Itinerary Assist - Technical Setup

By the end of this phase, your TourConnect account will be active and Itinerary Assist AI will be connected to your systems.

To be completed before the Kickoff Call (estimated time to complete: about 1 hour)

Project Setup (estimated time: 15 minutes)
1. This ensures everyone has a clear understanding of the project plan
2. ACTION ITEM A-1:
  1. Assign a project lead(s) and share their contact details with TourConnect
  2. Agree to a Kickoff Call date
  3. Agree a target Go Live date (typically a few weeks from setup start)
  4. Sign up for an Itinerary Assist AI account here & add users to your account here
Install the TourConnect Add-In (estimated time: 5 minutes)
1. This ensures you can use the add-in during the next phase of the setup process
2. ACTION ITEM A-2:
  1. Follow the instructions for both Outlook and Chrome : Add-In Installation Instructions
Tourplan Agent Connection Setup (estimated time: 30 minutes)
1. This ensures we can connect to Tourplan to access your product database, check that we have access to services/options via the Tourplan API, and create quotes/bookings.
2. ACTION ITEM A-3: Send an email to Tourplan’s support team and copy onboarding@tourconnect.com. You can use this template email.
  1. Please ask them to set up access for TourConnect on HostConnect.
  2. Please ask them to use the following static IP address for access: 52.2.203.218 for all agents
  3. Please ask them to copy your production database to your test database (this ensure the most accurate testing and setup)
  4. Please ask for the HostConnect url, web login url, agent ID, and agent login for for the first agent you want to set up
3. ACTION ITEM A-4: Add TourConnect as an internal user on your TEST Tourplan database and send the details to onboarding@tourconnect.com. This allows us to help test.
4. ACTION ITEM TC-1: TourConnect will add your tourplan url’s IP address to our routes, in order for ItineraryAssist to use the static IP address whitelabeled above.

Itinerary Assist - Agent-Specific AI Setup

By the end of this phase, the initial rule set will be ready for go-live for your Starter Agents, and your team will be competent users of Itinerary Assist AI.

To be completed after the Kickoff Call (estimated time to complete: 4+ hours over several days)

Agent Setup
1. This ensures that the connection between ItineraryAssist AI and Tourplan is set up properly for an agent.
2. ACTION ITEM B-1:
  1. Click on the Settings tab in the Add-In, then click on the “+” to add a new integration.
  2. Select an Agent or enter a new agent’s name in the “Partner (Reseller/Affiliate)” box and then click on Create New.
  3. Enter the following:
    HostConnect Endpoint (the url)
    HostConnect Agent ID
    HostConnect Agent Password
    NOTE: Please leave all other fields blank
  4. Click Save. A black notification box should appear and tell you if the connection is valid. If it is not, recheck the credentials and try again, and if it still isn’t working let TourConnect know.
Tourplan Service/Option Settings (estimated time: 1-2 hours)
1. This will ensure that every service/option ID will be able to be quoted/booked in Tourplan.
2. Within 24 hours from getting login details for your agents, TourConnect will email you to let you know you can check the Service/Option Status Page for the agent.
3. ACTION ITEM B-2:
  1. In the TourConnect Add-In, click on the Integration Settings tab, then click “Open Configuration” next to each agent. This will open a tab in your browser.
  2. For each agent you set up, review every service/option in the Service/Option Status Page:
    If the service/option is black, it is “Tourplan enabled”. No action is needed.
    If the service/option is red, it is not enabled. For all red services/options, go into Tourplan and:
    Mark the service/option as “Agent Internet Access” enabled.
    Ensure the service/options is accessible for the appropriate agent(s).
    Check back after 12 or 24 hours, refresh your page, and ensure that your changes have been applied by Tourplan.
Extraction Training (estimated time: 1-2 hours including the initial tests and retesting)
1. This will ensure the AI can extract the key details included in a quote/booking request from a particular agent.
2. ACTION ITEM B-3:
  1. Open a quote/booking request email in the TourConnect Add-In to test the extraction. Usually about 5 tests per agent is enough.
  2. Click on Soft Extract button in the TourConnect Add-In.
  3. Review the line items in the original file against the extraction results and provide feedback using the Feedback button at the bottom of the Add-In.
    Did everything extract correctly? If not, what was missing/incorrect?
    The goal is that enough information was extracted so that you can complete the itinerary without referring back to the original file/email.
3. TourConnect will send you an email letting you know that the extraction is ready to be re-tested.
4. ACTION ITEM B-4:
  1. Retest the extraction for the agent that the TourConnect team said was ready (by clicking the Soft Extraction button in the Add-In).
  2. Once you are happy you are getting consistent, correct results, go into the TourConnect Add-In, select the Agent from the dropdown and tick “Extraction Ready” in the green box.
Initial End-to-End Tests (estimated time: 1-2 hours)
1. This will allow you to see the tool go from Extraction all the way to sending a quote/booking into Tourplan.
2. ACTION ITEM B-5:
  1. Open an email from the agent you setup.
  2. Select the attachments, and click Submit.
  3. Review the itinerary details, edit any services and information that was not correct, then click Send to Booking System
  4. Review any errors, recheck service details, and click Send to Booking System, as needed.
  5. Review the itinerary in Tourplan, and edit anything in the itinerary that is incorrect.
  6. Submit any feedback to TourConnect

