With over 360 offices in 35 countries worldwide , JTB is one of the largest travel agencies in the world. JTB-India is the subsidiary of the larger JTB Group and is primarily an outbound MICE business company, offering services like booking event venues, arranging accommodation for event delegates, providing access and transfers to the venue, organising sightseeing tours for the delegates etc.
"It saves us a lot of time because we don't have to go back and forth. If we were to close a query in terms of getting supplier information, we would have probably taken 4 to 5 days minimum doing it manually, but generally turnaround with Cvent is around 48 hours maximum."
As a travel agency that managed close to 100 events in a year, JTB-India had its hands full sourcing venues manually by sending RFPs (Request for Proposals) through emails. The team did not have any standardised system for sending queries and, therefore, was struggling with the constant back and forth involved in following up with the venues. This manual handling led to reduced efficiency, increased human errors and longer lag time in closure of a query.
Touch of Technology
JTB-India was determined to streamline their venue sourcing process, and hence decided to switch to something more efficient — technology! The team had heard about Cvent Supplier Network and its capabilities in optimising the venue sourcing process. So, towards the end of 2014, JTB-India decided to partner with Cvent and since then they’ve never looked back.
Initially, the JTB-India team was resistant in switching to technology, but later good experiences started pouring in. With Cvent Supplier Network, the team was able to access over 255,000 hotels and venues worldwide, send eRFPs to multiple venues at once, and analyse all the bids with side-by-side reports. “In terms of what we like the most about the technology is the fact that one gets standard response in a standard template, which brings in more efficiency in the process of handling the RFP query. It also enables us to give out standardised, customised responses to our customers, which enables them to take a decision at one glance. It facilitates the entire decision-making process,” quotes Anil Srinivasan, Executive Director at JTB-India.
Cvent provided JTB-India with a single platform to quickly build customisable eRFPs, manage all the bids, determine availability, and track meeting spend in one place.
Efficient Execution
By replacing the manual system, Cvent has helped JTB-India save a lot of time, overcome data redundancy and inaccuracy, and enhance overall productivity of the team. With Cvent in place, the team can now resolve supplier information queries within 48 hours, which earlier used to take about four to five days manually.
“I think the biggest benefit of Cvent is the efficiency that kicks in. Cvent helps us save time that we spend on resolving queries and in terms of cost savings, we see lesser or, I’d rather say, zero errors when it comes to using the platform,” adds Anil.
It's been over 3 years since the JTB-India team chose to partner with Cvent, and the partnership is as strong as ever. Impressed with the features offered by Cvent’s venue sourcing solution, the team upgraded their licence to the enterprise version in a few short months. The team has also expanded their Cvent partnership by adding two more products to their portfolio — CrowdCompass and Event Management Software. With the partnership going steady, JTB-India looks forward to continuing this great relationship with Cvent in the years to come.
