Remember to PCI DSS Compliant

PCI DSS Compliance is on everyone’s lips at the moment.  In a nutshell, PCI DSS is a method to securely store and use your clients’ credit card information thereby reducing any potential risk.

It is vital that the credit card information is stored in such a way that minimal access is granted. However, it doesn’t stop there. PCI DSS is also about protecting your documents by making sure your computer’s passwords are strong.

What you can do to try and reduce the risk:

• Do not store credit card dataNot on emails or physically written anywhere
  • If you do need to store credit card details, use a PCI DSS compliant app called Vault Keeper
• Maintain Anti-Virus Software
  • Install Firewalls
  • Do regular scans
  • Update your Anti-Virus and Malware software on a regular basis
• Have strong access measures in place
  • Don’t share your login / password information
  • Make sure your passwords have at least 7+  characters and are made up of both numbers and symbols
  • Change your password every 90 days

The threat of fraud is real

Fraud is rife within the Travel Industry worldwide. Unfortunately, it seems that South Africa, in particular, has become a likely target for shady transactions.

It’s crucial that we are aware of potential threats at all times with most of us being inundated with “spam” emails on a daily basis. It’s no longer true that only Gmail or yahoo accounts should be treated as suspicious; we need to start looking closer to home.

Would consider a referral from a long-standing client of 20 + years as safe?

Do not be fooled, trust no one and remember that it’s business, not personal!

Read the story below   ………………….

I have a wonderful, loyal client who has booked with me for over 25 years.  She referred her beautician to me, who she has known for over 20 years, so this was a good and solid referral. 

The booking was for a group of four young dancers, partially sponsored, including flights and land arrangements to Orlando for December / January. 

The client paid me by EFT and I, in turn, used my credit card to issue the tickets as I couldn’t rebook and didn’t want to lose the seats and/or same fare. Because I was in receipt of the EFT, I was not in a panic, especially as the referral was from a trustworthy source.

Forty-eight hours later the money had still not cleared in my account.  When questioned, the client blamed the bank. After a few days of chasing, the truth emerged.  The client had in fact done an EFT for R0.01 cent and amended the POP accordingly.

The lessons I have taken from this:

1. When you get an EFT, check your bank daily and don’t send the e-tickets to the client until the actual payment is made. I have a great relationship with my bank and have a business banker whom I email regularly. He made contact with the client’s bank so we could get to the bottom of the problem quicker.
2. Know how to manage the risk of every booking no matter what the relationship is or how long you have known the person (or how long they have known someone). 

I would like to add that the staff and management of eTravel were incredibly caring and supportive. I never felt like I was in this nightmare alone!  

“This story is not an isolated case. Just remember the Carte Blanche episode in April, which showcased another instance of fraud where a so-called travel agency took people’s money and never paid suppliers,” says eTravel Finance Director Shaun Stober.

Stober reminds us that legally, it’s important to keep in mind that “money is paid for a specific reason and payments are made for a specific purpose”. Any payment needs to be tracked and controlled keeping this in mind.  Anything else is mismanaging the funds.

Stober explains this is what makes the eTravel administration process the right process. He says: “Our process clearly stipulates that payment for different things need to be made separately. Even Facility Fee invoices need to be paid separately as these fees are being invoiced separately.”

It was 12 years ago that my dream of eTravel one day becoming a Billion Rand Entity was turned into a goal. Remember that a goal is merely a “Dream with a Deadline”.

In 2004, eTravel generated R198m for the 12 months ending June 30, 2004, and at that stage I believed so strongly in the future of the ITC model that I put my goal down on paper and told the group that by 2016 eTravel would become a billion-rand entity.

We reached the Billion Rand mark on Wednesday afternoon with 1 Day to spare! As Shaun put it “we won the test match with 1 wicket in hand”.

As many close to me will know that in my opinion this Billion is merely a number but what it has done has created a path and plan of action for eTravel to move forward with a clear vision and annual budgets that are put in place for the benefit of the entire group.

So what does it mean to you?

