Company: Obilet.com, Istanbul, Turkey
Company Description: Obilet is a grossing OTA listing hundreds of bus carriers, airlines, ferry companies, hotels and car rental firms. Obilet.com is among the top 10 travel ticketing platforms in the world and holds #1 position globally in terms of website visitors among bus ticketing platforms. Obilet also provides the best-in-class Inventory Management System (IMS) to >350 bus operators with 24/7 technical support.
Nomination Category: Sales Awards Team Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Account Management Team of the Year
 Nomination Title: Obilet.com: 360 Degree Counseling for Bus Carriers through Their Digitalization Journey
- Which will you submit for your nomination in this category, a video of up to five (5) minutes, explaining the achievements since July 1, 2020 of the nominated team, OR written answers to the questions? (Choose one):
Written answers to the questions
- If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video. If you are submitting written answers to the questions for this category, provide them in the spaces below.
Please select the English language option for English subtitles of the following video, which showcases how Obilet team supports its key accounts throughout their journey into digitalization.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q18isbzZ7m0&
Inter-city bus travel industry is the most underserved segment in the world among the whole travel and tourism industries. Obilet, with its mission to digitalize this conventionally offline industry into a digital-savvy one, is assisting the bus firms with full support, both at pre and after B2B sales support.
- Briefly describe the nominated team: its history and past performance (up to 200 words):
Total 200 words used.
Obilet's key account management squad of 3 cross-functional teams meets the full needs of their key accounts:
1- Migration management: Installing the Inventory Management Software onto bus carrier's systems, integrating their database into Obilet's system, and training their personnel
2- Operational support: Assisting carriers in effectively using the IMS. Data entry on behalf of carriers, reporting, journey management, fleet management, and dynamic pricing
3- Troubleshooting: Resolving technical issues, account settlement among the carrier's HQ and its branches
History:
Obilet B2B Key Account Management Team was founded in 2017, when it had 0 (zero) B2B clients and the chief competitor was serving >300 carriers, to support its efforts to spread the usage of its Inventory Management System in Turkey. Obilet rapidly extended its coverage in Turkey by transferring around 50 carriers annually, with a maximum churn of 1 every year. By 2020, Obilet's B2B coverage surpassed its competitor's, thanks to extremely high client satisfaction. As of end-2022, Obilet B2B team is serving more than 380 clients, translating into 95% of the carriers in Turkey. In 2022, Obilet kicked off its international expansion efforts, and now has clients in the Balkans; and has already signed contracts in Latin America and Central&Eastern Europe.
- Outline the team's achievements since July 1 2020 that you wish to bring to the judges' attention (up to 250 words):
Total 183 words used.
* Zero churn in 2022
* Less than 2 churns in 2020 and 2021
* Contribution to Obilet's growth by 3-digit figures in 2021 and 2022 (although the company reached its 10th year, and has already been the #1 bus ticketing platform since 2018)
* Contribution to Obilet becoming the #1 most visited bus ticketing platform by 2021 in the world by website visitors according to SimilarWeb, although it was serving a single country with no language options other than the local language
* Contribution to Obilet's multi-lingual and multi-geography transformation in 2022 [REDACTED FOR PUBLICATION]
* Effectively following up the account settlement processes, with 0 (zero) delays in payments and collections to/from clients
* Visited 350 carriers at least once every year since 2021
* Assisted business development team to transfer all the carriers in Turkey, enabling 99.9% route coverage and 99.5% firm coverage in Turkey
* Reached out to clients and closed deals with clients in Eastern Europe and Latin American
- Explain why the achievements you have highlighted are unique or significant. If possible compare the achievements to the performance of other players in your industry and/or to the team's past performance (up to 250 words):
Total 183 words used.
* Obilet is the only bus ticketing platform in the world having >99% firm coverage and >99% in its base region.
[REDACTED FOR PUBLICATION]
* Obilet is the highest-growing bus ticketing platform (~100% in USD terms) [REDACTED FOR PUBLICATION]
* Obilet is now able to list carriers from >40 countries and is smoothly running the pre-sales, sales, and after-sales operations of >1.000 clients
* Obilet not only works with bus carriers, but also serves many OTAs in Turkey, Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, Central Europe, Western Europe, Latin America and Canada
[REDACTED FOR PUBLICATION]
* All other Turkish bus ticketing platforms are getting B2B service from Obilet, whereas Obilet is not relying on any competitor
* Obilet kicked off its hotel booking and car rental services as well in 2022, which resulted in adding 100s of hotels, hotel data providers, and car rental firms to its portfolio
- Reference any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):
Total 167 words used.
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