Tech Firm Tailors Solutions for Smaller Agencies

Customized technology solutions are often out of reach economically for small and medium-sized travel agencies, but Grasp Technologies said it has found ways to make them accessible.

The company has adopted the “community model” of some larger technology vendors, in which “any feature typically becomes available to everyone,” according to Erik Mueller, founder and chief executive officer.

Sharing costs
By sharing new developments – and their costs – among its client base, Grasp lowers the price of customization.

The company, based in San Diego and Columbus, Ohio, has some high-profile clients. Among them is Valerie Wilson Travel, a well-known New York agency that worked with Grasp to develop the first desktop reporting tool. But for the most part, Grasp builds custom solutions for the smaller end of the agency community.

Mueller likes that niche. “Small-business owners provide a high level of service,” he told Travel Market Report. “They are very nimble and quick to innovate.”

Instant access
Grasp is beginning to emerge from the shadows. It recently completed a new agency platform for Travel Planners International, a full-service host agency with more than 1,800 home-based independent contractors and travel agencies.

Dubbed TPIcentral, the platform is designed to provide instant access to information on sales and commissions and to robust reporting tools.

Two new capabilities – an instant commission alert by text or email and on-demand reporting on current and past sales – are hallmarks of the new platform.

The goal is to eliminate the hundreds of calls that TPI gets from members each month about commissions and reports.

Central info hub
The platform also serves as a central information hub, integrating the TRAMS back-office system and the Amadeus, Galileo, Sabre and Worldspan GDSs.

“TPI had been leasing an outside agent portal, but they wanted something unique,” Mueller said. “What we built sets them apart. What we did was under the hood, and then they put a beautiful wrapper around the code we developed.”

Grasp does not necessarily reinvent the wheel when it creates solutions. Over the years, it has developed a “huge” library of components that can be assembled in any number of configurations. Think Dell computers: You start with a few basic pieces and then customize it according to your needs.

Off-the-shelf products
Among the company’s basic products are Grasp Data, a web-based product that automates the management report production and delivery process for travel agencies and their corporate clients.

It includes an executive dashboard function that provides a snapshot overview of travel purchasing. It also sends out alerts regarding cost savings opportunities and policy exceptions.

Synchronizing data
Another product, Secure Connect, is a data consolidation engine that synchronizes multiple data sources to enable an organization to see a complete picture of its data and to enable disconnected systems to talk to each other and share data.

GRASP Agent automates the process of running multiple reports to determine commission payments to inside and outside agents – normally a tedious, time-consuming task.

These off-the-shelf products can be customized.

“Every agency is so different,” Mueller said. “There are differences in the personalities of the ownership. Even our most generic product – data cleansing for back-office systems – is customizable. We haven’t had to change the core product, but we can create new rules to pour into it.”

User Voice
Grasp Technologies also gives customers a chance to speak out. A feature called User Voice lets them post requests for enhancements and vote on the best of them.

That, Mueller said, ensures that “our products are constantly evolving.”