October to December 2016 were exciting months for the Finance and Administration teams, as these months witnessed the teams work tirelessly on diverse new projects and activities, in addition to fulfilling their regular work requirements.

Their varied activities included:
• The Leisure Finance business partnering team contributing to the successful launch of Frame 2.0.
• Uploading of prices for Summer 2017 in a new business application.
• Smooth completion of audits, as well as a Strategic Plan for 5 years and the budget for 2017.
• The Finance team played an active role in launching of Forex operations by setting up accounting processes and also taking the lead in KYC process implementation.
• Plenty of action on the GST project.
• The Compliance Tool went live in December. It will help in tracking and implementing compliances in an efficient matter.

Overall, a lot has been achieved by these teams!

The teams are now working towards ensuring that the segregation of the inbound and outbound businesses is completed in time, as well as towards implementation of GST. The search for a new banking partner has started and work is on towards further strengthening controls and on numerous cost saving initiatives. Overall, a lot has been achieved by these teams!

Brijesh Modi, Head-Finance & Commercial, was recently invited for an exclusive interview with the Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research. This recorded interview was hosted by Trainathon, a learning & development organization, as part of a series of interviews with dynamic leaders – CEOs, MDs, Presidents and Global Heads – to help students gain access to their invaluable experience, knowledge and expertise.

The interview with Brijesh Modi focused on his professional journey to his current position and celebrated his hard work, determination and overall attitude, his advice to students and SOTC’s culture. Also covered were recent industry developments and reforms, the future for the company and the industry, his views on the Indian economy and personal information such as his favorite destinations and more.

In the spheres of Learning & Development, Organizational Effectiveness and Awards & Recognition, SOTC put up a good show indeed during the last few months.

Training programmes spanned a number of topics, team members, trainers and locations:
• As part of Organisational Effectiveness – EMPOWER, a five-hour workshop titled Productive Conversations’ was conducted as a follow-through on the Action Plan for PMT by SOTC's L&D Team. The workshop, held on August 31, 2016, had several sub-modules and was attended by 14 participants.
• An OE- Empower Functional Induction Module was created and run by the MICE team, along with HR, on September 2, 2016, in Bangalore.
• Training in Team Building, Ownership & Embracing Change was held for 133 B2C Sales staff, at the B2C Sales Training programme, held on September 20, 2016, at the Courtyard by Marriott, in Chakan, Pune.
• Effective Communications Training, was held for 24 B2C team members in Bangalore, on November 4, 2016.
• Performance Management Training, was conducted for General Managers in Mumbai, on November 22, 2016, at the Head Office. In November 2016, a total of 114 people managers across SOTC have received this training.
• Corporate L&D Training was conducted for 45 members of the B2C Service Team. It was held at the Courtyard By Marriott,in Chakan, Pune, on November 23, 2016, and focused on Self, Team & Customer Focus.

The year gone by has been an exciting one indeed for the IT team, which notched up a series of achievements. The year began with SOTC exiting the Kuoni infrastructure backbone and migrating its domain, email ids and support to SOTC/TC domains. On the Tour Operating front, the obsolescent FRAME system was phased out and replaced with a home-grown application, which was christened FRAME 2.0. The new system was ably integrated with CRM as the front end. As part of the roll out, the accounting processes with regard to SAP were standardised.

As regards Business Travel, the company signed up with Sabre for another three years. Over 15 products/solutions are being introduced, including Robitics, which will bring tremendous benefits to the business. On the anvil are plans to replace FORCE, the accounting system for MICE. Continuing the journey, there are plans to equip the B2C Sales team with an ipad-based mobile app and thereafter the B2C customer app. All applications are getting ready for GST and there will be compliance with GST

Employee Wellness has always been one of the top priorities at SOTC, along with Employee Connect and Employee Engagement. In short: A well-connected, engaged and healthy employee is always an asset to any organization.This guiding philosophy led to quite a few employee wellness activities such as Free Eye Check-up Camps and Blood Donation Camps being conducted in the South Region.

Eye Check-up Camps conducted in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai in August and September 2016, witnessed all South Region team members undergo a free eye check-up conducted by expert doctors at the a well-known hospital in each city. Customized advice about their eye health status was provided to every employee. Those based out of town who could not make it to the camp were provided with a 'Family Vision Card' to help them/their family members avail of special discounts on further visits and consultation at the Hospital.

Like Oktoberfest in Germany, the world’s largest Beer Festival, SOTC too held an October celebration – to keep employee spirits high! The SOTC celebration was a contest titled 'October Surprise', held throughout October 2016. Every one of the 31 days of this month witnessed a quiz challenge being posted to 'All India SOTC' users through a HR communication. Quiz questions ranged from sports, entertainment and movies, to guessing of celebrities, guessing about childhood pictures of our leaders etc. There were also riddles to be solved and more. Two daily winners in each Region were picked by lots and their names were announced. This contributed to the month being filled with fun, games and excitement. Team members wondered about each day's questions and who the lucky winners would be! This is what some employees who participated actively for the entire month and won prizes in the quizzes had to say about October Surprise:

“I should thank the HR team for making our work space more informative and interactive by initiating and organising tthe October Surprise. There was a rush of questions to be answered every day - questions which brightened the day and gave us with an active start in finishing the heap of enquiries during a busy festival season. The contest threw us challenges and tested our knowledge. It encouraged us to get closer to the organization and let our names shine on the winners list at the end. It proved true a famous statement about HR by Steve Wynn, Las Vegas, that I recently read namely: “Human Resources isn’t a thing we do. It’s the thing that runs the business.”

Suman Thomas
Tour Operating, Bangalore

“It was a very innovative exercise and indeed created lot of curiosity and excitement among the staff. It was very informative and I loved participating every day. Looking forward to more such engagement activities”

Paul Manoj
Tour Operating, Bangalore