Page 36 - Gondwana Value Creation Report 2020

GROWING OUR VALUE Digital strategy it will allow us to build a skills base of employees that can dive Expanding IT in our business Covid-19 impact Future strategic focus areas Listing preparedness

into multiple projects dealing with bookings systems, integrations,
As Gondwana operates in more parts of the value chain, IT
Although we do not necessarily plan
data management and application development.
As we enter the Fourth Industrial
The IT Team is re-engineering Gondwana’s online presence
Regional expansion
equipment needs to be moved around and accommodated
with a fully responsive and adaptive website. The added
to list, we are positioning ourselves
on our platforms. This consolidation also means that
Data aggregation and analysis assist with our strategic planning,
Revolution, we need to harness
Although we are Namibian first
functionalities on the website will unlock more potential to sell
inherited websites have to be incorporated with our
and high-quality data indicates areas of high and sub-par
online, making the website a one-stop travel shop for Namibia.
data and information to grow,
ourselves to potential customers who might be familiar with
data and allow for more rapid integration. This will provide the
allow us to raise capital at lower
Gondwana to sell packages, Namibia2Go and curios, opening
an acquired entity’s branding.
the same value that we give to
high-quality data we need and allows us to develop and package
diversify and deliver the best performance. We are building a digital data warehouse to manage The custom-built ecommerce shopping store will also enable branding, and we need to be shrewd on how to present and foremost, we can deliver to have the option. Listing would
a whole new income stream. This, accompanied by a focused
products (such as our upcoming travel app) faster, and to be
possible service. more flexible. marketing strategy and value-adding products, allows the In a post-pandemic world, we only need to be found – Namibians, to our neighbours. costs and give more ownership
website visits are easily converted to sales because our
Gondwana Collection Namibia to offer a turn-key tourism
The overarching theme for IT is to experience to local and international travellers. content marketing is effective. Therefore, we need to of Gondwana to Namibians.
We believe our digital capability is a critical pathway to navigate consolidate different websites to better create a consistent We will continue to unlock value in Namibia’s tourism potential,
the Fourth Industrial Revolution. While we froze expenditure in make things seamless, painless We implemented a personnel management module to track, message across our platforms. but have started to look at neighbouring countries for For a national player with considerable impact, a listing is
most areas of our business, we allocated funding to expand our IT measure and document employee performance, training, and The new CRM system will be invaluable here, as it will opportunities to expand our footprint and add value to our compelling. The Gondwana Board and TLC are plotting a path to
competence, including hiring a Chief Information Officer. and, most importantly, efficient. development. The system will feed into talent performance allow us to disseminate single messages throughout all our current offerings. Tourism in Namibia is already regional, as many potential listing if it becomes opportune and provided that it does
and management in the future.
The most important IT value-adds are in: platforms and to consolidate data on a single dashboard. tourists visit multiple countries in the same trip. The two biggest not harm our culture, DNA or values.
destinations in our region are Cape Town and Victoria Falls.
Other focus areas for the year included:
○ Developing an efficient platform for digital marketing. This Multiple factors determine how far and how quickly we will aim During the year, we engaged in a Bond Programme as a precursor to
function will move to the Sales and Marketing Teams, having ○ Expanding our online presence: We focused on better Trends in IT to expand, including Covid-19 and the outcome of the business our potential listing. Previously, we had traditional financing models.
traditionally been under IT’s ambit. managing and/or reducing the websites we inherited through Cloud-based technology and solutions are gaining momentum Proof of our success interruption insurance claim, but we see the following potential After a lengthy process undertaken by the Board to find more
○ Establishing a Web Development Team, with a changing focus acquisitions or created for strategic reasons such as reaching as business platforms. This goes hand in hand with a focus on We measure our IT performance through: benefits of expansion for Gondwana: favourable banking and financing options, relevant to the
on direct digital marketing. The ability to rapidly update any of customers in multiple languages. The IT Team is re-engineering developing application programming interfaces (APIs) (the ○ The number of direct bookings we receive, as this is the ○ It will diversify our risks between Namibia and source markets unprecedented business trading conditions that dominated
our web assets in-house is becoming strategically essential. our online presence with a fully responsive and adaptive interfaces that translate information so different systems can most important contributor to our bottom line 2020, Gondwana restructured a portion of the secured short-
website. This vastly improved website will offer numerous communicate) to be more flexible and capable of exchanging ○ It will provide a platform of hard currency income, since
○ Implementation of the new CRM system and integrating the functionalities including lodge based payment options, while ○ User experience, which we measure informally through tourism in Botswana and Zimbabwe (Victoria Falls) is term overdraft into a more flexible long-term facility. Gondwana
customer engagement centre, sales and marketing processes being integrated directly with our CRM sales and marketing wider arrays of information. complaints and reviews predominantly US dollar based strategically moved away from a single bank facility to multi-
to make optimal use of the new system. These online solutions are challenging to implement at our banking facilities.
