The Challenge

Seven travel agencies in Kampala — AlFashir, Tigerland, Maahasa, Nahar, Taj Sultan, Bemacy, and AlFadil — were all managing bookings the same way: phone calls, WhatsApp messages, spreadsheets, and memory. Each agency served dozens of customers weekly on routes across East Africa, the Middle East, and beyond.

The symptoms were identical across all seven businesses. Double bookings caused by lack of centralized tracking. Lost customer data scattered across WhatsApp conversations and notebooks. Slow fare quotes because checking prices required calling consolidators or opening multiple browser tabs. And a constant feeling of being behind, of messages unanswered and follow-ups forgotten.

None of these agencies had the budget for global distribution systems like Travelport or Amadeus. They needed something built for their scale, their market, and their budget.

The Solution

In September 2025, all seven agencies began testing Novic Flights, our booking tool designed for small and mid-size African travel agencies. Each agency received a personal onboarding session and used the system for their real daily operations over a full month.

The system provided three core functions:

  • Fare search across regional carriers
  • A booking tracker that centralized all pending and confirmed bookings
  • An agency dashboard for operational visibility

Weekly check-ins captured detailed feedback on what was working, what was not, and what features agents actually used versus what they ignored.

The Results

Fare search was used daily by all seven agencies. Agents reported saving 30 to 45 minutes per day on price checking alone. The ability to search routes without making phone calls or opening multiple browsers was immediately valuable.

The booking tracker saw strong adoption, with agents using it as their primary reference for pending work instead of scrolling through WhatsApp conversations.

The analytics dashboard, which we spent significant development time building, was largely ignored. Agents did not need trend analysis. They needed to serve the customer in front of them.

The most significant finding was not about any feature we built. It was about a feature we did not build.

Every single agency independently told us the same thing: they needed WhatsApp integration.

The tool was useful, but asking agents to leave WhatsApp to use it was fighting against how they actually work.

The Impact

This testing phase directly shaped the future of Novic Technologies. The universal demand for WhatsApp integration led to the development of Novinect, our WhatsApp automation platform. The lesson about building where users already are — rather than asking them to come to you — became a core product principle applied to everything we build.

Novic Flights was paused as a product, with plans to return in 2027 with the infrastructure and partnerships needed to do it properly. But the insights from seven agencies using it for a month were more valuable than any business plan. They showed us what the market actually needs: not more software, but better automation that works within the tools people already use.