NEWS - SCS Corporate UpdateSCS Solars Computing Systems Inc Head Office Solars USA TourTek
108 – 1st Street West 100 -11140 SW Barbur Blvd 218 – 8901 Woodbine Ave
North Vancouver, BC Portland, OR Markham, Ontario
Canada V7P 3N4 USA 97219 Canada L3R 9Y4
Toll Free: 800-234-5695 503-245-2112 800-234-5695
Business Update - August 2004
Implementation delays this year were due to customer modification requests and development tool upgrades. That being said, it is now obvious that this is shaping up to be a great year for SCS Solars Computing Systems Inc. Solars USA has made substantial progress in enhancing its technology platform and firmly establishing itself as a moneymaker. The web site for travel agents (SolarNet) has improved its web functionality and introduced two new revenue-generating verticals, Net Car Rentals and Net Travel Insurance. TourTek, our reservation/management system, is seeing substantial traffic coming through its Service Bureau Network, proving its technology is tight, its interface-to-web technology is solid and it is opening up many new avenues for content presentation and transaction-based revenues.
S SCS Solars’ 2004 Activity To-date
Solars USA
• SpeedRes currently has 28 Tour Operator clients on their quarterly maintenance program and another 20 Tour Operator clients using their system and contributing to the revenues.
• 4 Tour Operator web sites are now up & running with SpeedRes, utilizing the web booking engine. This is generating an impressive increase in revenues with this online reservation system. We anticipate that those web-based bookings, and related revenues, will surpass the income created by service contracts very soon. Very much a re-engineering initiative that is proving valuable.
• Solars USA custom software work has also increased, giving us a steady inflow of unexpected revenue. We are looking at bringing on some new talent to keep up with the increase in workload.
• A new customer, Super Vacations (Americaasia.com). First phase of install is underway with a projected “live” date of December/04.
• Development is underway to add a GDS (Global Distribution System) module to SpeedRes for direct access to Sabre. With this interface, the tour operator will have access to published fares and other GDS product such as, hotel and car rentals. Many existing customers have requested it – this would add content to their web site and therefore, increase bookings from the web. This would be a substantial new source of revenue for Solars USA.The coding for this module is being set-up through the TourTek Sabre interface.
• Potential Sales for Solars USA are substantial ($400K+). The SpeedRes software is particularly valuable in those areas of the world where IP functionality (Internet) may be lacking; i.e. South Africa & South America.
• Enhancing the Software functionality, by adding the GDS and web modules, will open more doors of opportunity & further increase revenues. Increased sales are also coming in via customer requested modifications.
SolarNet
• SolarNet has made great strides in furthering the recovery of the consolidated air industry: It has taken 3 years, but travel is back to pre-9/11 levels. SolarNet is in the forefront, attracting new business, new users and increasing its revenues.
• SolarNet has significantly improved the functionality of the web site; it is now easier than ever for travel agents to book; LiveLinx*PLUS has been more clearly defined as “Bookable Online”.
• We added 2 new products to the consolidated Net Air program: Now the travel agent can add a rental car to the air portion of their booking with the “Net Car Rental” option from Global Cars. “Net Rates Insurance”, a first in the travel industry, has also been added in response to the direct requests from our travel agents users, and further enhances SolarNet’s functionality and value as a complete travel web site.
• A successful e-mail campaign to update the travel agents about the new functionality and added content on the SolarNet web site brings new travel agency users daily. This will be an ongoing campaign.
• 24 Air Consolidators are currently live on the SolarNet web site.
• Now 8 Air Consolidators are under contract for Sabre Rate Manager – 2 are live and 6 in ongoing stages of development.
• Daily bookings have noticeably increased.
TourTek
• Our TourTek reservation/management system has now well established its name within the Tour Operator industry as the product to be considered when looking to upgrade to a state-of-the-art system.
• TourTek is offered in a transaction-based ASP (Application Server Provider) version (Service Bureau) where the data resides on our servers and the tour operator has an Internet connection to manage its inventory and complete reservations. TourTek now has 9 contracted customers. TourTek has now proven it is solid, with daily numbers of between 10 & 20 users at any given time. We anticipate exponential growth of TourTek’s transactional volumes as the Winter Season approaches. TourTek forecasted numbers and expected revenues are now at hand.
