Kale secures SOTC Special Interest Tours contract

Mumbai: Kale Consultants, a leading provider of travel technology, software products and outsourced services to the global travel and transportation industry, has bagged a contract from Kuoni India's outbound division, SOTC, to develop a business application software solution for its special interest tours (SIT) unit.

Speaking on the alliance, Vipul Jain, Group CEO and MD, Kale, said, "We are delighted to have SOTC, India's largest outbound tour operator as our customer and be a partner in their growth objectives. This is a wonderful and significant addition to our growing family of travel and airline customers. We look forward to a long and successful relationship."

Kale will develop an end-to-end solution for SOTC's SIT business unit (which covers incentive tours, students holidays and sports abroad) from initial inquiry to final accounting.

"We at SOTC have been using IT to enhance our profitability and to streamline our business. Our decision to contract with Kale to provide business solutions for SOTC special interest tours is a step in that direction. We evaluated a number of players in the market and believe that the value proposition from Kale with its rich domain knowledge in the travel industry business will enable us to achieve our goals. We have no doubt that Kale with its experience in travel technology and the airlines industry worldwide has the mettle to be our strategic partner in this endeavour," says Rajesh Gupta, senior general manager, SOTC special interest tours.

In a strategic move to capitalise on the IT needs of the travel space, Kale had acquired Cognosys, a leading software solutions provider to the travel industry, in October 2003. With the completion of the acquisition process, Kale formed the Kale travel technology division that provides focused technology-enabled business solutions to the travel industry.