RTS Press Release - Brittany Ferries selects RTS CargoProfitOpt

Revenue Technology Services (RTS) is pleased to announce that Brittany Ferries Freight division has selected RTS CargoProfitOpt as the solution to meet its freight revenue management requirements. Once implemented, this will be the ferry industry’s first such solution. With this win, RTS adds to its list of several firsts in its long history of 32 years; first passenger revenue management solution developed for Republic Airways, first cargo price optimization solution for Virgin Atlantic Cargo, and now the first revenue management solution for the freight ferry market for Brittany Ferries.

This also reiterates the thought leadership shown by both the companies to shake the status quo and make significant improvements to how freight is managed in the industry.

The freight revenue management solution will support capacity forecasting, show up rate forecasting, demand forecasting, bid pricing, and customer value components that will help Brittany Ferries to maximize their profits.

This win also strengthens the relationship and long standing partnership between the two companies over the years. Brittany Ferries already uses RTS ProfitOpt, our passenger revenue management solution.

Simon Wagstaff, Group Freight Director, commented “At Brittany Ferries, we have long been convinced of the potential of a reliable system of revenue management for our freight business. RTS has always exhibited thought leadership in data analytics, revenue management, and pricing .The choice of RTS as our partner for this project was a very straightforward one, given the existing relationship between our two companies and the trust and confidence that has been built up since the introduction of their revenue management system on the passenger side of our business. We have complete confidence in their ability to deliver the system that we need and look forward to working closely with RTS in the long term.”

Raja Kasilingam, President and COO at RTS, "Revenue Technology Services is committed to making positive changes to the freight ferry automation world. We are delighted to add this product to the industry-leading suite of products we offer to the market place, all designed to help companies optimally market and sell their product, operate efficiently, and to better serve their customers.” Mukundh Parthasarathy, Vice President of Cargo solutions for Revenue Technology Services chimed in, “To have the world’s first freight revenue management solution developed for Brittany Ferries is a huge achievement for our cargo suite. Adding to this, we are the only company to have an integrated freight revenue management and passenger revenue management solution.”

The first phase of the project is scheduled to go live in the second quarter of 2014 that includes capacity management modules.

Alan Wayne, the project manager for this endeavour and also the manager of the passenger revenue management practice at Brittany Ferries commented, “The last couple of months have seen a successful start to the project. The nature of developing an integrated passenger and freight revenue management system has thrown up some interesting challenges that both Brittany Ferries and RTS are rising to. If we continue to progress in the same fashion we will have no problems hitting our Phase 1 go-live target. “

About RTS

Revenue Technology Services is a worldwide provider of profit enhancing revenue management and pricing software solutions for passenger and cargo, consulting services, and IT services for travel, transportation and logistics industries. RTS is headquartered in Dallas, Texas with offices in UK and South Africa and a development centre in IT Park in Chandigarh, India. For additional information, visit www.rtscorp.com or contact rts.information@rtscorp.com or +1-972-573-1600

About Brittany Ferries

Founded in 1972 by proud Breton Alexis Gourvennec and a group of fellow Breton farmers wanting to export their cauliflowers and artichokes to the UK, Brittany Ferries is now the leading maritime carrier on the western and central channel. Gourvennec formed the company, formerly known as Armement Bretagne-Angleterre-Irelande, or B.A.I. for short, which was officially born on a bleak New Year's Day in 1973 with French, British and Breton flags flying and a choir singing carols. With Britain's entry into the Common Market in 1973, Gourvennec saw his chance to end the geographical isolation of Brittany. Realising the quickest route to this new market would be across the western channel to Plymouth, he contacted several large shipping companies to no avail and began setting up his own company by purchasing a freighter, the Kerisnel, named after a small Breton village famous for its cauliflowers - with the Breton farmers who are still the company's main shareholders today.

For additional information, visit http://www.brittany-ferries.co.uk/, http://www.brittanyferriesfreight.co.uk/

Technolog-ease

I mentioned a few times previously where blog ideas seem to appear at random, depending on what is happening. Today was no different! Having covered the “People” and “Processes” part of our catchphrase, the only item remaining (before I start the loop again), is technology. I am, at heart, a geek. Granted, a weird geek, in that I like things like off road driving, fixing cars and mechanics, playing hard rock guitar, household repairs and various other “non-geek” pursuits.

But I have to tell you, I like technology. Not the type where I need an IT degree to be able to fix a car engine, but that type which makes our lives easier. The type which allows us to work around the world, cater for staff and clients in multiple time zones, and still maintain a reasonable work/life balance.