• The Service Bureau model (ASP) is now fully developed and ready for the anticipated major increases in booking volumes that will come through the network in the winter season. Potential customers for TourTek are enormous, in North America alone there are over 8,000 tour operators, and only 10% of these have automation. Of the 10%, many are looking to upgrade from old legacy systems to browser-based Windows functionality.
• Current negotiations with several Service Bureau client opportunities total over $1M in annual revenue. TourTek’s In-house version (Licensing model) opportunities add another $1M to potential revenues.
• 10 existing SpeedRes clients are conversion prospects to TourTek’s Service Bureau.
Most of the Solars’ business initiatives are based on a per-transaction revenue stream. This revenue model is continuous, as long as the Tour Operator remains in business, and will improve in volume as the related web sites become more popular and the travel agent becomes more adept with the application. There are also up-front installation-related revenues generated, and revenues from custom software work. Solars U.S.A will continue to sell outright licenses (SpeedRes) and maintenance contracts as evidenced by the recent Super Vacations contract.
SCS Solars’ Immediate Direction
• 3 new programmers have been hired (under contract - 2 part time) and must be trained
• Solars will continue to coordinate the full integration of all 3 departments under the Solars’ banner; TourTek, Solars USA (SpeedRes) & SolarNet.
• Solars will further develop direct 3rd party content access to: (a) Pegasus, who provides thousands of hotel properties to the GDS systems would increase a Tour Operator’s product content therefore increase their bookings on TourTek: (b) Sabre, who would give published fares and other content to a Tour Operator, and (c) Scotia Bank (credit card processing) to enable online credit card fulfillment of bookings.
• TourTek will hire 2 new Oracle programmers to increase client implementation and give faster client support.
• Solars will add more new clients such as On-line Travel Concierge (TravelNewYork.com) –a recent TourTek Service Bureau client. Through our Vancouver and Portland office we receive daily inquiries about reservation/management software solutions.
• Developments to TourTek are now complete allowing us to implement new clients within a planned 12-week time frame.
• Solars will continue to offer the Web module to existing and new SpeedRes clients and increase the transaction volume.
• Solars will finish development of SpeedRes’ newest modules similar to the TourTek Service Bureau Internet model, relational data structure, and point and click screens. SpeedRes will evolve as a scaled down version of TourTek for those operators too small to use TourTek, but require web bookings and GDS interface to obtain additional product content.
• Solars has agreements in place with 4 desk-top providers who give travel agents access to consolidated airfares Through the API (Application Programming Interface) Solars can provide access to over fifty air consolidators, including content from OpenFares, the largest airline consolidator management system in North America. The API development is now completed and is ready for deployment. The contractual agreements are all transaction-based.
• Solars has re-seller agreements in place for the TourTek application and are in negotiations with several interested technology groups. Once in place the marketing of TourTek will see an increase in exposure and interest. Solars continues to seek strategic alliances with other travel technology companies. Solars management continues to believe growth by strategic alliance will increase our revenues without increasing overheads.
• The software arena surrounding the Travel Management business for the small to medium - sized Tour Operator is ripe and ready for a massive change. SCS Solars is well placed to compete for a major share of this software market, both via its Service Bureau call-centre application software, and also through its e-commerce web application software sales. Inquiries and sales from North America alone will make SCS a leader in transaction-based software. Our initiative to develop real-time web booking capabilities make us a powerful utility in the travel industry. Overseas inquiries, in particular from the South Pacific and South Africa add to the mix of current and future clients.
• Industry-first advances that have now been completed in TourTek, features such as, Child Pricing, Airline Bulk Fare content, Integrated Negotiated Airfare, extensive reporting facilities, and the ability to package dynamically has put TourTek in the forefront of Wholesale Travel Management Software.
Summary
The goal at Solars has always been to develop universal access to all its travel content through a common gateway. With Solars’ growing client base and the gateway in place, there are many more opportunities to provide this valuable content outside the normal realms of presentation. The multitude of travel web sites that exist, such as Travelocity and Expedia, will now have the opportunity to access this content of all participating clients of Solars on a transactional basis. The business model works well for both the content provider and the presenters.