5.   RATSLINK - A WHOLE NEW SUITE OF SOFTWARE

Many of our customers are familiar what is GAMIS and RATS.  They are acronyms for General Accounting & Management Information System and Rapid Access Travel System respectively.  Now there is RATSLINK.  This is a web-based version of  the RATS software and totally different from the in-house RATS.  The RATSLINK is running on the infrastructure setup at Systems Design premise.  That is, the web server and application server are all based in SD’s office.  The modules available are: 

The RATSLINK software is not targeted at B to C (Business to Consumer).  It is mainly for B to B (Business to Business).  The model used is ASP – Application Service Provider.  That is, Systems Design will provide all the application software and hardware for the web-based application. Business entities will be provided with password to log into the application.  The fulfilment business party can also log into the application to do fare or availability updates and even extract certain reports.  Over the next few issues of the newsletter, Systems Design will be featuring customers who are using different modules of RATSLINK. 

The basic concept in the RATSLINK is that all the data and booking engines are stored on the servers at Systems Design.  Each fulfilment party will have its own identification for its customers.  When a business customer makes a booking, the relevant info is not only stored in SD server but copies of email send to different parties.  One copy goes to the customer making the booking, one copy goes to the fulfilment party and one more copy goes into the fulfilment party’s in-house system.  The rationale of setting up this arrangement is that although web bookings are increasing, they are not sufficient for most companies to justify its own internal IT department.  This way the fulfilment party can offer such services without costing an arm and a leg.

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