Hertz SA has offered corporations that take responsibility for their own procurement and booking an option that is customer friendly and efficient. The solution was developed using Progress Software`s WebSpeed. The new system allows corporate clients and travel agents on behalf of corporate clients to book via the Web.
"Our WebSpeed development provides users with a visual system with scrolling reservation lists, cancelled reservation lists and a display of the history of amendments," says Pieter de Villiers of Uneeq Software, contracted to Hertz for software development.
WebSpeed is an integrated development environment that lets developers perform many functions via the browser, such as code editing, file management and database reference. It provides a set of Web tools, including SpeedScript, a server-side 4GL compiled scripting language that enables quick prototyping, development and maintains reusable application business logic, super procedures and dynamic queries or buffers.
In February Hertz`s first customers went live and development has since been incremental and ongoing. Hertz customers such as Eskom, ABI, Amex on behalf of Vodacom`s Cape Town operation and Rainbow Chickens in Durban are already using the system.
"Travel agents for our 400 corporate customers now immediately receive a reservation number, which allows them to improve their service to their customers," says De Villiers.
Hertz bought WebSpeed only in June last year with no prior experience with the application. Following a five-day training course, delivered at its offices, the bulk of the code for the new Web application was written over a three-month period.
"The new system gives travel agents management information too so they can see when contracts are opened or where they have failed to open," says De Villiers.
The development of the Web application enabled Hertz to hook into its existing back office systems and go live in less than 12 months following the acquisition of Progress WebSpeed. To date Hertz has completed more than 3 000 reservations on the new system without any problems, and at the current rate of reservations expects to recuperate its investment in the WebSpeed licences within a few months of going live.
"The new Web-based front-end accesses the tried and tested back-office system originally supplied as the Omnix Car Rental System by iSoft Solutions in 1997. It has been extensively customised by Uneeq Software to meet Hertz`s requirements," concludes Rick Parry, MD of Progress Software South Africa.
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