Travel agencies keep TRAMS, their back-office accounting and reporting system, running well by hosting it on a modern, supported server rather than an ageing one, keeping it patched and backed up, ensuring fast access for the finance and operations team, and using a provider who understands travel back-office software. For most agencies this is part of managed IT at about £45 to £100 per user per month, and a dependable back office is what keeps the money side of the business in order.
TRAMS sits behind the booking desk, handling the accounting, reporting and reconciliation that keep a travel business financially in control. When it is slow, unsupported or running on old infrastructure, month-end and reporting become painful. Here is how to keep it healthy.
Run it on modern, supported infrastructure
Back-office systems like TRAMS are often left on whatever server they were first installed on, sometimes an old, unsupported operating system, which becomes a reliability and security risk. Moving TRAMS onto a modern, supported and properly resourced server, ideally within your managed hosted environment, keeps it fast, stable and safe to run.
Keep it patched, backed up and monitored
TRAMS holds important financial data, so the server it runs on must be patched, monitored and backed up with tested restores. Proactive monitoring catches problems, low disk space, a failing component, before they interrupt finance work, and reliable backups mean a problem never costs you your accounting records.
Fast, reliable access for the team
The finance and operations people who live in TRAMS need it to be quick and available, including any working remotely. Delivering it through the same managed hosted environment as your booking tools gives consistent, fast access wherever they are, so reporting and reconciliation are not held up by sluggish systems.
Work with the vendor and the wider stack
TRAMS does not exist in isolation, it relates to your booking systems and your wider finance processes. A provider who understands travel back-office software can coordinate with the vendor on upgrades, keep TRAMS working alongside the rest of the stack, and handle migrations carefully when the time comes to move or upgrade it.
Plan upgrades and migrations carefully
When TRAMS needs to move to a new server or version, it should be planned and tested rather than rushed, with the vendor involved and a way back if needed, so finance is never left without its system. A careful migration off old infrastructure removes risk and sets the back office up for years to come.
What to ask a provider
A specialist for travel agencies should be able to answer:
- Have you supported travel agencies, hosted desktops and systems like Amadeus, Navitas, FareXpert or TRAMS before?
- How do you give office, remote and overseas staff secure, reliable access in any time zone?
- How do you protect us from invoice, supplier and crew payment fraud, and help with PCI DSS?
- What is your response time when a booking or payment is at risk, out of hours?
- Is the price clear and per user, with security included rather than charged separately?
Where to start
If you are not sure where your agency stands, a short review is the quickest way to find out: confirm multi-factor authentication is on for every account including overseas machines, check that booking systems and backups are managed and test-restored, confirm a strict bank-detail verification process is followed every time, and make sure only approved software can run. Those few steps remove most of the risk and show where a travel-aware managed setup pays off.
The bottom line
When a travel agency’s IT is right, the business simply runs: people in every office and time zone reach the same fast systems, work hands smoothly between regions, payments go where they should, and travellers get answers whatever the hour. The technology fades into the background and the team gets on with looking after clients and crew.
That dependability comes from a setup designed, secured and actively managed for how travel actually works, not a generic contract. For a business that runs long hours, handles money and depends on a few specialist systems, a predictable per-user cost for that reliability is far cheaper than the downtime, fraud or data loss an ad-hoc setup eventually invites.
Why travel agencies choose First Stop IT
First Stop IT has supported businesses since 2002, including travel agencies and travel management companies, and we understand the systems a travel desk runs on: Amadeus, Navitas, FareXpert and TRAMS, delivered securely over hosted desktops, alongside Microsoft 365. We support travel businesses based in Essex, Hertfordshire and London with teams working worldwide. Our credentials include:
- Cyber Essentials Certified
- IASME Cyber Assurance (Gold)
- NCSC Assured Service Provider (Cyber Advisor for Cyber Essentials)
- Microsoft Partner
- Crown Commercial Service Supplier (G-Cloud)
- Quality Principles Certified
We look after more than 2,000 endpoints across 50 companies, we have been named a Top 50 UK MSP for three years running, and we support organisations with 10 to 100 employees across Essex, Hertfordshire and London, including teams working internationally.
Book a free IT and cyber security review
Want your travel systems modern, fast and reliable? Book a free IT and cyber security review with First Stop IT.