3206: How IBS Software Is Tackling Legacy Tech Challenges in Travel

[00:00:04] It's that time of the year where we're thinking about booking trips, thinking of summer holidays, and booking a trip should be easy. But why does travel tech feel so outdated? Why are airlines, hotels and cruises still running out of date systems from decades ago? Why do we book a hotel room, hand over all of our personal data to then have to check in and wait in a long line before handing over that same data?

[00:00:31] Well, today's guest is the CEO of a company called IBS Software. And that company is on a mission to fix all of that because they are powering the future of travel tech, helping everything from airlines to hotels and cruise companies ditch legacy systems and finally give customers the seamless experiences that they now expect as standard. So today we'll talk about why travel companies need real tech partners, not just vendors,

[00:01:02] and the underrated power of listening to customers instead of just talking at them. And how, yes, AI, data, and all those modern tech examples we're seeing out there now can maybe transform your next travel experience. But also avoiding some of those biggest mistakes that travel brands make when trying to innovate. So if you've ever frustrated clunky booking systems or outdated airline apps, you should enjoy this podcast episode. I know I did.

[00:01:31] So enough from me. It's time to introduce you to today's guest. So a massive warm welcome to the show. Can you tell everyone listening a little about who you are and what you do? Yeah, Neil, first of all, it's great to be on your show. Thank you for doing this with me. My name is Sumit Goyle, and I'm the CEO of IBS Software.

[00:01:51] And we make software for the travel industry, which includes airlines, cruise lines, and hospitality, hotels, etc. Oh, you're talking my language. I love this space and so much I'd love to find out more about and what goes on behind the scenes. And you're a relatively new CEO at the company. So what's been your biggest takeaway about the travel tech space and the entire industry?

[00:02:20] And how has your leadership approach evolved since joining? So look, I'm just about to complete nine months in the job and I'm loving it. And I would say what's probably struck me most about the travel tech industry right now is how ripe it is for digital transformation. Look, I was at Microsoft when COVID hit.

[00:02:41] And for a lot of the other industries, when COVID hit, we were saying that, hey, there was like two years of digital transformation that happened within two months. Travel industry was very different because travel came to a complete halt. There was nothing much done during COVID. There was no spend that was going on. So there's a lot of pent up demand. And what happened in 2024 is travel travel is back.

[00:03:08] The 2024, if you look at the airlines industry, it's the first year when travel is actually back to pre pandemic levels. That's number one. Number two, customers and consumers are expecting are expecting better experiences, better technology experiences. And because a lot of these airline systems are still running on legacy 30 year old technology. So there's a lot of opportunity to do that.

[00:03:33] And number three, I would say very importantly is technology, especially with what's happening in the AI in data and AI over the last 24 months. That is at a point where you can actually enable experiences. You can do a lot of things that that you were not able to even until five years ago. So that those three forces together are clearly creating a very compelling opportunity for providers like us to create next generation experiences for our customers.

[00:04:01] And that's that's what's informing my leadership approach. So I come from a very deep product background, Neil. And my vision for IBS software is for us to become the most customer centric, the most trusted and the most innovative company in the travel technology world. And I've chosen the word those words very, very carefully. Those three terms and they mean a lot.

[00:04:24] So I spent a lot of time defining what that means for us in terms of our future capabilities and what we're going to do as a company. And that's what's informing my leadership. And a big part of that is also empowering my own leadership team to embrace this transformation that we're not going to go through as a company. And I think many travel companies have struggled with the legacy infrastructure problem, which can hinder innovation used a great example.

[00:04:53] They're talking about the airline industry because they're sitting on 30, 40 year old legacy tech. They don't have the luxury of having downtime because they are working all the time. And over the years, we put technology on top of technology and seen a few problems as a result of that.

[00:05:11] But how do you at IBS software position yourself as this strategic partner rather than just another tech vendor to help businesses in the travel industry overcome some of these challenges that we're highlighting here? As I think about the concept of how you become a strategic partner to a business as a technology provider, to me, it's a combination of three things. One is having a strong vision about the industry.

