The present generation of powerful local computing machines at lower prices including mobile devices and high-speed internet for delivery of context rich content has opened up new avenues for returning end user relevant information that can be customized both for the needs of infrequent casual travellers as well as business driven globe trotters.
Development is now focussed in areas that leverage client end data processing/rendering thus allowing endusers to view information that suits their individual needs. “We are looking at how AI driven models can be used to improve content recommendations for our client users to not just deliver what is needed quickly but also upsell key offerings that are genuine value adds,” says the team of Calculus Systems Pvt. Ltd.
“If you have a business problem, come to us and have it solved”
As a company, Calculus works with a belief that its functionality is utilized when its clients have any unaddressed requirements. These can be related to expanding the business, streamlining current business processes, client servicing etc. Calculus serves in areas of providing solutions that help address specific business challenges.
From a humble beginning of two like-minded individuals in a small office, the company has spanned its business presence across four continents with a reputed clientele, some of whom have continued to engage its services since Calculus Systems’ inception while adding clients who are looking for innovative solutions.
All About Travel
“Calculus Systems caters to three domains Travel, Travel and Travel”
The above-mentioned statement showcases the company’s love and dedication for the travel domain, its seriousness, and resoluteness in justifying the team’s investment of time and resources for providing solutions within its domain expertise. Be it an online booking engine to a much-customized corporate booking tool integrated with HR and Finance needs of each client, Calculus Systems takes each project with the same degree of sincerity and its team is always in sync with the client leaving a smile of satisfaction on all parties.
The services offered cater to all areas of travel including flights with GDS, NDC and direct integrations, aggregator hotels, inventory hotels, transfers, tours, rent-a-car, travel insurance, meet and greet services, guide services, cruises, event management programs, fully dynamic packages, pretailored and customizable packages, pre-defined popular integrated hotel packages, and many more. “In the recent past, we have also developed travel company related applications that support fleet management for car rentals and real estate verticals for long stay overhauls,” says the CEO of Calculus Systems, Alok Surajmal.
Team Dynamics
Alok and Alvin Menezes, CTO of Calculus Systems are childhood friends who were infamous by the name TWO DORKS because of their passion of computers since schooling days as early as 1988. As a telecom domain professional, Alvin started his career with Motorola eventually becoming part of Calculus while Alok completed his stint as the General Manager for Pioneer Systems in Dubai before conceptualizing and launching Calculus in 2002. Ever since, Calculus has had the good fortune to grow rapidly and has won major awards for innovative ideas and solutions. This has also helped its clients to grab both eyeballs and awards for their E-business approach.
Alok manages the product strategy and business perspective while Alvin is responsible for overall product architecture and implementation of custom solutions. The company’s Support Manager, Gautam Dand oversees handling support tickets and services uptime while Kaushal Parikh, manages client interactions starting from capturing business requirement to final product demonstrations in his role as Project Manager.
Calculus Systems as a team, believes that the company and its clients are a tight knit family. As a company, the team works passionately with the clients. “We may often have differences in terms of how we do things, we may even argue over it while deliberating the choice of the best approach, but we always agree on why we want to do and are happy to experiment with various ideas before selecting the best fit,” shares the team of Calculus Systems. With this approach, the team does not go on the highway with many clients but is very selective of the clients and continues to work with them for extended periods of time building on newer innovations. The very fact that some of the clients are with Calculus Systems since its inception speaks a lot about the company and its commitment towards them.
This thought process has constantly driven the team to strive hard to give the clients, future ready products that may sometimes have a lukewarm response in the immediate present but add teeth and muscle to their business efforts in a fast-changing competitive world.
“We provide products and solutions as well as back office services for client management and finance as a one stop shop, to enable our clients to streamline their business processes and transactions,” states Alok. Business process re-engineering is a natural result from most of the company’s solutions that help businesses reduce their staff time and efforts and achieve maximum efficiency with lower recurring investments.
The Way Ahead
As an early mover into the travel domain, there were a handful of players (totally dedicated to this domain) but the competition has grown a lot these days. As with growing competition, some tech companies have approached the price sensitive route to acquire clients and some have taken recourse to references. Calculus is proud to say that it is one of the high bracket price companies to work with and have always justified its cost to clients in the long run.
Another advantage to Calculus was that the company was very focused on the Travel domain and this has proved very helpful in providing cutting edge solutions to the client base. Being on top of any new technical changes both in terms of development environments/ frameworks and communication standards while retaining the same level of assured quality to existing functioning modules has been a constant challenge that Calculus Systems has always endeavoured and continues to successfully overcome.
One of the areas of development that the company is focussing on, in the present, is NDC integration to provide available rich content from airlines directly to the client’s customers without being restricted to GDS systems alone and thus offering better value for money in terms of flight ticket pricing vis-a-vis associated service offerings for the client. “Our belief is that focus should be long term, but plans are made for the short to medium term in an industry that relies on high fluidity when it comes to innovation and change,” describes Alok.
It is no secret that the pandemic has not been kind to the travel industry, however this has provided Calculus Systems with the opportunity to fine tune its products to suit the client businesses’ work-from-home requirements in a secure and effective manner. As the business world recovers, the team at Calculus Systems is engaged in enabling opportunities that allow its clients to step ahead with their pre-pandemic plans and open multiple platforms to showcase their service offerings including niche mobile applications, end-toend travel offerings, real-time support to travellers and the team intends to play a major role in delivering these. “We are also looking at price sensitive emerging markets to see how hosted technology solutions can be used to provide products that strike the right balance between value and cutting-edge innovations,” informs Alvin.
While 2020 was a quiet period more downhill than otherwise, Calculus has been on track in establishing a branch office in Turkey and the next year. “We intend to enter the European market with a base in Germany,” concludes the duo along with their team.
