Desert Adventures takes bold steps into digitalisation journey
- Sees savings of $1m in the next two to three years, apart from new revenue opportunities, by moving to Oracle cloud.
Dubai: The Dubai-based destination management company – Desert Adventures – has taken bold steps into the digital transformation journey in the last two years in a bid to become more agile and flexible.
Desert Adventures has been in the region for more than 20 years and it is one of the largest destination management companies in the Middle East, covering the UAE, Jordan and Oman.
It was started by an entrepreneur and was taken over by Kuoni, one of the leading leisure travel organisations in 2010, and now it is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Thomas Cook (India) Ltd.
Senthil Velan, Chief Operating Officer at Desert Adventures, said that his first role was to use technology to expand the distribution network of the company.
Even though some of the destination management companies (DMCs) have moved on with the technology, some are still relying on emails, Velan said.
“My objective was to convert 90% of the traditional bookings and 10% of the digital bookings to 70% digital bookings in the last two years,” he said.
The company sourced a good tourism management application called TravelBox, from CodeGen in Sri Lanka, to make bookings as well as connect to suppliers and distribute hotel inventory to multiple tour operators worldwide.
TravelBox was running on on-premises but Velan lifted and shifted to the cloud within six to nine months without any difficulties with the help of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.
“We don’t have a large IT department to conduct an elaborate vendor analysis. I selected two vendors, Oracle and AWS, and looked at their capabilities, numbers and cost of ownership. I found Oracle to be a better option in terms of cost of ownership,” he said.
Cloud absorbs irregular spike
As the company is seeking to expand its source markets and suppliers, he said the requirements for IT infrastructure is bound to increase.
“We need to be prepared to handle the spike in demand without the visibility and the cloud has enabled me to handle the irregular spikes in a very efficient manner. We see a savings of $1 million in the next two to three years, apart from the enhanced revenue opportunities by moving to the cloud,” he said.
“My sales and operational teams don’t realise there’s a system running, because it all runs smoothly. That confidence is priceless,” he said.
Without business for the last six months, he said: “I would have still incurred the infrastructure and resource costs with the on-prem but with the cloud, I can seamlessly reduce the usage and business volumes and has helped me in cost savings during Covid-19.”
Moreover, he said that the opportunity is the ability to expand your business portfolio without worrying about the IT infrastructure and cloud is the “way to go” at this age.
According to research firm International Data Corporation, spending on public cloud is expected to increase from $2.6 billion in 2020 to $6 billion by 2024, at an annual rate of 23% across the Middle East, Turkey and Africa.
“The travel and tourism industry has been severely impacted, like others, during Covid-19. There have been no tourists into the UAE between March and July despite the first two months registering a year on year 15% growth. But, we are seeing green shoots from the last quarter of the year amid a 50% fall compared to the same period a year ago.
“We are getting bookings from Russia, the UK and the US, assuming the countries open up their airlines. Like IPL, which is expected to be held in the UAE, is going to turn out to be a good catalyst for the Indian market. In 2020, we expect our revenues to be down by about 70% compared to last year,” Velan said.
For DMCs, which works with tour operators globally, he said the first three and the last three months constitute 70% of the business.
Desert Adventures works with about 700 tour operators globally and is a pure business-to-business player.
More automation on way
In the next six months, Velan said the company will be offering its services to 10 destinations and it would not be possible without the “technology”.
The company, currently, has invested in robotic process automation (RPA), to handle its increased bookings for the last quarter of the year and the first quarter of next year.
“We have three software bots running in the organisation right now to automate rule-based repetitive tasks. One of the key focus was to automate emails as we still get about 40% of the quotations from customers by emails,” Velan said.
He is working with a German vendor to bring in natural language processing (NLP) to interrupt the emails, interact with the systems and automatically send quotations back to customers without its reservation staff getting involved.
“Digital transformation journey started in 2017 and we are 75% digitally transformed. I very confident of what we have achieved in the last two years but there is more to be automated,” he said.
“People assume that automation means identify technology and it does magic. Automation requires you to understand your business problem, you to understand the industry capability that is available for you to understand the capability and make sure that you marry your business requirements with industry and vendor capabilities.
All three have to fall in place and once they fall in place, he said the cost has to make business and economic sense.
“So, if all the four pieces do not fall in place, sometimes you end up with a divorce and that is what is happening in a lot of automation projects. I am very cautious about the four pieces to make sure we tick the right boxes before embarking on a journey,” he said.
Samsung very unlikely to supply smartphone chips to Huawei
- Chinese firm may use both MediaTek and Unisoc in the short term and may turn to SMIC in the long term.
Samsung is very unlikely to supply smartphone chips to Huawei and will not like to carry a risk in a challenging economic environment and geopolitical situation, industry experts said.
The world’s second-largest smartphone vendor has given its chipset – Exynos 980 – to Vivo on devices such as X30, X30 Pro and S6, and before that with Exynos 8895 to power Meizu’s 15th-anniversary flagship – 15 Plus.
