Journeying together towards open innovation

By Kami Navarro

COVID-19 may have dashed vacation plans, but leisure travel may soon be possible with the gradual reopening of Singapore’s borders. When international tourism inevitably comes roaring back, platforms known as global distribution systems (GDS) are in place to help efficiently plan your dream holiday. Typically, travel agencies use the GDS to make reservations via a single portal as opposed to individually searching for available bookings.

Be-Yon Travel Technology is a Singapore-based company with its own GDS, giving users a one-stop portal for browsing, customising, booking and paying for their travel itineraries. However, some users found the system difficult to use, shared Be-Yon co-founder and CCO Ms Janet Tan-Collis.  

An industry veteran with over three decades of experience, Ms Tan-Collis sought to find an efficient way to improve her portal’s user experience. With its structured innovation process, Ms Tan-Collis saw the Infocomm Media Development Authority’s (IMDA) Open Innovation Platform (OIP) as the perfect avenue to elevate Be-Yon’s portal. “There’s a lot of thought put into the OIP,” she shared. 

One of a kind

Meant to catalyse local innovation and drive digitalisation, the OIP launches innovation calls every few months comprising of challenges from problem owners like Be-Yon. Problem solvers then apply for these challenges, gaining the opportunity to address real business issues—and win prize monies in the process. 

Soon after launching their call, Be-Yon fielded numerous offers from companies around the world. But for Ms Tan-Collis, travel solutions company Zillion stood out from the pack. “They understood not only the tech, but also the idiosyncrasies that exist in our business. It was wonderful that Zillion was a Singapore company as well,” she shared. The two companies then quickly set to work, discovering a remarkable synergy along the way. “The Be-Yon team has rich experience in the events and bespoke leisure industry. Meanwhile, we are very strong in technology,” enthused Zillion co-founder Mr Ram Mohan.

Proving that teamwork truly makes the dream work, the two groups started out by watching detailed demos of their own systems—noting down what worked and what didn’t. Taking into consideration the various industry scenarios and customer requirements, the team then identified specific features they hoped to add to Be-Yon’s platform.

Finally, Be-Yon and Zillion unveiled what they proudly call the “first comprehensive, integrated and customised travel portal for the digital world.” For Ms Tan-Collis, the portal is an improved version of the two companies’ respective systems. “Be-Yon had systems Zillion didn’t have and vice versa, so we pooled both our technologies’ features. To put the two systems together—I think it’s unbeatable,” she said. 

Quality over quantity

Effectively the one-stop shop for trip planning, Be-Yon and Zillion’s combined system brings together all the various parties needed to make the perfect holiday possible. From hotels to restaurants and even transportation, everything that can be researched online can be booked by the travel agent using the portal in mere minutes instead of days. But it’s not just speed that makes their portal unique.

Unlike other platforms, their portal emphasises experience above all. According to Mr Mohan, the smart system can map out a bespoke programme based on the customer’s interests, budget and preferences while providing real-time, up-to-date pricing. “Whether the customer is city or nature-oriented, we help them choose from a set of experiences, going right down to the details,” he explained. “Within half an hour, the travel agent can help the customer plan and pay for an entire trip.”

“Our platform caters to people who don’t have time to browse, but would like to have everything taken care of,” added Ms Tan-Collis. “If they went to Singapore, they wouldn’t be interested in going to the zoo or the bird park. What they’d want is to walk along little lanes, be invited into somebody’s home, see how Chinese cakes are traditionally made or even go on a private yacht with a reflexologist onboard! Those are the kinds of experiences that we are trying to serve.”

To the stars and Be-yon

LeisureStar’s smart scheduler generates multi-day itineraries -- with just one click! Here’s a video that shows how it works.

However, Be-Yon and Zillion soon realised that there was a larger opportunity for their platform beyond leisure travel. Though conferences and events worldwide have been put on hold due to COVID-19, such business meetings would eventually come back in full force. Hoping to tap into the US$9 trillion business and leisure travel market, the two companies officially joined forces to form their joint venture Ad Astra in May 2020.

Currently, Ad Astra offers two portals, EventStar and LeisureStar. EventStar facilitates the planning of business events and includes a cost matrix tool that compares programme prices across multiple destinations. Meanwhile, LeisureStar features a sophisticated smart scheduler that calculates the optimal time to be allocated for each part of an itinerary, depending on their proximity to one another. 

Indeed, Ad Astra—which means “to the stars” in Latin—is a perfect example of how far Be-Yon and Zillion have both come, thanks to OIP.