• ITC : It means we are big enough to negotiate the best deals as we have true buying power. It means we can use the muscle to ensure our Preferred Partners are hungry to assist us when we need them. It means that we have enough staff employed by eTravel (65) to ensure that we do not “drop the ball” when someone is ill or away on leave so that the back office fulfilment is a true added value that only we provide as a 100% dedication to you the ITC. It means that you have a team of managers and seniors that are there to help you at the drop of a hat;

• Staff member : It means that you have a powerful entity that pays your salary on time. It means that due to the current Profit Sharing Scheme you get to earn a 13th and sometimes 14th cheque each and every year. It means that you receive an increase if you have performed which I’m pleased to say is the case with each and every staff member over the past 12 months. It means you come to work at beautiful offices with full security and comfort of tea / coffee not to mention warmth in winter and aircons in summer. It means that you are able to perform on a winning team of focussed individuals who set goals for you that are tangible and real and reward you once you get there.

• Preferred Partner : It means that you have a very focussed strategy that drives your company’s sales. It means that when you come to do sales calls you always feel the positive energy of a team that not only focuses on winning but making it fun while we tick off our goals which always include you. It means you look good when reporting your sales figures to your bosses as eTravel has constantly shown growth for our Preferred Partners year in and year out. It means that you can say you look after the Market Leader in the ITC field which is the future of travel and has been for the last 17 years.

Coupled with the above we have the added benefit of being a privately owned and operated business whilst generating over a R1 000 000 000-00 in top line sales for the year to June 2016 – very few companies manage to remain private yet become so powerful. This allows for ad hoc decisions to be made based on the situation at hand rather than a corporate governance / internal auditor policy being inflicted on you as an individual which often results in a loss of passion and motivation. So with eTravel you have the best of all worlds whether you are an ITC, a staff member or a Preferred Partner – it doesn’t get better than this!

It is at this point that I need to thank everyone who has been a part of this dream as this takes focus, planning, teamwork and extremely detailed execution with constant accountability. This is a goal that could never be achieved without the commitment of so many over years and years. Nothing worth anything in life comes easy but oh my word when you achieve greatness from years of dedication and hard work it is so very sweet

Going forward, eTravel will continue to invest in its ITCs. It’s not about the numbers anymore. We’ve created a business with substantial buying power and we will continue to share our success with our ITCs.

So what are we going to do to celebrate this incredible achievement and dream of 12 years in the making? Well we are going to have “Kick Ass eTravel Billion Bash” party in Cape Town at our Head Office at the end of November or early December 2016. And as promised I will be flying all the eTravel Inland staff down to join us with all ITCs and Preferred Partners welcome.

Message from Tammy to Garth:
Garth congratulations on an amazing achievement which I know you haven’t done alone but YOU have lead us to this point and without you none of this would be possible!

The eTravel fiscal that started in July 2015 got off to a very slow start, which was expected considering current market conditions and SA’s political turmoil! By November (5 months in) we found ourselves up by just over 3% which was a little off what we had budgeted yet with all the hard work that we have all been putting in over the past 2 years we had been hoping for more!

But then – Booooom!

• We shot the lights out in December with growth of 16% YOY!
• And again in January with growth of 19%
• And again in February with growth of 20% as well as an all time record month of R97.5m

Finally, the past two years of strategic thinking and implementation of new projects and focus on becoming more professional in how we do things has started to pay off. None of this growth is luck. Rather, it is due to careful planning and execution. It also takes a collective effort driven from the top down and allowing for feedback from the bottom up with an open mind on how to improve all the time!

Failure to evolve has marked the death knell for many major companies. Nokia for instance has been a respectable company. They didn’t do anything wrong in their business, however, the world changed too fast. Their opponents were too powerful.

They missed out on learning, they missed out on changing, and thus they lost the opportunity at hand to make it big. Not only did they miss the opportunity to earn big money, they lost their chance of survival.

The message of this story is, if you don’t change, you shall be removed from the competition. As Nokia CEO commented recently: “We didn’t do anything wrong, but somehow, we lost.”

I don’t have to tell you but times are extremely tough in the SA Travel Industry these days but I still believe that if you focus on what you are good at and deliver this with absolute passion and excitement you will succeed. Stick to what you know and dump that which you are clearly not competent at.

On a final note I have just returned from being on our “February Forecast Review” which is where we review the eight months to the end of February and estimate the last four months of our fiscal. The exciting thing is that with all things being equal we may well breach the R1.0bn turnover mark to the end of June 2016! Not a definite but this goal is within reach now and something that if achieved will be hugely celebrated with a massive party at our Cape Town Head Office sometime between July and September.

Fasten your seat belts and hang on for a continuation of a tough economic ride but believe in yourself and get out of bed with passion and conviction so that you can embrace the day positively.