As the digital world evolves rapidly, organisations depend more than ever on strong IT systems and solutions to stay competitive and fuel innovation. However, a challenge most companies face are the shortage and high wages for these skilled IT talents. This shortage is caused by several factors like high demand for IT skills, specialised roles, and constant global competition. As a result, many businesses face project delays, high costs, and inefficiencies when trying to complete large IT projects.

Whilst businesses have relied on outsourcing for various functions such as customer support, HR, and finance, recently, outsourcing has come on demand in the area of IT development. Outsourcing works in various different models from offshore hiring agencies, to delegation of specific business processes or tasks – typically in regions where labour costs are lower, or talent is more readily available. 

In any kind of industry, rapid technological advancements have required businesses to be agile and innovative. Outsourcing IT processes allows companies to tap into a global pool of IT professionals with the skills needed to manage, develop, and scale IT projects.

Why Companies needs IT Outsourcing

In addition to addressing the immediate problem of  skill shortages and high costs for IT talents, outsourcing offers several other benefits which makes it an attractive option for businesses:

Focus on core strengths: Outsourcing IT tasks allows companies to focus on their main business activities while leaving the technical IT work to specialists, improving overall efficiency and productivity.

Risk management: Outsourcing reduces risks by assigning tasks to experts who can handle challenges like cybersecurity, compliance, and operational issues.

Global collaboration: With outsourcing partners in different time zones, work can continue around the clock, speeding up project delivery.

Here’s how ATI can help your business

With over 1,500 experienced team members, ATI stands out by offering operational support, including IT, through our outsourcing services. From Automation Development, QC Testers to Software Development service, our unwavering focus on meeting organisations’ evolving needs has been instrumental in our success, bolstered by the strength of our support ecosystem – the ATI Academy and Business Analysts team.

With over 20 years in the several industries, ATI’s culture and cohesive ecosystem supports our team members with expertise and essential competencies to effectively meet client demands. Learn more about our offering here.

In an industry where accuracy and effectiveness are crucial, the growing deficiency in ticketing skills among travel professionals is becoming a significantly growing issue. As the travel landscape evolves and customer expectations soar, the gap in ticketing proficiency threatens to undermine the effectiveness and competitiveness of travel agents.

Ticketing is a fundamental aspect of the travel industry, encompassing everything from booking flights and accommodations to managing changes and cancellations. Despite its importance, many travel professionals are struggling with handling multiple complex systems or insufficient training, leading to errors, inefficiencies, and a lack of confidence in their work. Whilst most bigger travel agencies have opted for robotic automation in ticketing, those on the lower scale of the spectrum tend to struggle with the lack of up-to-date ticketing skills. Not only a minor inconvenience, this ticketing supply gap has become a growing concern impacting the entire travel experience for customers.

How Essential Are Top-Notch Ticketing Skills for Travel Agents?

Enhance Customer Experience

Mastery of ticketing systems allows agents to provide accurate information, manage bookings efficiently, and resolve issues promptly, leading to higher customer satisfaction.

Adapt to Technological Advancements

Proficiency in ticketing software and platforms, especially complex ones like the GDS, are essential for adapting to the ever-evolving landscape of travel platforms and technology.

Optimise Operational Efficiency

Efficient ticketing processes contribute to the overall productivity of travel agencies. Agencies with consultants who excel in ticketing minimise errors, reduce processing time, and streamline operations, leading to better resource management and cost savings. 

Build Trust and Credibility

Clients rely on travel professionals to handle their bookings accurately and efficiently. Demonstrating expertise in ticketing fosters trust and credibility, encouraging repeat business and referrals. 

Navigate Complex Travel Arrangements

Top-notch ticketing skills are crucial for managing these intricacies, ensuring that all aspects of the trip are coordinated effectively and any issues are resolved quickly are key points to standing out from your competitors.

To tackle the ticketing skill crisis, travel agencies and professionals need to invest in comprehensive training programs that keep pace with technological advancements and industry standards. But wouldn’t that take up to much of the time and effort as travel agencies’ core business are all about sales and travel arrangements instead of skill training and improvements?

Here’s how ATI can help your business

With over 1,500 travel experienced team members and over 800 ticketing staff, ATI stands out by offering crucial support through our outsourcing services. Our singular focus on addressing the industry’s evolving needs has proven successful, particularly with the strong standing of our very own ATI Academy. 

With over 20 years in the Travel & Aviation industry, ATI Academy has trained and gathered technical skills for airfare ticketing services and all other services in ATI. This continuous learning channel has been designed comprehensively to ensure our consultants are equipped with a high level of ticketing skills and other essential competencies to meet client needs effectively.

Since commencing in 2002 with a single discipline of fare filing and contract loading, ATI Business Group has grown to support multiple work disciplines, including ticketing, fare auditing, finance and accounting, robotic process automation and developing various travel and aviation technology products.

Learn more about our Ticketing & Refund Processing offering here and all our services here.

The travel industry is a dynamic and fast-paced sector, and one essential aspect of Travel Agency operations is fare auditing—the process of reviewing contract rates and fares to ensure correct fares are loaded into the GDS. Whilst simple, fare monitoring and audit is crucial and aids to prevent unnoticed loss for both Travel Agencies and the end-clients.

