Bookaway Group is boosting its transportation management system (TMS) capabilities with the launch of seatOS.
The technology has been developed in-house for Asia Pacific bus, ferry and rail operators and is part of the company's strategy to digitize the ground transportation industry.
The introduction of seatOS comes on top of Bookaway's acquisition of Sisorg, a software-as-a-service TMS based in Latin America.
Bookaway acquired the company last year and is now looking to boost adoption of the technology across the region.
Sisorg brings more than 100 operator customers in LATAM, and seatOS is being piloted by operators in the Philippines and Thailand.
The company says that only 10% of bus, ferry and rail tickets are booked digitally and that its goal is to bring ground transportation in APAC and LATAM in line with air tickets and hotels, which are easily researched and booked online.
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Bookaway describes a TMS as the "beating heart of any bus or ferry operator, managing the availability of an operator’s seat inventory, releasing it for sale and setting prices based on booking requests arriving through digital and offline sales channels."
Noam Toister, co-founder and CEO of Bookaway Group, says “With our transportation management systems, we are harnessing technology not only to help local operators go online, but also to improve their productivity and grow their business. Our TMS solutions help in ensuring timely delivery of their transportation services, adding routes more quickly and providing a better ground transportation experience for travelers. We believe TMS adoption is necessary to achieve our goal of making it easy for everyone to travel a country using its local ground and sea transportation services."
He adds that while the company's strategy is to help travelers book ground transportation easily, the development of TMSs helps move operators away from manual, outdated processes.
Bookaway has raised $80 million and acquired a string of ground transportation companies including Plataforma 10, GetByBus and 12Go.
In a recent interview with PhocusWire, Toister said the company's strategy had not been to grow through acquisition but Bookaway will remain opportunistic as companies that aid its geographic expansion arise.