“It is a possibility that Samsung could provide chips to Huawei but the issue to be considered here should be whether Samsung will be pressured by the current US administration to not provide chips to Huawei,” Dr. Ramazan Yavuz, Senior Research Manager AT International Data Corporation (IDC), said.
Shobhit Srivastava, Research Analyst at Counterpoint Research, said that he is not confident that Samsung will leverage their technology to Huawei as there is competition in the high end.
“Samsung knows that Oppo or Vivo is not going to replicate their chipset but Hisilicon may do something about it,” he said.
Alternative scenario
For the time being, Yavuz said that Huawei could use both MediaTek and Unisoc and in the long term, if SMIC catches up in process node technology, Huawei may turn to SMIC for their chips.
In an alternative scenario, and again in long term, smartphone chip part of HiSilicon could be dissolved and independent company/companies could be spawning to supply to Huawei,” he said.
With the impact of the pressure from US government, he said that Huawei’s premium smartphone business will be negatively affected.
“Huawei inventory levels are sufficient to last a 12 months timeframe but Huawei will need to become more and more independent,” he said.
Despite competing in the premium segment against Apple, which caught a good wind with 11 series, he said that Samsung and Chinese vendors are insistent on entering and winning a foothold in the segment.
In the smartphone space, Srivastava said that China will be a contributor for Huawei’s growth.
China: A huge market for Huawei to fill
In the premium segment, he said that Huawei market share is expected to decline while Oppo and Vivo will get a little edge in 5G devices in China.
However, he said that Huawei may use the same old chipset for a year or two and not more than that.
“The Huawei ban is expected to continue even if Joe Biden becomes the next US President. It is a bigger issue and the FBI has also said about it. Huawei issue has become the talk of the town,” he said.
The US administration has blamed China for the Covid pandemic and accused Huawei of espionage, facilitating human rights violations and imposing a new national security law on the former British colony of Hong Kong.
However, Srivastava said that the state of 5G in China is going to be so huge and Huawei is going to be a big player and more than 50% the global 5G smartphones will be sold in China alone.
Hookee Knife Guard: An auto sanitiser for knives and flatware
- Uses 275nm wavelength ultraviolet light to kill germs and does not release any toxic chemicals or fumes.
One thing that made us all aware due to Covid-19 is sanitise. We all carry hand sanitiser all the time, wash our hands before and after touching things but there should be a way to sanitise the knives and spoons we use every day in the kitchen as food safety has become a top priority.
Studies have shown that it is difficult to cleanse knives and flatware properly, even with soap and water.
The daily utensils can be a breeding ground for germs and bacteria and can remain on utensils and can contaminate your food and cause serious illness.
There are other ways to sanitise utensils such as boiling or using antiseptic liquid but it is too time-consuming or can raise food safety issues.
The demand for steam cleaners and air purifiers has hit the roof and appliance manufacturers are looking to incorporate the antimicrobial UV filters and antibacterial materials to their products.
The Chinese company – Hookee – has taken the lead by using patented ultraviolet (UV) LED light, proven to be highly effective at killing bacteria and germs by destroying the structure of DNA and RNA at the cellular level, to auto sanitise knives and flatware.
Why Knife Guard?
It helps to eliminate risks of infection common with raw and cooked foods.
The Hookee Knife Guard claims to kill 99.99% germs with 275nm wavelength but we did not have a device or method to test the claim.
The Hookee team has been designing and manufacturing small kitchen appliances since 2017.
Compared to traditional mercury UV lamps, Hookee does not contain any toxic chemicals or release of any fumes. It operates safely for you and the environment.
In addition to UV treatment, Knife Guard applies a 158°F (70 Celsius) high-temperature drying process to utensils to prevent invisible kitchen threats.
The 158°F temperature not only disinfects the knives and flatware but also dries them and maintains a sufficiently dry environment inside of the block that inhibits bacterial growth.
It is simple to use and has three different slots provide you with enough space for 12 knives along with 14 spoons, forks and chopsticks in a safe upright position with blade separation, protecting their sensitive sharp edges.
Knife Guard is safe for all utensil materials including metal, ceramics, silicone and other food-grade plastics, up to 8 inches deep.
However, we tested the product and it performs as slated and the top slot can be removed and cleaned with soap and water, keeping it safe and hygienic.
The Hookee knife block takes 40 minutes to sanitise and dry flatware which is a bit too much for a housewife.
The auto-sensing mode measures the humidity inside the block and turns on the auto cruise mode when switched on.
It weighs 790 grams and the company claims the product is inspected, verified and tested by SGS, a multinational company headquartered in Geneva.
The new Hookee Knife Guard UV sanitiser is currently available for pre-order for a limited time on Kickstarter with special pricing to reward early supporters. The Kickstarter campaign ends by the end of this month while the mass production and delivery will start in November. The device is priced at $129 (Rs 9,680.26).
Pros
- Unique design
- Simple to use
- Idle for a small family
- Easy to clean
- Auto-sensing and drying technology
- No chemicals or fumes
Cons
- Takes a bit long time to sanitise
- May be expensive for some
- Available only in November
- Not idle for knives with more than 8-inch deep