[00:05:41] Number two is having best in class product to serve that vision. And number three is how you actually engage with customers in a strategic fashion. And I think when you put those three things together, to me, that's how you become a strategic partner. Let me unpack that a little bit.

[00:06:00] When it comes to having a strong vision, this is about really knowing the industry, really knowing what your customers are looking for, really having a deep understanding of what are those forces, what are those secular trends that are happening in the industry, which will really influence the industry for the next three, five, 10 years. And for that, you need great domain talent. You need to really understand what's happening in the industry. And at IBS, we have across our product suite, we have a very broad product suite.

[00:06:30] We have incredibly deep people who know the domain really, really well. Right. Number two is very simple. You know, how do you use that vision to then create the best product and get creating this product is is about active listening to customers, creating a strong vision, creating a strong roadmap and then delivering on that roadmap and then continuously innovating on the behalf of our customers. Right.

[00:06:55] And because what I've seen is if you look at the best products over the last 20, 30, 40 years that have been built in the enterprise software industry, when you build best in class products, the industry adopts to those products rather than the other way around. And that's really, really important. And number three is how you engage with customers. Right. And that's about actively listening to your customers, their problems. At the end of the day, we are in the business of solving real problems for our customers.

[00:07:23] And when you do that, customers start seeing you as a trusted advisor. Right. And for us, as I think about our future forward, really delivering with urgency, with a clear plan on those three things, to me is the part of for being a strategic advisor to our customers. And you're someone that comes from a very strong technical background.

[00:07:51] So it's refreshing to hear you emphasizing the importance of listening over talking when engaging with CXOs and travel leaders and not just going straight into solution mode and talking about the tech straight away. So I'm curious, how does that approach lead to better decision making and stronger partnership and, of course, implementing real world solutions that solve real problems?

[00:08:12] Yeah, I mean, this is something that I've followed and I've actually learned and I would say I've improved upon and become better through the course of my career. When you meet customers, you should treat that as golden time. You know, they're taking time of their busy day to spend time with you. And the worst thing you can do is just talk to them and not give them time to speak.

[00:08:40] And the best use of time is if you don't have laptops in front of you, you're with a notebook, you're just actively listening and asking, having a sense of curiosity to ask probing questions. Questions like, hey, what does your world look like? What problems? What are the top three problems you're facing in your business? What keeps you awake at night? And then really actively listen and take notes from what they're talking about.

[00:09:08] And then you're minding internally what you're really doing is you're weaving a thread. You're listening to them. And then you're seeing, okay, how does this connect back to my product strategy? How does this connect back to what I'm thinking about doing over the next three to four years? And it's magic what can happen. It's very powerful for me personally when I have those kind of conversations. What I gain within a span of 45 minutes.

[00:09:35] Sometimes you wouldn't gain it in a span of months because when you're actively listening to their problems, you are creating back a map to back to your product roadmap. And I think that's where magic happens in my mind. And so as I talk to my teams, I always challenge them, what is a real customer problem you're really trying to solve? And the way you actually figure that out is through active listening to customers.

[00:10:00] And for obvious reasons, digital transformation is a top priority for the travel industry. Yet many companies still face roadblocks. We've seen what happens when things go wrong, when airline checkouts all around the world can suddenly go down. So what are the biggest mistakes that you've seen travel businesses make when trying to modernize? And also, how can they avoid making them? Anything you could share around that and what you're seeing here?

[00:10:27] Yeah, I mean, I would say through the course of my experience in the industry over the last several years, what I've seen in the travel industry is not very different from what I've seen in other industries. It's just that I think travel industry, you could say, is probably a little bit behind in the whole digital transformation area than compared to some of the other industries. But the challenges have been very similar.

[00:10:52] And I would say broadly, there are three areas where companies generally make a mistake when they embark upon a journey like that. The first area, I would say, is to treat a transformation more like an IT project rather than treating it like a business transformation project, right? It's not a one and done.

