Overview
A leading Australian travel company needed to modernise how it worked with trade partners to remain competitive in a digital-first market. Outdated booking systems created friction for partners and limited B2B growth, while a refreshed customer website demanded tighter integration with fragile backend systems. Arinco designed and implemented a modernised API platform on Microsoft Azure, balancing innovation with the need to protect critical core systems. The project expanded B2B sales opportunities, strengthened digital channels and improved collaboration across the organisation’s vendor ecosystem.
Customer
The customer is a long-established, Australian-owned travel company specialising in premium tours, cruises and rail journeys both domestically and internationally. For nearly a century, it has created exceptional travel experiences through its own brands and in partnership with major travel agents and wholesalers. The organisation plays a significant role in the tourism and hospitality industry, providing travellers with high-quality, end-to-end service.
Business challenge
The company has built its reputation on delivering seamless, high-quality travel experiences. To maintain that standard in a digital-first world, it needed to give trade partners faster, simpler ways to access tours and manage bookings. However, the partner experience was being constrained by legacy systems that slowed down sales and made it harder for partners to deliver the effortless service customers expect.
At the same time, the organisation was undertaking a major digital refresh of its customer booking website through another vendor. The new site introduced features that depended on close integration with existing backend systems. These systems, highly interdependent and fragile after years of development, added risk to the program. Compounding this challenge, the business operated without an internal IT department, relying instead on a network of external vendors. This created gaps in system knowledge, limited visibility into legacy business logic, and made alignment across multiple delivery teams more complex.
To move forward, the company needed a partner that could modernise its technology foundations, provide architectural leadership, and coordinate effectively within a multi-vendor environment.
Solution
Arinco partnered with the organisation to modernise its API ecosystem while maintaining the stability of business-critical systems.
Modernising the partner experience
One of the biggest barriers to growth was the company’s legacy SOAP-based APIs, which created friction for trade partners and slowed down sales. Arinco redeveloped these as modern REST APIs using Microsoft .NET, making them easier to integrate with and maintain. The new APIs were designed to remain compatible with the core databases that continue to underpin critical operations. For trade partners, this meant faster onboarding, better documentation, and reliable access to real-time tour and booking information. For the company, it created a scalable platform that could support new digital channels without requiring wholesale replacement of backend systems.
Safeguarding critical systems
The customer’s core databases carried decades of embedded business logic and were tightly coupled with multiple applications, making them too risky to replace outright. Arinco introduced modernisation at the API layer while keeping the underlying databases intact. The modern APIs were hosted as secure Azure App Services within a private virtual network, and access for trade partners was streamlined through Azure API Management (APIM). This created a unified gateway not only for the re-platformed APIs but also as a future foundation for all Azure-based systems.
Balancing modernisation with stability
Given the interdependent nature of backend systems and their role in day-to-day operations, Arinco took a pragmatic approach to sequencing delivery. This ensured that new functionality could be delivered without disrupting critical processes. Drawing on deep experience in large-scale modernisation programs, the team balanced the need for stability with the introduction of modern capabilities at the API layer, keeping the wider digital refresh program on track.
Providing leadership across a complex program
Beyond delivering the technical solution, Arinco provided architectural leadership as part of the organisation’s Design Board. Working closely with multiple vendors, including those responsible for the website and booking flow, Arinco offered guidance on both technical and business implications.
To bridge knowledge gaps, Arinco reverse-engineered legacy systems to uncover hidden business processes and shared this information across the vendor network. This approach accelerated delivery and ensured technical alignment with business priorities.
Outcomes
Arinco helped the customer modernise its technology environment, deliver new digital capabilities and create stronger connections with trade partners.
Key outcomes include:
- Simplified partner integration: Arinco’s modern API design enabled a more intuitive, well-documented and reliable integration platform for trade partners.
- Increased digital revenue: The website refresh program helped digital sales increase from 5% to approximately 20%.
- Expanded B2B sales: Reduced friction for partners has driven increased interest in API-based bookings, boosting growth in B2B sales channels.
- Overcoming legacy bottlenecks: For the first time in over a decade, critical systems for tour inventory, promotions and booking were successfully modernised, unlocking new opportunities for business development.
- Strengthened core systems: The modernisation delivered enhanced critical backend systems without disrupting business operations, ensuring continuity and stability.
- Enabled seamless program delivery: Arinco’s pragmatic approach balanced the demands of the new website with legacy backbone systems, helping the wider digital refresh program stay on track with minimal friction.
- Improved vendor collaboration: Arinco’s leadership and system knowledge enabled smoother multi-vendor delivery and reduced program complexity.