I live in the most beautiful city in the world, Cape Town. From a convenience perspective, it is NOT in the U.S.A., so we have to deal with businesses, shops and shopping centers who all tend to keep the same working hours. None of this 10 PM visit to the PC shops for parts. If I need to meet with someone, it needs to be during what would be my working day. So I need to borrow some time.

Additionally, our team is based around the world. Our India team’s day starts 3 ½ hours before mine. Our US team’s day starts pretty much as our sun goes down. When I am heading off to meet Mr. Sandman, they are heading towards afternoon tea time.

And in today’s connected world, people for the most part want answers NOW.

Technology can be a great enabler. Nipping out this morning to meet my insurance guy, an email comes through from a European client with a query. I can log this remotely, request a response from someone on our technical team in India, and they can investigate. The investigation is done remotely, and I get the feedback to the client, all within about 15 minutes. And this is done whilst I am stuck in traffic (one of the few Cape Town downsides), albeit with a spectacular view of the surfers.

This afternoon, after various calls, including conference calls with our full scattered team, I will head out slightly early to help coach my 3 sons at gymnastics. But this will be secure in the knowledge that if anything urgent arises, there is a pretty good chance that it can be resolved without me needing to leave the floor.

Later, after dinner and some time with the family, I can still sit down, vegetate a little in front of the TV, but at the same time I can review and respond to other requests, complete some admin, get appointments set up and generally continue being productive.

Similar technology allows clients to access hosted systems (both ours and others) remotely, offering the possibilities of similar flexibility. The abundance of online tools for meetings, video conferencing, screen sharing allows us to interact with clients without the added cost of travel, and provides much quicker resolution.

For those of us who grew up with token ring networking, Unix, DOS networking, green screens, and dumb terminals all requiring some form of hard connections or locations, technology truly can be miraculous. The biggest challenge I personally face is knowing when to switch off!

So any unhealthy work/life balance is not the fault of technology, but purely down to my human failings J

Let us know how you use, or would like to use, technology to enrich your lives.

Jason Codd

Vice President - Services

Recruiting the next "Super Star"

As I was reading Thomas L.Friedman’s NY Times article, ‘ How to get a job at Google’ (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/23/opinion/sunday/friedman-how-to-get-a-job-at-google.html?_r=0), a fantastic read by the way, I had a simple question to my colleagues in the travel and transportation community – when you look to expand your team, do you hire or do you recruit?

This is not a trick question...so I started googling as I thought there was a difference between these terms and couldn’t get my mind or words around what exactly was the difference but deep inside knew that this particular difference can take a company to the next level or make it another mediocre run-of-the-mill organization.

Merriam Webster defines ‘Hire’ as

hire

noun \ˈhī(-ə)r\

 payment for labor or personal services :  wages

while ‘Recruit’ is defined as

re·cruit

verb \ri-ˈkrüt\

: to persuade (someone) to join you in some activity or to help you

Though these terms are used interchangeably, most companies make the mistake of hiring a candidate versus recruiting one. While hiring might typically be driven by need like a .Net developer, the act of recruiting shifts the focus on the individual who may or may not have the exact fit or skill sets. The way I see it is if you come across great talent, identify it, welcome them with open arms into your team and tweak / modify your organization accordingly.

These recruited individuals will make a difference. At RTS, we have strived to look for and recruit individuals that fit our culture and possess a winning attitude to make the organization improve by leaps and bounds.

I agree with Google as Mr.Friedman details in his article on the five hiring attributes that Google follows:

·         General cognitive ability

·         Leadership

·         Humility

·         Innate curiosity

·         Ownership

The least important attribute that Google looks for is ‘expertise’. I am not arguing that skill sets, grades, degree don’t matter but most jobs typically are not well defined from roles and responsibilities.

How does one go about recruiting? I kind of keep my eyes and ears open to every individual I talk to from various walks of life. They all can be potential recruits. If I meet someone who is very logical, analytical and curious, a light bulb in my mind comes on as to how can I bring this person into RTS? 

We at RTS have a blue print of who would be a great candidate to work in our environment irrespective of the vertical, or skill set that we are trying to fill in. As long as that person meets those standards, they are in.

This process can be slow but trust me this can work wonders as I have seen major corporations time and again hire individuals either to manage or to meet a job description losing sight of the bigger picture.

Once recruited, the relationship between the organization and the individual should be treated like another relationship. It cannot be taken for granted. The candidate / relationship have to be nurtured with appropriate attention paid to their aspirations, talent and capabilities. As you may well know, our business is still about people. No single individual is indispensable but time and again we have seen that when key people move on, customers do take notice and keep their options open during decision points.

This approach  has made a difference in our organization. We would love to hear your thoughts on this topic.

