Starting point
The DMC business model — supplier bookings, client briefs, last-minute changes, bespoke request flows — never quite fits an off-the-shelf SaaS. Generic CRMs assume a “tour operator” shape and miss half of how a real DMC actually works.
Both firms had been bridging the gap manually with three or four disconnected tools (spreadsheet + email + a separate reservation panel + a finance sheet). Information leaked at every handover.
A week sat next to them
We watched how the day actually moved, not how the org chart said it should. Morning ops in one place, afternoon supplier exchanges in another, evening financial reconciliation in a third. The same person was crossing five interfaces a day.
After a week of on-site embed, what we had was not an invented “ideal process” but a real map of these two offices: their habits, their vocabulary, their decision points.
Three layers, designed in parallel
Same core architecture for both firms — but different UI and UX decisions, shaped by each team’s daily language and decision reflex.
- A UI built for them — A single screen where the team can see every active operation, structured around their own daily rhythm.
- A UX built for them — Click paths, file structure and notification logic mapped to which role needs which information at which moment.
- A backend built for them — A data layer that models supplier relationships, client brief versioning and financial reconciliation around their own business rules.
Outcome
The morning-spreadsheet → afternoon-tool → evening-different-tool loop collapsed into one login. The opening question of every new operation — “which tool do I start in?” — is gone.
The platform is in active use at both firms; improvements continue based on the teams’ real day-to-day feedback.