NEWS – ROAD SCHOLAR SELECTS TRAVEL STUDIO TO EXPAND EDUCATIONAL TRAVEL BUSINESS

Road Scholar, the not-for-profit leader in educational travel, has launched a new technology strategy in partnership with UK technology specialist Open Destinations.  The US-based educational travel organisation has signed a long-term agreement with Open Destinations for license of their flagship software Travel Studio, which has been designed specifically for tour operators and is currently live in more than 30 countries.

‘Travel Studio is providing us with a business framework for the long term,’ says Eric Bird, Senior Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer at Road Scholar.  ‘We think of our application portfolio as a jigsaw puzzle, with the Travel Studio back office solution at the centre of that puzzle.’

The Boston-based organization underwent a lengthy search in the worldwide marketplace for new technology to replace their legacy system. With over 100,000 participants who enroll in the iconic programs annually, Road Scholar was looking for a platform that had the flexibility to work with their existing systems and provide advanced functionality for their wide range of land and cruise experiences in more than 150 countries.

‘We are delighted to be expanding our footprint in North America,’ says Open Destinations CEO Kevin O’Sullivan.
‘We’ve been providing software to tour operators and wholesalers in this market for over 15 years, and we have a deep understanding of their needs in the marketplace.’

Eric Bird says that Open Destinations’ extensive experience with complex projects was a key deciding factor in the selection of a technology partner.  Over the past four months, the Open Destinations team has been engaging in a detailed business analysis with Road Scholar at their head office in Boston, in order to evaluate their existing business processes along with the software.

With the new software, Road Scholar will be utilising a wide range of functionality within Travel Studio, which Eric Bird says will help streamline their business processes.  Some of the areas of the technology include complex travel packaging, a contracting module and a number of powerful Application Programming Interfaces (API’s) that integrate with a 3rd party systems such as Expedia, Miki Travel and Travalco.

The implementation of Travel Studio is now underway across the offices of Road Scholar, which include the headquarters and call centre in Massachusetts, a travel services division in Vermont and several satellite offices around the U.S., UK, Australia and New Zealand. Completion of the project will result in an additional 300 users of Travel Studio, which currently hosts more than 10,000 users per day.