Good News against the Odds

Home page of the website presenting main businesses of the holding portfolio has come through some changes since September. Irina Solovieva, Director General, speaks about influence of these changes on Vipservice life. 

Changes, uncertainty and risk – those are usual, I could even say, everyday concepts of each business of all time. Shall they be negative or positive (as a lot of things in our life), that is a question of mindset.  Breaking out of our comfort zone to achieve new goals is the usual thing for us. That is why there is a lot of news in holding every year: businesses get purchased or joint, new systems get launched, new teams get formed, unprofitable or frankly speaking weak businesses get closed, letting new business-experiments come into effect.

In 2020, our business-incubator succeeded in growing two start-ups that flew the nest and started operating on the market. Thus, HotelStar, decision for hotel-booking launched in 2018, transformed into a land services booking platform and separate independent business. The second start-up is a joint venture between the Vipservice holding and British The Sincura Group. It is exceptional service and premium solutions, both for B2C, B2B, as well B2E segments.

Significant realignment took place. MICE and Corporate Service, previously independent from each other, jointed. That was a crucial decision and helped us get through the most difficult period of pandemic. We anticipated changes and succeeded to realize such processes beforehand and consciously, while many other companies were pressed to use such measures at the height of pandemic.

It was decided to refuse from tourist service as a part of the Vipservice brand. It had happened before pandemic started, but was crucial as well.

Education center started to operate independently. While a lot of such structures got closed due to the current situation, colleagues succeeded to change profile and switch to online classes. Cashiers used to learn working with Amadeus, Sirena and other booking systems in the center. New complicated and top requested courses in dangerous cargo and pets and animals transportation for airport employees are being taught at the moment. The education center owns an up-to-date online platform, and its transformation into a separate brand has been justified commercially.  

Automatic decisions of our own development including Portbilet, OKO, predictive analytics platform, CRM and other IT-products of Holding are especially honored. There has been a lot of news: last year Portbilet celebrated its 10^th anniversary and Portbilet TMC was launched this year (separate corporate business booking system). Visualization of all changes on the website has been gradually happening: in some places time “plugs” are placed on announces, in other places new content has been loaded. Complete update is due to be carried out in one and a half months.

All the news is especially appreciated today, as they prove our stable financial health and orientation on the future. We continue to fulfill our globalization strategy, considering present lockdown as a temporary stop in this great exciting journey. We shall use it, as any rest halt, for letup and reconnaissance.