Itinerary Assist - Ongoing Setup

At this point, Itinerary Assist AI is live and interwoven within your quoting and booking process. Rule creation will be ongoing, but will reduce over time.

This is the Business as Usual phase!

To be completed as you use the Tool (estimated time to complete: ongoing maintenance)

General Product Rules Setup (estimated time: ongoing)
1. This ensures your rules are put in place for a higher degree of AI automation.
2. ACTION ITEM C-1:
  1. Product Rules
    These are rules that use different criteria to help clarify which specific product to use, rather than simply matching a product to a specific request.
    For example, if the agent asks for <3 pax, use product 123, if they ask for >2 pax, user product 987.
  2. General Rules
    These are general rules to do with the overall itinerary, rather than a specific product request.
    For example, add a 10GBP Oyster card to all itineraries that include one day in London.
  3. Best Results
    Remove any text not required to pick the right product (1-pax, 2-nights)
    AI gets confused if the rule is too specific or there are multiple similar rules
    AI will use the 1-pax, 2-nights info to fill out those fields, they are most often not required to be able to select the right product
Full Team Training (estimated time: about 1 hour per training session)
1. This ensures the tool is ready for full rollout across your team.
2. ACTION ITEM C-2:
  1. Schedule a time for your team leads to train the rest of your internal team and invite TourConnect to join via video call.
  2. Train your team on:
    Installing the Add-In
    Extracting a quote/booking request
    Reviewing and editing a temporary quote (scratchpad)
    Creating rules on the fly
    Sending a quote/booking into Tourplan
TEST TEST TEST
1. Very simple, at this point, post setup, the best way to train the tool is to USE the tool. The TourConnect team will be available to assist as you go

TourConnect Ongoing Support
1. This ensures your team has the necessary support to ensure consistent, quality use of the tool.
2. TourConnect will provide support via:
  1. Emails to our support team
  2. Help articles
  3. Pre-scheduled support calls (with screen sharing)
  4. Quarterly check-ins

Itinerary Assist AI Data Analytics
1. This ensures you have full visibility into the usage of the tool.
2. TourConnect will provide reporting around:
  1. Quotes/bookings created via the tool by each staff member
  2. Rule usage
  3. Additional reporting capabilities will be built out over time.

Itinerary Assist - Feedback

We won’t always be perfect, but we will work hard to use your feedback to create a better product - one you love to use every day.

To be completed as you use the Tool (estimated time to complete: ongoing maintenance)

Issues & Feedback (estimated time: ongoing)
1. Feedback button
  1. Critical to our team being able to fix issues quickly
2. Most typical types of issues
  1. General
    For example, the add-in won’t load, edit button not working, etc.
    Send an email if you can’t use the feedback button
  2. Extraction
    Use feedback button
    Edit important information before sending to Tourplan
  3. Product Matching
    Click edit and select the correct product
    Save a rule
    Keep calm and carry on
  4. Tourplan Issues
    Use feedback button
    Go into Tourplan and edit the quote/booking as needed
3. How to Give Good Feedback
  1. Issue Type
    General, extraction, product matching, Tourplan-related
    “Extraction issue: Didn’t extract any of the pickup or dropoff information”
  2. What You Expected, What Happened
    “Extraction issue: It set the room type to double, when the request said twin.”
  3. Impact and Priority
    “If this worked correctly, I’d save about 5 minutes. When broken, I have to go into Tourplan, search for the product, add the product, check availability, etc…”
    “This is easy to work around, not a major issue.”
  4. Wish List
    “On a big itinerary like this, it’s hard to find a specific service…if you added a search box to find a service, that’d be grand!”
4. Use the feedback button!!!