Customer stories


AirTreks.com

Agency Uses FileMaker to Plan Travel Adventures

Going places, doing things. That's what travel is all about. But planning travel can be complicated -- especially when you're heading off the beaten track. That's where a personalized travel agency like AirTreks can make all the difference -- helping to plan memorable travel adventures with a high-powered database system based on FileMaker Pro, the award-winning database software application from FileMaker, Inc.

"Multi-continent and around-the-world travelers who are interested in creating the trip of a lifetime are the primary audience for AirTreks," says AirTreks president Jim Pilaar. "These AirTrekkers may be students taking advantage of their gap year, or recent MBA graduates who want to enrich their lives through travel before entering the work force, families taking the summer to experience the world with their children, or seniors who realize that their trip of a lifetime can be customized to their interests for a fraction of the cost quoted by the major airlines."

Customization is the key word. AirTreks sends its clients precisely where they want to go, to do precisely what they want to do. Every leg of the journey ties in with their specific interests. And such customized services requires customized technology. AirTreks has used FileMaker Pro since Version 1.0 -- and after nearly a decade and a half, FileMaker remains the foundation of the AirTreks system. "We needed to create a customized CRM solution to handle the complex process of keeping track of hundreds of thousands of airfare deals around the world and the millions of visitors to our website each year who are interested in this kind of long-haul global travel," Jim explains. "We built a system that tracks every visitor contact, fare deal, communication with our customers, airfare vendors, and airline partners, and every ticket order processed by our company."

It's big -- a total of 65 FileMaker Pro databases containing more than 2 million individual records, running on both Windows NT and Mac OS9 platforms, used by an average of twenty-five people across various departments. It's powerful. And, most of all, it works. As Jim declares, "The ease of use for our sales and fulfillment agents makes for quick training and a quick, highly-effective mastering of our systems."

AirTreks' use of a FileMaker based system also saves both time and money -- not just for customers, but for the company itself. "The speed at which we were and are able to build and continue to update our systems -- and the usually reasonable cost for consulting time generally charged by FileMaker developers -- has helped us contain our IT development costs while continuing to respond on an almost weekly basis to the needs of our users," notes Jim.

The longest journey starts with a single step -- or in AirTreks' case, a single click. But wherever that journey leads -- FileMaker Pro will ensure that it's a trip to remember.



Contact information

Contact Info for Customer:

Jim Pilaar
President
AirTreks.com
415-365-1612
jim@airtreks.com
http://www.airtreks.com


Filemaker Contact:

Kevin Mallon
Public Relations Manager
FileMaker Inc.
408-987-7227
kevin_mallon@filemaker.com
http://www.filemaker.com


Overview
  • Across the country or around the world, FileMaker Pro helps AirTreks create memorable travel experiences.
Industry
  • Small Business
  • Travel/Hospitality