[00:11:15] It's a journey because when you're transforming systems that have been built over 20, 30 years, people's habits, people's the way the business works is totally oriented around the way those systems exist. And when you're changing those systems, it's not a tech project. It's a big transformation and it's a multi-year journey, right? So that's the first mistake sometimes companies make.

[00:11:42] I would say the other potential pitfall is to modernize legacy systems without really rethinking the business model or the customer experience or the business process, right? So if you're thinking if you're an airline's going to move to the cloud, it's not just about taking what you have on premise and just moving it as it is to the cloud. You know, you won't really end up getting much efficiencies or gains from that at all.

[00:12:10] You have to, when you're doing this kind of a transformation, you have to think about how can you actually optimize the process? How can you make things better from how things were in the previous world?

[00:12:22] And so, and the way to do that is to start with the customer journey, really understanding the pain points of your customers and really reimagining how technology can really help you reimagine those processes and create more seamless and personalized experiences for your customers. And I would say the third thing is, at the end of the day, it's people going through the transformation.

[00:12:47] So what I've seen is companies often underestimate the change management aspect of it, right? Which is, whenever you have to start using new technology, there's communication, there's change management, there's all those processes that need to go along with it. And you need to create specific programs for your customers to be able to go through that change. And sometimes it can be very painful.

[00:13:14] So as I look at our world, my intent is to, for us to create all of those capabilities so that we can help our customers go through that journey. So that's not just about a technology change. It's actually a digital transformation, which is driven by people. And one of the things that caught my eye when I was doing some research by you is you've mentioned that sometimes the best way to help a customer grow is simply by saying no.

[00:13:40] And I suspect that every IT director listening in every industry, they've all seen what happens when businesses demand things like AI for AI sake because everybody else is doing it. But without thinking about the problem first, and then they cannot understand that why they end up with no ROI from AI project. I think it's so important to say no sometimes. So can you share an example of when tough love was necessary to drive that long-term success?

[00:14:08] Yeah, it's a great question. And you have to do that, Neil. In fact, I can probably pick up from a very recent example. A great customer of ours, you know, we had provided them a mobile solution as part of our flight operations product. And it so happened that that mobile solution was just sort of serving maybe about 70% of their needs. And there was this still 30% that they still wanted.

[00:14:37] And their first ask back to us was, hey, why don't you just create something custom for us? We're going to spend the money. So I got on a call with my key stakeholder there. And I said, I don't think that would be the right thing because, first of all, you can probably end up spending more money in creating something new, completely new custom for you. And I don't think you're going to get the right experience either because then someone has to then maintain that new thing, continuously innovate on top of it.

[00:15:07] And you'll have to continue to spend money. And you won't have the bandwidth or the resources to do that. And the right thing would be to take the product that's already meeting the 70% of your needs and just enhance it and create an extensibility layer on top of it. So when we had that conversation, I had to say no to that option, the first option they were recommending. But then it also goes back, Neil, to your earlier question about how you become a strategic partner.

[00:15:33] If you have the right vision, if you have the right product, and if you have the right approach to engage with your customers, then they listen to you. And then there's trust between that. So when you say no, they know and they understand that it's for their benefit. So it's that circle you have to create. But that was a very recent example where I had to say no to a very valued customer of ours on a recommendation that they had.

[00:16:01] And then we took a very different direction. And they understand why we took a different direction. I think they'll be in a better place for taking that decision. So IBS software provides solutions across everything from aviation to hospitality, tour and cruise and even energy logistics. So how does your team balance innovation across so many diverse sectors, especially while maintaining industry specific expertise?

[00:16:29] Because we're making it sound very easy to say. But it's quite a challenge you've got on your hands there and a good problem to have. It's a fantastic question, Rio. And it's actually a very strategic thing that I actually spend a lot of time thinking about as a CEO. It's like, how do you actually drive innovation across a very broad product set? And then how do you actually also have deep domain expertise?

