When you decide to implement an online booking engine, it is important to know if you need a basic implementation, or an advanced one. If you want to connect it with your CRM, refine the booking flow, or tie it with a loyalty program, your requirements are likely on the advanced side. If so, there could be things that the booking engine alone will not be able to provide.
This is where the Digital Experience Platform (DXP) comes in. It is the fundamental, central platform enabling custom API integrations with any external IT system that your business may need now or in the future, to stay ahead of the curve in digital sales and marketing. It uses APIs to get information from different systems and display it across digital channels.
If you want to enhance your booking experience, or connect several systems into a single interface, then Infosit DXP is the solution. With DXP as the underlying platform, and a booking engine connected to it, we will provide a custom booking flow, adapted to your specific business process and goals. It will work exactly as you need it to work, every step of the way.
DXP offers seamless integration with any booking engine of your choice. If your organisation has requirements that surpass the booking engine capabilities, Infosit is here to help.
When you are configuring a booking engine for your website, which is also your main direct sales channel, you will want to tie it to the most efficient digital experience. In other words, you will want to design a great booking journey, every step of the way.
While booking engines take care of reservations (and they do it superbly), the purpose of Infosit DXP is to provide an excellent experience on the web, mobile apps, and other channels you may be using in your online sales strategy.
Through customization in the Digital Experience Platform, we can create a booking flow that perfectly matches your business objectives, and enhances the experience for your customers. To do that, your technical setup needs to go beyond simple accommodation booking. Rather than buying traditional monolithic systems, companies will often select their preferred solutions and integrate them into their architecture.
Let's look at an example of how a specific business need is solved through the integration of the booking engine into DXP. A company can have one object in its booking engine hierarchy. This object can have a variety of sub-objects which are marketed and sold differently, to different target buyers, at a different price. This will require further differentiation on the digital sales channels, and it is precisely what Infosit DXP will enable you to do.
How do we do it? We examine the internal structure of accommodation facilities, room types, price lists (everything related to sales). Then we adapt it in ways that enable online sales and marketing teams to choose and construct the offerings which will yield the best sales results. This important transformation – from an internal structure to a sales-adapted structure - is configured in DXP.
How does it work in practice? First off, DXP will get the information from the booking engine that it is all one object. Then, DXP will map it to the so-called virtual accommodation facilities, designed to maximize sales. It is easy to see why this kind of mapping is not possible in the booking engine itself. It would break other systems that connect to the booking engine.
On the other hand, there are strong business reasons for companies to introduce sub-types on their digital channels. This is where DXP comes in with entities such as accommodation facilities, price lists and the like, all of which are adapted to USPs, business logic, and the client's business strategy.
DXP can pull raw data from many systems and sources (CRM, booking engines, etc.), and do the necessary mappings so that it can be presented on the web. It is in DXP that the entire logic is created – relations, objects and the mapping of data. DXP will take data from several sides, break it down, map it, and display it on your digital channels in ways that align with your marketing and sales goals.
Furthermore, Infosit DXP can pull data from several systems of the same kind. For example, it can simultaneously receive data from the airplane reservation system (plane seats) and the hotel reservation system (hotel rooms). It also enables the creation of sales packages. DXP will connect those two systems and present a single selling point on the web. The user does not need to know the background; what’s important is that there is a smooth digital flow leading to purchase.
DXP is focused on displaying content on the website and other digital channels. Usually, It does not aim to be a business part of the software. It does not show statuses, room availability, etc.
In addition to connecting with external systems, DXP “decides” which piece of information will be shown on the web. For example, in the booking engine all rooms can be open, and all price lists can be open. Yet, if these items are not open in DXP, they will not be displayed on the website. This gives extra flexibility and options to sales and marketing teams. They can create, place, and remove all kinds of sales offerings and combinations on the website. They can do it fast, and adapt their actions to the market dynamics. At the same time, all the information about the object is centralized, which makes it error-resistant and easier to manage.
Active period is another useful capability that can be set in DXP. It is a period in which an offer, such as early booking, will be displayed. You can keep it always active in the booking engine; in DXP you will set when it will be shown on your website.
Active period can be set for the entire offer or for an individual listing. If there is a dedicated web page that markets the special offer, the entire page can be turned off, or alternatively the page can stay on, but CTAs and sales elements leading to it from another page can be turned off, while the page remains alive.
In a sense, it is the micro-management of sales campaigns according to specific and fast-changing business needs. Once you set it up, you don't have to think about it anymore, because the system will take care of it.
Infosit DXP is composable, which is a newer operating principle compared to the traditional monolithic systems. This means that, using APIs, many other systems can connect to DXP, as a central system for content and web sales management. This enables the client to remove an IT system or replace it with another more easily. For example, at some point you might want to replace your booking engine with another one. In a monolithic architecture this is not possible, because the solution has pre-integrated systems that cannot be replaced. Moreover, the bigger the solution, the slower it is and the more difficult it is to customize because it affects other systems included in the solution.
Composability as the architectural principle allows for a greater choice between IT systems and easy integration using APIs. Put in simple terms, it allows you to escape the trap of putting all your eggs in one basket.
Our new booking API, in addition to enabling connection and communication between DXP and the booking engine, saves data such as the number of reservations, clicks, where the user came from and much more. If your teams need it, a dashboard showing the success of campaigns can be easily created.
Our developers can fully customise DXP, to match your specific business needs perfectly. We don’t offer it as an off-the-shelf solution because users cannot configure it themselves. For example, you may want to add flight seats reservations into your offer. Infosit will first explore and understand your business needs in detail. After that, we will introduce airplane flights as entities in the database, establish connections between airplanes and accommodation facilities, shuttle service etc., and make it available in the DXP.
How do we configure DXP for your organisation? First, we define the needs arising from your business process. Then we identify entities that will be needed to digitize your business process. Based on that, Infosit will develop a model and create it in DXP, so that your teams can start using it. Presentation on the website will require additional programming.
In short, we identify the entity types, their properties and relations, and create them in DXP; and they are automatically ready to use. No programming knowledge is required, you just need to know what is needed to display something on the web. Super user or power user access level is required for this connection. At the configuration level of the existing solution - when everything is set up, some things can be done by an regular user, some things by a power user.
DXP is completely open and flexible for customization, while at the same time offering some ready-made, out-of the box functionalities.
You could ask why a booking engine isn’t one of the in-built components of DXP. The answer is not simple. Indeed, DXP has the potential to develop as a booking engine. But, the question is how justified it would be from a business point of view, since there are already very good solutions on the market. Building a booking engine is not only a matter of cost; the scope of what a booing engine encompasses and takes care of is huge. Relying on the knowledge and functionalities of the existing booking engines results in greater benefits, than developing a proprietary solution.
Via its headless CMS concept, DXP displays and manages sales data (and all other data) on multiple frontends. For example, in DXP you can activate different price lists for different sales channels. Even more important, you can use it as a central system for managing and orchestrating all your digital sales channels. Once configured, it will show data in different ways and in many different frontends.
All the applications and interfaces that DXP underpins will be served the same information. What and how will be displayed, is determined on the application level.
For example, when the buyer creates a loyalty account, interest, segmentation information and contact is saved in CRM. Because DXP communicates with the CRM system, it is possible to adapt what’s shown on the website, i.e. display a personalized offer.
If you’re looking for a results-driven, innovative software development partner to help capitalize on new, profitable opportunities, reinvent your brand, or deliver incremental value to your business, we can help.
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