Big Chip Double Victory for New Mind

24th May 2007

Categories: News - Awards

New Mind's e-tourism project for the South West won the Big Chip's 'Best Public Sector Project' and 'Best in Merseyside' Awards last night.

New Mind's Destination Management System (DMS) represents the first solution in England to address both regional & destination-level e-tourism. The system commenced rollout in the South West in June 2006 and will provide the foundations for online access to over 9000 tourism businesses once rollout is complete.

The Big Chip judging panel were particularly impressed with both the cost saving and revenue generation potential of the project. Seven existing destination management systems (Bath, Bristol, Gloucestershire, Somerset, Wiltshire, Dorset and Devon) were able to be replaced with one overall system, addressing the needs of the regional tourism authority and the individual tourism destinations.

Cost savings have been achieved by eliminating the maintenance costs associated with the original, incompatible systems and ongoing revenue is generated by commission on realtime online bookings, which were not possible with the previous systems. To achieve this, the websites and destination management systems are seamlessly integrated with leading property management system Frontdesk, developed by our strategic partner Eviivo.

The judges said the system showed the North West has the potential to compete with anyone in the world in the implementation of interactive technology.

The Big Chips are the top awards for ICT and new media outside London, attracting entries from the region's best over the last 9 years. The judges are a distinguished panel of experts from organisations such as New Media Age, the BBC, Trevor Beattie's new agency and The Chase.