Tech Talk: Tour Firm Boosts Bookings and Data Safety

By Elizabeth Wasserman

An Oahu-based excursions company finds that upgrading from paper to computers not only increases business but helps provide another layer of security for customer data, such as credit card numbers.

Dolphin Excursions, a tour excursion operator based on Oahu, in Hawaii, used to keep bookings and records in a notebook. Now that the business has grown to 10 employees, CEO and founder Victor Lozano tells IncTechnology.com that computers and software platforms helped boost business and better secured sensitive customer data.

Elizabeth Wasserman: How did you get started in the tour business?

Victor Lozano: We've been in business for about 11 years. I've been in charter work for the last 25 years, conducting different types of charters and working for different people. When I started my own business, I started small. I started with just a cell phone and a small boat and I would write all the information down in a notebook. Consequently, I would lose the book now and then and that was a terrible way to do business. I couldn't do it all. It wasn't until about 2002 that we got computers in the office and started taking reservations and put them on a database.

Wasserman: How do you use information technology now?

Lozano: Dolphin Excursions provides guided tours for visitors to see the dolphins and other wildlife in their natural environments. The Leeward coast of Oahu also has some of the best snorkeling on the island. The water here is the clearest. To book a tour, you need to call into a reservation line. Our tours get booked as far out as a year in advance. We need to put all that on the computer. By using computers we are able to compile a lot of data, store it and back it up. From going to the book to going to technology, my business grew 60 percent within that first year. Once we went to computers and a land-based phone line -- that was it.

Wasserman: What platforms do you use?

Lozano: As far as what we're using, for a database, we use Filemaker Pro. We have a lot of information on there. I use Windows Vista Ultimate. We also issue a lot of gift certificates using Microsoft software as well. We use Excel  to compile information about the bills that come in and out. That way we can pass it back and forth between the office and me – because I'm on the road a lot. I'm going to Fiji in a few weeks. I'm not the biggest computer whiz you ever met. So it's important that it be really easy for me to use and it is very user friendly. When my office manager has to send me data, she'll compile all accounts receivable and all payable and send it to me in the field via e-mail.

Wasserman: Why is security so important for small businesses these days?

Lozano: Security is extremely important. We have a lot of information -- credit card information, personal information. We keep cleaning it out as we use it and are done with it. But we don't need anybody to hack into it. At one point, a few years back, we did have someone hack into the system. We had to quickly come up with some solutions. Windows Live OneCare fit the bill. It protectss our computers from hacking. Besides being bad for the customer, that can have an impact on your reputation as a business. It's hard to get bookings that way if your site's been hacked.