NextGen Computing
TIMES 3 - OpenBook

The OpenBook system is being developed in direct response to the requests of our customer-base, and the requirement of the industry at large, to produce an agency-management system, fully-encompassing all aspects of an agency's activity.

The need for proper business-intelligence software wriiten specifically for the industry has become paramount, and OpenBook will be NextGen's answer to a significant need.

In order to provide good business intelligence company-wide, all agency functions need to be linked through a common management system, as many functions often overlap and impact upon one another. A common system enables users to both share and maintain this information, providing a significant cost benefit and decreasing the often-duplicated labour effort required to maintain separate systems.

OpenBook intends to offer functionality to all areas of an operation:

  • Owners and Managers
  • Accounting functions
  • Management Information departments
  • Account-management / sales departments
  • Booking consultants

    • It hopes to build on the success of the TIMES 3 product by providing a new level of management reporting, with an optional link to an integral back-office module, also developed by NextGen. This alone will provide a two-way interface between reporting and accounting, which is a necessary ingredient of good business intelligence, and vital for accurate decision-making. Additionally, the software will be enhanced by integral customer-relationship management (CRM) functionality.

    Initial software releases, throughout 2003 and early 2004, will specifically address the corporate travel sector, but the ultimate system aim is to address agencies with a typical mix of business, including:

  • Corporate travel
  • Retail travel
  • Groups / tour-operating

    • As with TIMES 3, OpenBook will be offered as a series of modules, including:

  • Pre-trip reporting
  • Post-trip reporting
  • Electronic data-submission
  • On-line corporate reporting
  • Activity reporting
  • Optional integrated accounting functionality (double-entry, dual-currency accounting)
  • CRM functionality
  • Front-end booking folders

    • Many benefits over current software will be immediately apparent, as OpenBook is the only software that is presently being developed specifically for a fee-based trading environment, and which is mindful of agency network infrastructure constraints:

  • Multi-CRS data capture
  • Integrated transaction fee and rebate matrix
  • Small system 'footprint'
  • No database licence costs
  • Three-tier, thin-client solution
  • Totally scalable from single workstation to wide-area network or virtual private network

    • Developed over the course of three years, OpenBook will soon be available to totally change the way you work. We feel you will soon wonder how you ever did without it!