Mukundh Parthasarathy

VP, Cargo Product Management and Marketing

Project Blog: Lessons Learned

As I come to the end of one project and have another significant one ramping up, it is always good practice to review the lessons learned and check what could be applied to the upcoming project.

The ‘lessons learned’ title seems to suggest that it is about things that might have gone wrong and need preventing in the future.  But this is only half of the picture as it should also include positive aspects of a project that worked well, and make sure these are repeated.

It may seem some of these things will be obvious, but I find it very useful to remind myself of good practice, making sure these are put into practice and become a habit.  A simple example would be the best practice of the weekly project meeting and providing a structured agenda to facilitate a productive meeting and avoid wasting project member’s valuable time. This should be followed by minutes and well defined action items with agreed dates. Sounds like the basics, but I bet we’ve all been in formal meetings were it does not happen.

With a new project on the horizon, review the lessons learned log from these past previous projects or discuss with the project team for pitfalls, concerns, or positive experiences. Or just simply review the known best practices, which is of course applicable to all areas of business and not unique to Project Management.

Mistakes are inevitable in any project, it’s not the end of the world, and it’s not about assigning blame, rather having open and honest discussion and communication. The important thing is to learn from any mistakes, identify solutions and promote the positive aspects of any lessons learned to make sure mistakes aren’t repeated, but equally ensure the good things are used again.

Typically lessons are captured in the review at the end of the project and have mid- or longer term gain on future projects. In reality it should be seen as a continuous process as ‘lessons’ can happen at any time in the project and it is worth considering getting the team together, individually or collectively, and asking what could we be doing better right now or what is working particularly well?

• ·         Review learned lessons from past project at start of new project to see what can be applied.
• ·         Discuss items/concerns with a new customer for their typical issues/concerns or best practice.  
• ·         Setting up a project lessons learnt log at the start of the project. Make sure everything is captured and not forgotten. Act immediately where appropriate.
• ·         Checkpoint once a month in the weekly meetings. This can help identify and correct any concerns/issues on an active project and reap benefits immediately.
• ·         Review at new project phases when new team members may be introduced.

So why not use the knowledge gathered and experience gained in past projects, from whatever your previous or current role or perspective, and prevent the same mistakes being made from previous projects, or apply the best practices.

Lessons learned should:

• ·         Focus on quality not quantity. Typically the top 10 should suffice (for both positive and negative).
• ·         Be specific and realistic.
• ·         Have agreed recommendations.
• ·         Do NOT criticise individuals (or be used for settling scores!).

I read blogs or other articles similar to this and often think ‘yeah, I know that!’ and they serve as good reminders for commonsense tasks or practice,  but do I always put these things into practice and make them a habit?  Sometimes it seems there are too many current tasks that need attention and the focus is on getting those completed. But spending a little time now to reflect and adjust may reap significant rewards immediately or later in the next project.

So, my next task is to review the lessons learned and best practice from similar past projects as I start the initial project planning on the next one...

Patrick Allen

Senior Consultant and Project Manager

The Case for Use Cases

In any software business or industry, a Business Analyst should be able to write flawless use cases so that the resulting document is crystal clear to a layman, in this case, a software developer who has a little or maybe no domain knowledge.

At RTS, we are lucky to have a development team offshore who is knowledgeable of not just the software platform that our product is created on but also the domain knowledge.  This setting makes it easier to transfer the use cases to the team and receive back a resulting product with close to 100% accuracy without too many iterations.  In the case where there is lesser domain knowledge, it would have been as good as writing the ‘Hello World’ program within a couple of minutes but not knowing what ‘Hello’ and ‘World’ means! That being said, it is also impossible for one person to gain both the technical and functional knowledge of a business requirement and hence the necessity for both the teams to work closely with each other and having a good method of understanding each other’s language that is on the use case document. At RTS, we proudly boast  that the turnaround time for an enhancement or a new feature is short because of this set-up.

My approach to writing a use case is that I use the bottom up approach, since knowing the end result of what is required helps drive the details. Once the end result is known, then working backwards in order to get all the parameters, rules, pre and post conditions, flow and exceptions are just adding details to achieve the end result.  Another effective approach is to involve the business owner/s so as to make sure that it is on the right track. Agile methodology works here, but from the second draft onwards, because the first draft needs to be done in its entirety to give the business owner a full overview of where it is headed before submitting it to the development team.

One last important factor that helps me create a use case is to put myself in the shoes of a layman  so as to get a feel of how easy/difficult it is to understand the intent of the use case on hand. If it is easy enough that the terms, language, diagrams are all flowing, then it is a success and if it is not easily understood, then  maybe tweak it to achieve that.