The volume of airline fares alone, such as an origin–destination city pair path, can have as many as 100 different fares for a single airline at any given time. Airlines can also change restrictions of as many as 100,000 fares in a single day, making incorrect fares to be a potential financial risk often overlooked. Knowing the volume and importance of the fare audit process, which involves repetitive tasks, Travel Agencies have the option of utilising third party or outsourcing organisations especially to maintain factors such as follows:

1. Ensure accuracy and consistency

Conducting regular fare audits avoids providing fare errors to Travel Agencies clients, ensures pricing information is accurate and consistent with the prices offered and negotiated with airlines. 

2. Avoid Customer Dissatisfaction

It’s definitely not pleasing for your clients to realise they have been overcharged when an agreed contract rate is in place. Fare audits ensure and help Travel Agencies maintain trust and confidence from their clients through fare accuracy. 

3. Manage profitability

Fare audits help identify any discrepancies in negotiated deals and address them before becoming a larger issue. Not only do your clients get the right pricing, you could also avoid financial losses from incorrect fare issues.

ATI’s Fare & Rate Audit Service

Did you know that potentially over 40% of your fares may have undetected errors? With ATI’s team of experienced professionals, we have a 100% Fare Auditing accuracy rate under our belt. ATI’s Fare Audit service ensures consistency and accuracy, avoiding any client dissatisfaction and unnecessary losses for Travel Agencies. Our teams’ extensive experience combined with our proprietary workflow management tools, provides a cost-effective and accurate solution to complete the large volumes of fare audits on a timely basis through multiple GDS and proprietary systems. 

About ATI

With over 20 years of experience in the travel industry, ATI has grown to be one of the largest singular business process outsourcing providers for the Travel and Aviation industry.   We help various multinational organisations grow and accelerate their business process by providing integrated Technology and Digital Services & Solutions. 

By comprehensively investing in our team and utilising the combination of both human and digital Intelligence, ATI has become a preferred partner of various globally recognised brands in the industry. Click here to know more about our Fare and Rate Auditing service, and don’t hesitate to get in contact with us. 

According to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), the global travel and tourism industry suffered a loss of 62 million jobs and $4.5 trillion in GDP in 2020 due to the pandemic. The pandemic has forced travel agencies to rethink their business models and strategies – with many having to shut down or lay off employees, and those that survived faced a highly uncertain and competitive market. 

Whilst many have been forced to adapt and innovate in response to the pandemic – pivoting to new business models, such as offering virtual travel experiences or specialty trips catering to small groups, others have intensified their focus on customer service and digital developments. However, despite the reopening of travel destinations,  the recovery process for travel agencies remains unpredictable – especially with the travel chaos last summer which is predicted to happen again this 2023, there are concerns that wider technological issues could disrupt customers’ travel experience.

To successfully navigate the new normal, travel agencies must proactively embrace digital transformation with a strategic plan and implementation. This could be done by engaging BPOs (Business Process Outsourcing) with the best technological advancements and industry experience.

How Do BPOs Help in This Post-Pandemic Situation?

Although the current post-pandemic situation could present a daunting array of hurdles, it is also promising opportunities for those who are agile, adaptable, and innovative. BPOs help provide valuable support by providing flexible staffing solutions, expertise in process efficiency, and services focused to reduce costs and streamline operations. By carefully considering outsourcing strategy and choosing the right partner, organisations can navigate the new normal with confidence and emerge stronger than ever.

ATI Business Group – Travel & Aviation-focused Business Process Outsourcing Organisation

Grown to be the largest Business Process Outsourcing provider in Indonesia, ATI is equipped with experienced travel industry experts, technology advancements and has become a preferred partner of various global clients in the travel industry. ATI utilises Robotic Process Automation (RPA) expertise to automate back-office processes and nurtures a learning and collaborative working environment that fosters continuous improvement.

With these heavy investments in our team’s capabilities, process improvement and technology enablement, ATI has grown into a team of knowledgeable, experienced travel experts backed with integrated advanced technology solutions. Our clients are able to minimise cost and optimise on revenue maximisation, creating an ecosystem with high efficiency and effectivity. If you’re looking for a partner to help you achieve unparalleled results in the travel industry, look no further than ATI. Get in touch with us here to consult how our  products and services could possibly help you.

The pandemic has had an unprecedented impact on the global travel and tourism sector and its repercussions are still being felt.  According to a Statista report, over 50 million travel jobs have been lost globally during the span of the pandemic. Now as we see restrictions being lifted gradually since mid 2022, demand surge has in turn created severe travel chaos in various countries – as seen in major cities such as London and the United States.

Unfortunately for both the organisations and the workforce, the huge job losses during the pandemic have meant most travel industry organisations are now facing severe skill shortages. There is no denying that several key processes have been and will continue to be hugely affected, and the urgent need for experienced and skilled travel professionals to cope with the ‘new normal’ within the sector is inevitable in order to ensure seamless operational workflow and customer satisfaction. 

