Equinus Independent Reviews 2008/09 Travel Technology Guide
Equinus Independent Supplier Review
JFA Systems
www.JFASystems.co.uk
JFA Systems is a company with a much smaller industry profile than it deserves. It also
markets a fully functional, robust and reliable tour operator system with a long and established
pedigree servicing medium to large volume travel businesses.
The company was started in 1991 by Jim Fatah, previously Systems Director for Redwing
Holidays. Following the acquisition of Redwing, Jim decided to launch JFA Systems to sell
and develop reservation and back office travel software. One of his first customers was
Crystal Holidays, still a customer 15 years later and now part of TUI’s Special Holidays Group.
Today the core product is Travel21, a fully hosted system for specialist and medium to large
tour operators. Travel21 has all the functionality that one would expect in an established
product and one that has benefited from nearly 30 years of continuing development and
evolution. Based on an OpenVMS engine, Travel21 is a high availability and disaster-tolerant
platform that is fully managed by JFA Systems. Customers pay a small joining fee and then
usage based on the number of booked travellers. This leaves them free to focus on selling
holidays, knowing that the system will be professionally managed by JFA’s technical team,
handling all system housekeeping, software releases and server management. Web and
viewdata connectivity is also shared, reducing costs and ensuring maximum up time and
available bandwidth.
For travel agent distribution, Travel21 has all the required functionality and business reporting,
including viewdata, direct debits and regional performance reporting. Operators who mostly
sell direct can take advantage of JFA’s web services to deliver fully transactional websites
which can also take travel agent bookings.
As well as Crystal, JFA has many long standing customers, such as Esprit Holidays, Holidays
4U and Scottravel. Thomson Ski, Thomson Lakes and Mountains and Walt Disney Travel
Company are also JFA customers, which may come as a surprise.
One of the key features of Travel21 is the full functionality of an established system with the
flexibility to handle specialist tours in a fast changing and dynamic travel market. The ability to
dynamically price holidays as load factor changes is a particularly useful feature. There are
also integrated GDS links for Amadeus and Worldspan, as well as Multicom’s FindandBook for
online access to low cost airlines and accommodation providers. Payment card and post code
lookup are standard options and there is viewdata for those that want it.
These days, any self-respecting tour operator has to have a web presence offering visitors rich
product content and online availability and booking. JFA has developed web service
interfaces from Travel21 for existing websites or it can build fully featured sites to the
customer’s specific requirements.
JFA prides itself on its extensive travel industry knowledge and experience and its well
respected customer service. On average, JFA’s customers have been with it for 10 years, a
testimony to both the product and the company. Customer testimonials are readily available
and Equinus always recommends taking up references before choosing a system, a key task
that is often overlooked.
Travel21 continues to be developed and offers a functionally rich, reliable and scalable system
for operators wanting an affordable and fully managed solution that leaves them to concentrate
on what they do best – selling holidays, through agents, over the phone and online.
.
www.equinus.com
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