Avani Cimcon Technologies Inc has been around since – 1992 and was started by – Mr. Saurabh Mehta. Their product name is  TravelCarma and the  Market segment the product caters to is the Travel industry. Here is an interview after the SaaS-AppS showcase at the NASSCOM EMERGEOUT Conclave in Chennai.

What would you describe as the Market Moving Functionality of your solution?

• First of kind SaaS (software as a service) model based on a travel cloud platform. (www.travelcarma.com/travelcarma-cloud.htm).
• Very low cost of entry, build as you go, short time to deployment, no technology skills needed for operation.
• It accommodates start-ups to enterprise level travel businesses on a single platform. Allows business to expand their system by adding more components as the business grows.
• All solutions are integrated with social media (facebook, twitter etc.).  This is a unique graphical way to publish and virally market and merchandise travel products without leaving the social media platform (in this case facebook). The concept has been implemented and can be viewed at: (http://www.tinyurl.com/travelcarma1).
• More than 200,000 unique hotels, 50,000 tours and excursions, 30 international car companies , air GDS from more than 50 travel suppliers aggregated and integrated for online sales on a single platform namely the TravelCarma cloud.
  • Track record of increase in direct sales by 15% and B2B employee efficiency by 200% resulting in direct benefits.

What is the kind of impact that your product delivers for it’s customers?

Case 1: Etravel Online Pvt. Ltd

Online Aggregation and Distribution, B2B Portal

• Transformed from an offline to one of India’s largest online travel aggregator
• Real-time aggregation of about 200,000+ hotels and 80,000+ activities
• 20 suppliers on the cloud, 30 more upcoming
• GDS for Air in progress and Cruise Aggregation in pipeline
• 2200+ active worldwide sub-agents, many with TravelCarma Portals

Other benefits:

• Increases B2C revenues by at least 15% utilizing inbuilt SEO Tools, Facebook portals and Mobile interfaces and applications
• Enhanced feature set optimized for B2B and B2B2C increases employee productivity by 300%

How do you see the SaaS space in India evolving?

India is a big market for such offerings. Small and Medium companies are still not adopting online business strategies into their businesses, due to lack of awareness, high cost of ownership, maintenance issues, data security amongst others.

The significant benefits of SaaS offerings, like low cost, faster time to market and others, will totally change the way in which Indian companies will manage their operations. This space is all set to explode as in a competitive market costs become significant and online solutions offer a significant advantage in terms of cost, accessibility and time to market. In addition, shortage of skilled IT personnel also makes it imperative for them to adopt a standard online solution. As for the issue of data security, in most cases customers do end up realizing that most of their fears are unfounded and in cases where this is an issue vendors will offer additional security solutions.

Do you believe that the Indian market has moved beyond initial concerns around security/solution availability?

There are definitely positive developments in this area.  This is being overcome with the realization that most data is public anyway within the organization. Also in cases where this is truly an issue vendors are coming up with in-built special security features which make data inaccessible to anyone without clearances.

Do you see companies across the spectrum- from large to mid-size to smaller players – adopting SaaS?

Yes. With high cost of in-house IT, attrition in IT departments and shortage of skilled people, Saas is the way to go.

How do you see your solution evolving, going forward?

While industry has just started talking about importance of Cloud Computing and SaaS in Travel and Hospitality industry, we have already launched our product on Travel Cloud, which has received great acceptance. We are extremely well poised from a technological standpoint to build and release the world’s first travel exchange with travel auctions and trade platform working off the travel cloud. This would allow travel products to be traded and auctioned as commodities.

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3. EMERGE XPress Pitch – An exciting opportunity for Southern hot startups to showcase their products at the NASSCOM EMERGEOUT Conclave
4. NASSCOM EMERGE Products Showcase – A CIO Dialogue with Start-up/Emerging Companies
5. SaaS set to grow in future