[00:16:55] And to me, it's a combination of three things I would say. And I think the first thing is a combination of culture, processes, and it's a combination. The final thing is around deep domain expertise. So think about culture and process is something that, in my mind, goes throughout the organization. And then you still need that product-specific depth, right?

[00:17:25] And you need the new product-specific expertise so that you can drive the vision for individual products. To me, culture is about having a culture of innovation where people feel okay about taking risks. And failing is not punished, but failing is seen as a moment to learn and move forward from there. So that's the culture of innovation. Then there's this thing called process of innovation, which is, okay, do you do hackathons?

[00:17:54] How often do you do them? What kind of problems are you trying to solve when you do innovation hackathons? So we are in the process of putting a process around that, right? And then the third thing is around having industry-specific expertise, as you talked about. And for us, that means is when we're talking about, for example, the area of airline operations, we have deep domain experts who understand that domain really well.

[00:18:21] When you're talking about airline retailing, having deep domain expertise in that, and so on and so forth. So to me, it is about having the culture, having the process of innovation, which permeates throughout the organization, and then having this vertical expertise that sits right on top of that. So you can do all of that together. Having said all of that, it's a journey, right, Neil? So I wouldn't say we are perfect, but we are trying to learn every day at it.

[00:18:50] And as consumers and indeed travelers, I think the last best experience that we have anywhere quickly becomes that minimum expectation for the experience that we want everywhere. So with increasing customer expectations, rapid advancements in everything from AI and automation, what role do you see tech playing in further shaping the future of the travel industry?

[00:19:14] Yeah, I mean, I think tech will play a huge role, a defining role in the future of technology industry. Even in the last two to three years, you see an incredible amount of investment. If you look at what's happening in venture capital and private equity, I've suddenly seen in the last 12 to 18 months, even in the last nine months since I've been into this role, an increased amount of private equity activity in the travel space. A lot of new money coming in.

[00:19:40] And again, it's all driven by the desire to create new experiences, the desire to differentiate yourselves from competition. So I think that's very important. AI is a very big thing. And I often use the exact same phrase that you used earlier on the call with my own team. I said, I never want you to do AI for AI's sake. I always want you to do AI for customer's sake.

[00:20:08] And that's sort of like the mantra we have because trust is really, really important to me. Because when we create solutions and products for our customers, when we take care of their data, we are the custodians of their data. And while AI is the defining technology of our times, we've also seen some of the downsides. We've also seen some of the risks of AI.

[00:20:34] So innovating responsibly is extremely important. So we recently created a data and AI center of excellence for IBS. And the whole idea of creating that center of excellence is how do we actually innovate quickly? How do we innovate, but at the same time also innovate responsibly on behalf of our customers?

[00:20:57] And the accountability of that data and AI center of excellence is to define responsibly our practices for IBS. At the same time, work very closely with all of our product teams and our customers to define what use cases will drive the most customer value when it comes to AI and infusing AI across our product lives. So we have a very clear roadmap towards that, and we are very excited about it.

[00:21:23] And if we look ahead, are there any other trends or shifts that you're watching very closely or you predict that could have the most significant impact on travel technology over the next three to five years? And how are you at IBS Software? How are you preparing for this future? Is it almost unwraps and unravels right before our eyes? Yeah, I would say one of the areas that I'm very excited about our vision

[00:21:47] is this whole concept of modern AI and elite retailing, which is initially, or legacy and name for that is passenger services systems, which is when you and I go and book an airline ticket, that technology is still running on 30 to 40-year-old systems. And airlines have been reluctant to move because this is bread and butter for them. There's a lot of risk of moving those systems to new technology. There have been new standards that have been pushed out for the last 10 years by IATA,

[00:22:17] which is the governing agencies for standards for the airline industry. And we've played a very leadership role in defining those standards. So as an example, when you and I go to an airline website and book an airline ticket, for example, you can also book, let's say, a car or you can book a hotel. But today, those are all bolt-on solutions on top of existing technology.

