Portman Travel, a leading UK travel management company, is extending its relationship with Evolvi by rolling out the online rail booking and fulfillment service across its 15 branch network.

Currently, Evolvi is used by Portman to power the self-booking systems available to its clients – now the functionality will be used by the TMC to meet the needs of corporate travellers who prefer to book using the company’s branch network.

Portman and Evolvi have recently completed a major implementation project involving almost 300 staff in 15 locations stretching from Aberdeen to London and across to Cardiff and Tralee (Ireland).

The roll-out also included deployment of 19 separate local ticket printers across the network to meet the specific fulfillment needs of Portman’s corporate clients.

John Dick, senior vice president, operations at Portman, said: “Evolvi’s sophisticated capabilities around MIS, policy compliance and its ease of use, were major factors in determining our choice of system when the need for a new UK rail booking tool arose.”

This major project was managed jointly by Julie MacDonald for Portman Travel and Melanie Taylor for Evolvi Rail Systems.

Julie MacDonald said: “This implementation programme has been complex, but throughout the project Evolvi demonstrated an in-depth understanding of the needs of our large and diverse customer base.

“I am confident that Portman’s clients will derive significant benefit from our wider adoption of the Evolvi tool, particularly given the wide range of fulfillment solutions offered through the online system.”

Evolvi is the preferred choice of eight of the top 10 travel management companies in the UK and last year helped to arrange over 4.25 million rail journeys for corporate customers.