The urgent need to develop a talent pool

In the midst of this post-pandemic travel surge, organisations are faced with a difficult decision: should they use their existing limited skills or quickly hire new employees to fill the skill gap? This choice is made more difficult due to the financial hit taken during the pandemic and the bleak economic outlook.

Not only that, training also takes time and costs money and with an increasing surge in demand, this makes it unquestionably hard for most travel companies to manage. Underestimating this need could be a costly mistake especially if end customers start to experience negative experiences during their booking and travel process.

The most effective and logical choice for organisations during this time would be outsourcing to secure the talent and skills. Partnering with a business process outsourcing firm that provides the best service and highly qualified travel experts puts companies in the best position to succeed, giving organisations a competitive edge in the market. Such a partnership enables organisations to navigate market fluctuations with the right skill set and execute plans faster, rather than having to invest in training resources again.

How Can ATI Help You?

ATI has grown to be the largest business process outsourcing provider in Indonesia with over 20 years of experience in the travel and aviation industry. We have helped various multinational travel organisations grow and accelerate their business processes by providing highly skilled Travel Professionals and industry specific technology and services.  

At ATI, we understand that our people are the foundation of our success. Located in the rapidly growing South East Asia region, ATI has been able to remain resilient during the pandemic, which has allowed us to continue investing in our internal teams. One such initiative is the ATI Academy, an internal training program designed to develop our team and equip them with the knowledge and skills necessary to deliver standards of excellence for our clients. This program is conducted by ATI’s experienced trainers, who ensure that our employees are aligned with our company objectives and equipped with the skills and knowledge to assist our clients.

Utilising the combination of Human and Digital Intelligence, ATI has become a preferred partner of various global clients in the travel industry including Expedia, Booking. com, Flight Centre Travel Group, Travelport and Amadeus. ATI provides a pathway for organisations in the travel and aviation sector to scale resources quickly and efficiently, filling the gaps in your skill and staffing needs. To learn more about our products and services, don’t hesitate to get in contact with us or learn more about all of our offerings here.

The surge of the COVID-19 outbreak for the past 2 years has led to a continued global rise in inflation, staffing shortages and widespread disruption of the global economy. Yet, the outsourcing industry has so far proved to be resilient in times of turmoil. According to a Statista report, the BPO industry is projected to reach US$330 billion by the end of year. This includes a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.69%, leading to a market volume of US$450 billion by 2027. 

The growing number of calls and customer service centres in Asia Pacific and North America also creates a significant impact on market development for outsourcing organisations. Other drivers expected to fuel further growth include the rise of next-generation services such as big data analytics, cloud services, as well as robotic process automation (RPA). 

As another year unfolds with further opportunities, here are some of the outsourcing trends you may want to look out for in 2023:  

1. Increased demand for virtual assistants

Since the pandemic, businesses are looking to hone their workflow management in order to focus more on generating profits and revenues.  Administrative assistants, such as virtual assistants are starting to gain popularity for small businesses and startups to help with their daily operations. Outsourcing administrative professionals taking over mundane and repetitive tasks such as data entry, marketing services and customer service ensure a highly efficient and effective process in the organisation. According to a report by Best of Budgets, hiring virtual assistants through offshore outsourcing can reduce operating costs by 78% and increase productivity by over 13%, explaining the increasing demand for virtual assistants.

2. Artificial intelligence (AI), automation, and cloud services

Due to the implications of limited physical contact during the COVID 19 pandemic, consumers are now highly reliant on digital technology. Businesses need to amp up on digitisation more than ever. In turn, outsourcing companies need to be adept and keeping up with the latest technology in order to build and provide a seamless experience for their clients. Robotic process automation (RPA), artificial intelligence, machine learning and cloud services are essential differentiators for outsourcers looking to gain competitive advantage. These forms of automation and digitisation are likely to go beyond the fringes of in-house business processes and become core business features of outsourcing contracts for various industries especially healthcare, travel and IT services.

3. Omnichannel Communication

One thing that would continue to be of importance for customers, are personalised interaction and consistent experience with a brand through various communication channels. As a result, omnichannel communication has now become the new norm where omnichannel business tools are required to improve customer experience throughout all their communication channels. Omnichannel communication capability is one of the top outsourcing trends that is projected to continue on in the coming years. 

2023 is sure to bring lots of surprises that even our predictions can’t foresee. At the same time, these BPO trends are predicted to play a crucial role for businesses in making informed decisions to apply best practices in line with their organisational goals and success. The very best advice to keep is to understand your target clients needs, be consistent and shape organisational operations to serve as efficiently and effectively as possible to get the best customer experience.

As an experienced outsourcing specialist in the travel industry for over 20 years, ATI has delivered exceptional customer experiences from building and operating omnichannel support centres on behalf of our clients, to utilising automation and digital technology as a crucial business tool to assist business processes our clients may need help with. Trusted by clients across the globe including Expedia, Booking. com, Flight Centre Travel Group, Travelport and Amadeus, ATI provides a pathway to scale resources quickly and efficiently for organisations in the travel industry. To learn more about our products and services, don’t hesitate to get in contact with us or learn more about all of our offerings here.