[00:22:42] So if your flight is delayed, it's not like your car reservation or your hotel reservation is going to automatically get updated as a result of that. With new standards and new technology, that will all become very possible, right? It will become much more possible for airlines to offer solutions that are customized and highly personalized to consumer needs and can react quickly and proactively when some things go wrong.

[00:23:11] We have a very strong vision in that area, and we are very excited to deliver on that. And of course, AI will play a huge role in all of that and everything that we are doing going forward. Well, first of all, I just want to thank you for joining me on the podcast today and sharing your insights. But I'm going to now see if it's something we can do for you in return. Let's see what we can manifest together.

[00:23:36] Because some of the biggest names in business, VC, funding and tech have either been guests or maybe even listened to this podcast. So is that a person you'd love to have a private breakfast or lunch with and why? Because he or she might just get to listen to this. And if they don't, maybe someone they know will listen and give them a heads up. But who would that person be and why? Actually, I'll give you a name, which is almost not almost impossible to make it happen because the person is not alive anymore.

[00:24:06] But the person I've always, I work for Microsoft, so obviously I know a lot of the Microsoft leadership. But the person I've always admired a lot is Steve Jobs. And the reason I'll tell you is this. I think Steve had an incredible pulse on the consumers, right? And he is one person who had amazing customer insights. He's known to be an innovator, but he's a person who has amazing customer, had amazing customer insights.

[00:24:35] And he was really good at weaving those customer insights into a product vision and then articulate it in a way that would inspire people. And that was a very rare skill set. And I don't think there's anyone in the tech industry who has been able to do that in a way that Steve Jobs was able to do. So although it's not possible anymore, I would love to have an opportunity to have breakfast with him.

[00:25:02] But at the same time, coming back to your podcast, I know you've had some fantastic guests over the years on your podcast. And actually, any one of them would be fantastic because I always love to meet people, learn from their industries. They don't need to be from technology or travel industries. There's always parallels from other industries you can draw on to learn. And I'd be more than happy to, very keen to actually have breakfast with them.

[00:25:32] What a great answer. Thank you so much. I'm good, but not that good. If I could bring Steve Jobs back for you, I would. For everybody listening as well. But for everybody listening, want in to find out more information about the work that you're doing at IBS Software, how you're helping the travel industry with technology. Where would you like to point everyone listening? Look, if you want to connect with me, LinkedIn is the best way to find me personally. Thankfully, my name is a fairly uncommon name, so it's not hard to find me.

[00:26:02] For IBS, please, you know, you can go to our IBS LinkedIn page or our website address is ibsplc.com. So please go there to learn about our products and what we are doing. And we'd be honored and glad to connect with you. Awesome. Well, I will get links added to everything so people can find you nice and easily.

[00:26:24] And one of the big reasons I invited you on the podcast today is having heard about you making these huge waves in the travel tech industry by redefining what it means to be that true strategic partner, not just another tech vendor. So I wish you the best to look on this journey that you're on. I'd love to stay in touch with you and maybe get you on later in the year or early next year, see how things are evolving in the industry. And more than anything, thank you for starting this conversation today and sitting down with me. Thank you. I love that, Neil.

[00:26:53] And thank you for your time. It was lovely to spend time with you. Thank you so much. I think the future of travel isn't just about booking flights faster. It's actually about revolutionizing how the entire industry operates. Travel tech needs a major glow up. And IBS software seems to be leading that charge. Listening over talking is a great message from the episode there. Real innovation starts by actually understanding what travelers actually want.

[00:27:22] And when we're talking about AI and data or the future, it's also about coming at it from the problem first tech afterwards, I think. So next time you are stuck on a bad airline website or dealing with a broken hotel app, just remember, change is coming. But let me know your thoughts on anything we talked about today. Techblogwriteroutlook.com, x, LinkedIn, Instagram, just at Neil C. Hughes.

[00:27:49] I'll be back again tomorrow with another guest and another problem that technology is helping to solve. Hopefully, I will speak with you all then. Bye for now.