatory data reports for both internal and external use, improving corporate communication, resource management, and data-driven decision-making.
“Azure offers Alpha Travel totally new technical possibilities,” explains Andersen. “With a cloud solution based on modern technology, the [company] can integrate with mobile apps and websites. Integration with global distribution systems, payment providers, and other industry players’ websites is also possible. And that’s the real driver for the business—it now has the capability and scalability to grow.”
“It’s a time of many firsts for us,” says Djurhuus. “At the moment, we are developing our first online booking tool directly connected through an API solution with the Business Central solution automatically generating invoices and credit notes.”
“Before Azure and Business Central, we had to have servers in our office. They required a lot of attention and maintenance. But now everything's being taken care of in the cloud. Another dramatic change in effectiveness.”
“We also use Microsoft Teams to talk with TravelOperations directly about Business Central. If we have an issue, we can simply share our screens and see exactly how to do something. We’re very happy about that too.”
Andersen notes, “As Alpha Travel grows so will the role of Teams in helping its people in Denmark, Spain, and the US—and all those other places where the company intends to develop a presence—to collaborate and share information fast and effectively. This is just the beginning of the journey, and I see Microsoft technology as essential in helping the company get to where it wants to go.”
Digitalized future-proofing
Of all those “firsts” for Alpha Travel, explains Djurhuus, the most exciting is the online booking system. “We are going to launch our new online booking tool in at least five countries this year. This is the game-changer. This is what will enable us to be a global player. Whether in the North Sea, Panama, the South China Sea, Alaska, or wherever we have clients with vessels, they’ll be able to book online, and so much more. Now the cake, which for us was very small, has got a thousand-fold bigger, because we are able to sell our services around the world, working in any currency.”
Djurhuus adds, “One of the benefits of doing everything with Microsoft technology is that everything is integrated and works together to make the system seamless. So, our team is able to learn the system quickly because of the way it’s set up.”
Djurhuus admits that expansion will change the nature of his business. The practical necessity of automating processes means that staff will no longer be handling all the client bookings in person, but he stresses that the company ethos will not change. The personal one-to-one service that Alpha Travel is known for will still be there for anyone who needs it.
What’s more, he argues that the streamlining of processes is good news for both Alpha Travel and its clients. “Our new booking system is directly connected to Business Central, and that means that everything we do is transferred to the API, into Business Central and taken care of there. Clients will be able to extract information about all their bookings—invoices, credit notes, statements—and they’ll be able to see where an employee travelled to, how many tickets they used on British Airways or Lufthansa or Iberia, and so on. Like us, they’ll have all the data at their fingertips and be able to see if there's something they could do more efficiently.”
And this, of course, works both ways, with Alpha Travel using the system to generate customer insights that will inform ongoing business decisions.
“Everything about this solution ups our game: the intelligence, the efficiencies, the scalability, the collaborative tools … they all work so well together,” concludes Djurhuus. “Without this solution, the chances for us to grow and develop would be almost zero here in the Faroe Islands. With it, we can really believe in what we can achieve.”
Clearly, the company’s investment is already paying considerable business dividends. So, as we say our farewells and take the shuttle to Vágar airport to catch a plane that has—naturally—been booked for us by Alpha Travel, we wish Tommy and his team every success. They certainly deserve it.
“Everybody asks me how is it possible for a tiny agency from a very small, isolated country to do business all around the world? I always reply that there's no end to the possibilities. If you think it's possible, then you can do it.”
Tommy Næs Djurhuus, Founder, Alpha Travel
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