How do you create your use cases and deliver them to your teams? What are the 2 best approaches that you have come across? 

Deeshi Gandhi

Technical Manager

Fare in the Air

As a kid, I loved travelling in airplanes.  The process of getting to the airport, boarding a flight, meeting the airline crew was exciting to the mind of an 8-9 year old.  Once seated, I would look forward to what I viewed as the highlight of the journey – the Airline Meal!  I would anxiously look back where the meals would be stored and wait with bated breath to see what would be served.  I loved being given a choice of two, sometimes three (wow!)  options at serving time.  My mind would register in slow motion the entire process of being asked my choice followed by the steward picking out the tray, then adding a dinner roll (sometimes) and then setting it on my tray.  By far, this used to the best part of my trip!  Needless to say, I would devour the meal and sit back satisfied till the next surprise would show up.  And I happily ate every one of them!

With experience and exposure to food, I got more discerning of food choices and tastes. I have come to realize that airline food cannot compare with restaurant food. Of course, there is a huge difference between a freshly cooked meal and a pre-cooked one. However, I have to admit the excitement still lingers.  My favorite food items are the cheeses and the butters. Put in between a roll, the resulting sandwich is the best comfort food when you are so far away from home, in the middle of nowhere. I would like to see a hotter tea and coffee beverage, though. These for some reason are almost always lukewarm.  The foodie in me also wishes for green tea options or a cappuccino offering. 

In all fairness, some airlines do make an effort to make sure their meals across the board are above average.  Food is a major expense for the airlines and they are realizing that investing in it a little to satisfy the long haul passengers helps the bottom line.  Here’s a fun factoid on why airline meals taste the way they do.  Altitude apparently changes the taste of these pre-prepared meals, which are previously cooked and chilled.  

All in all, the kid in me still eagerly awaits the food cart for the “main entrée” that will accompany me while I catch up on a movie I’ve been meaning to watch (selections of which are incredible on some airlines, but that’s a discussion for another time!)

Do you have a favorite airline meal or a carrier whose meals are just delizioso?  What are your thoughts on the bento-style tray that we get served?

Charmi Ramchandani

Account Manager

You have worked here HOW long???

No, I don’t usually get asked quite in that tone of voice, but it seems in the current climate that it becomes more difficult to find people who have been with the same organisation for extended periods the way it was in the “old” days. This is strongly evident in the repeated services we offer for training new analysts.

Let’s face it, new blood is good. If you spend too long doing the same thing, it can get stale after a while. New faces bring new perspectives, new approaches and often new attitudes. It may sometimes take a while for these to come to the forefront, but they most likely will.

However, this must also be balanced against a wealth of experience held in the hands of the old timers. They know the people, the processes and the technology with which they have been dealing for years. They know who to go to when needed, what workarounds exist, and generally how to make things happen.

But my favourite training line usually brings horror to attendees’ faces: “What if you are hit by a bus tomorrow?” No, I am not being pessimistic, but accidents do happen. What happens to that wealth of information in the unlikely event of an accident? Your Business Processes, manuals and documentation most likely cover the strict guidelines, but seldom are the workarounds, the personal relationships, the tricks of the trade laid down for future generations.

Whether it is a formal training session, consulting interviews, or just a general client visit, getting feedback from everyone is always interesting. Sometimes it requires pointed questioning, at other times hypothetical scenarios, but in most cases, people want to share information. They may simply not have had the correct platform or reason for doing so. Sharing it with us reinforces our partnership, and in many cases we have acted as a type of repository for information which has enabled business continuity in unforeseen circumstances.

And acting as that repository also allows us insights which give us more ammunition when thinking about problem solving approaches. I like to think that over the years I have picked up a thing or two. Sometimes that little revelation from a year or two ago may trigger an approach which would otherwise have been missed. And if I hadn’t been there for that discussion a couple of years ago, I wouldn’t have heard it mentioned. Not documented, but mentioned, possibly over a coffee break or the dinner table.

This first day of January heralded the start of my 16^th year with Revenue Technology Services. I deal with new clients regularly, but am still in close contact with some of the same clients that I was on the day I first started. Their businesses have changed and evolved, as has ours, yet in the spirit of partnership, we continue to grow together.

Even 16 years later, I still look forward to meeting with the clients, as each visit brings something new. The interaction never becomes stale and even repetitive activities, such as training new analysts, still brings new information to light.

When chatting to Raja Kasilingam recently, one of the things I had to highlight was that although I have been here forever (and I am not our longest serving team member), each day still brings new challenges, seldom a dull moment, and I still enjoy coming to work.

So the answer to the opening question: “Far too long, but not long enough”