platform. It will also integrate with The Narrative Namibia which ○ Internally, server downtime, availability of access points, ○ It will expand the Gondwana offering regionally, moving us
○ Streamlining and integrating various accounting systems to holds potential for future ecommerce growth. In future, strong remote lodges that struggle with stable internet, therefore we infrastructure stability and ease of new products’ closer to becoming a one-stop-shop for regional tourism The Bond Programme is an extra weapon in our arsenal to leverage
deliver real-time management reports. integration will allow small-scale travel agents direct access to have invested in inventory and booking solutions that allow us integration and development the opportunities that cross our path. It allows us to list our bond
○ Simplifying administration processes, especially in facilitating sell and book through our platform. to continue as normal if internet drops. We are developing an app that will be able to track guests’ We believe our neighbouring countries will benefit from our and issue it directly to the capital market and asset managers,
presence, culture and values. Particularly our conviction that
bookings and seamless payment tracking. ○ Improving our online functionality: We began bringing experiences at lodges, but also facilitate their journeys benefits must flow through to local communities. Our new TLC which means bigger exposure for our brand. This is a great first
○ Continue to improve and take on the challenge of creating a development in-house, as discussed above. Automation and personalisation through an information portal and offer them continuous model is also scalable and cluster experts can be relocated to new round for our listing process because it is in the same industry with
the same players, compliance measures and yielding.
digital infrastructure such as WiFi even in our remote lodges ○ Ecommerce: We supported the launch of an online curio Travellers are increasingly making their bookings through websites interaction with the billing system resulting in fast, locations to be a secure platform from which to do business and
where internet connections are not dependable. shop, The Narrative Namibia, on the off-the-shelf ecommerce and from mobile devices. This is more convenient for them and, if effortless checkouts. to develop skills in that geography. We submitted the Bond Programme to the NSX and obtained
platform Shopify (refer to page 30). This project was launched data is properly captured, a less expensive prospect for advertisers. approval in December 2020.
Our IT objectives by the Curio Team during the most stringent Covid-19 This is one of the reasons why we consider our IT capabilities Initially, we will focus on expanding into southern African areas
that complement existing Gondwana properties to form a travel
Our overarching objectives are to lockdown period in 2020. We are also integrating the site to essential to participate in tourism over the longer term. Looking forward circuit. In preparation for a possible listing, we also:
our Gondwana Web Store, with our other web and advertising
build skills in IT and build a data sites, social media platforms and promoting the shop further Previously, a single traveller might have interacted with us Our digital priorities going forward will be to prioritise our CRM Long haul flights directly access Victoria Falls, and there are ○ Adopted King IV and continue to update our governance
system, expand our team, complete our data warehouse and
structures and policies
through various websites and might have done so for themselves
through physical branding at all our locations.
warehouse. We use data across ○ Overview of online target market segments: We signed up or different friends or family. Our new CRM system will create apply the data we glean into our marketing. flights and transfers available between Victoria Falls and Maun in ○ Begun annually publishing a Value Creation Report
Botswana. If we develop our property at Victoria Falls, it will offer
the business, mainly for customer for a CRM system to assist with segmentation and to bring customer profiles which allows us to track their activity and a strategic vantage point for travellers to enter Namibia, and it will ○ Finalised our Bond Programme
preferences. This way we can tailor better experiences to them,
increase our access into new source markets.
segmentation, marketing and to Gondwana to its customers. It will allow us to test different cross-sell products and services, and encourage return trips. New destinations expand the value of the Gondwana Card as well. ○ Appointed EY as auditors in 2019
segmentations, and to coordinate adverts and marketing
○ Delegated our share administration to transfer secretaries
develop agile products. campaigns. It will allow us to better profile customers to keep Social media is an important step in this advertising drive as ○ Changed to more suitable and flexible banking and financing
track of their activities and history regardless of the point or
travellers’ posts are often the first point where their friends see
website at which they engage with Gondwana. Customers our offerings. options.
We traditionally outsourced web development and hosting, but will be able to use a single point of contact to facilitate their
we want to bring them in-house to exercise better creative and entire trip, from travel advice to car rentals, to accommodation
functional control with reduced costs. In the short term, this will bookings, to tours and more through our Gondwana Travel
provide higher capacity for project execution. In the medium term, Centre, focused on customer engagement and relationship
management.
34 VALUE CREATION REPORT 2020 GONDWANA COLLECTION NAMIBIA 35