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At A Glance
- Headquartered in New York, this company provides a service that tracks and expedites the return of bags lost by an airline. They have now been in business for over 5 years, growing into a leading baggage service company. Travel agencies and credit card companies using their service are able to differentiate themselves by alleviating traveler anxiety about their luggage – and creating more customer loyalty.
- Making their company vision come to life required a custom software platform to be scoped and developed from scratch. Of critical importance to their success was how the platform would integrate and communicate with chosen Global Distribution System (GDS) networks. These integrations are notoriously complex to develop and maintain – with a need to be constantly updated.
- From the initial consultative identification of business requirements to the execution of custom software development and implementation, to ongoing communications and delivery of the finished product, Primero exceeded expectations and served as a trusted partner every step of the way.
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Background
After a ‘miserable experience’ with a lost suitcase while traveling, this company's founder knew that there had to be a better way to solve this common problem. Millions of bags are lost every year, making lost luggage one of the biggest pain points for travelers. The way that lost luggage has been typically handled needed to be improved upon – and an idea was born.
After extensively researching the methodologies and logistics involved in the baggage handling process, he took his idea to the next level and founded the company. With a mission statement of allowing people to ‘travel more, worry less,’ they set out to offer a service that would facilitate bag return on both domestic and international flights. He knew he had found the solution to an age-old problem, but needed help in making the company a functioning reality.
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An Idea Whose Time Has Come
The solution needed to be able to integrate with many third-party travel commerce systems – making it very complicated from the back end. The Global Distribution System (GDS) is a network that enables automated transactions between travel service providers and travel agencies. Because these systems contain all flight inventory, the ability to communicate flawlessly with them was of critical importance.
Having been introduced to Primero by a colleague in the travel industry, they considered other options at first but were quickly swayed by the glowing recommendations that came along with that introduction. Upon conducting initial conversations with Primero, the choice became clear.
"Primero has been there from the very beginning, with quick, responsive, proactive service. They are the smartest people in the business and invaluable in making the vision for BRB come to life."
The Primero Solution
Robust, customized, enterprise software solutions are a Primero specialty. Primero developed a complete software solution – including mishandled baggage, airline and agent modules as well as back-office modules such as sales, accounting, and promotions – all from the ground up. Travel agents, in particular, loathe navigating away from their booking screen and going to a separate site to enter information, so the company had to design their offering in a way that made the process a painless one. With the solution from Primero, one click is all that is needed for agents and agencies when purchasing their protection plan. The service is then routed seamlessly through the travel agents’ GDS.
GDS systems are huge applications and typically built on legacy technology – making integrations difficult. They are also constantly changing, so the system needed to be agile enough to adapt to these changes.
With change being one of the only constants in this world – when industries experience any kind of change in the way that things have typically been executed – technology is needed to embrace this disruption. The competitive and consultative advantage that Primero provides allows its clients to differentiate themselves and enhance their offerings to their customer base. In this case, Primero has been there and guided the company through software product development and proprietary third-party integrations – over the course of several years. According to their CEO, “The Primero team has been able to handle any challenge that we have thrown their way. They are able to mold our platform in any way that we need.”