FREED GROUP (“FREED”), an award-winning innovator specialising in building proprietary Marketplace Enablement and Enterprise Application solutions founded and headquartered in Hong Kong, is thrilled to announce that its selfdeveloped HARMONY Corporate Service Solution (“HARMONY CSS”) has won the Merit Award (Smart Tourism category) at the Hong Kong ICT Awards 2023 – Smart Mobility Award.
This also marks the second time FREED getting the award after winning the first one with its “TravelFlan AI Travel Concierge” in 2018, showcasing the Group’s strong innovative edge.
Released in mid-2022, HARMONY CSS is a Software-as-a-Service developed and fully owned by FREED. It is designed to transform and redefine the corporate service experience by seamlessly integrating personalised corporate travel, leisure travel, and employee marketplace – powered by its proprietary Multi-Merchant, Multi-Platform capability and Smart Recommendation Engine, providing a unified platform for travel agents and travelers. The scalable system enables companies to rapidly expand their businesses and cater for a diverse range of clients with differentiated travel requirements, while improving operational efficiency and reducing manpower. In addition, by consolidating business travel, business leisure travel, and e-Marketplace for corporate staff welfare programs into an omnichannel, it generates unified user behaviour data to provide data-driven service, product recommendations and optimal value to travelers. Companies can achieve internal resources optimization by gaining staff requirement insights in budget setting and staff welfare programs enhancement.
Mr Abel Zhao, Co-founder & CEO of FREED GROUP, said, “We are honoured to have received this recognition again from the esteemed Hong Kong ICT Award. HARMONY CSS revolutionizes corporate travel management by simplifying the entire process through a unified online workflow, results in automation and scalability. Together with being recognized as a finalist at the Startup Showcase, curated by Korea Tourism Organization during the recently concluded 2023 K-Travel Tech Summit, this award further validates our competitive edges in the industry, while also reaffirms our dedication to delivering unparalleled travel and ecommerce experiences that bring travellers together from all FREED GROUP’s Self-developed HARMONY CSS over the world. We are confident in expanding our business beyond existing markets to overseas markets.”
By partnering with SME travel agents in China, a number of travel agencies and enterprises have already been supporting this scalable system, helping to usher in a new era in business travel management, and ultimately to move beyond China. In Q3 2023, a Hong Kong renowned corporate travel agency has already deployed HARMONY CSS and received positive feedbacks, improving both operational efficiency and satisfaction among corporate customers.
Established in 2006, the Hong Kong ICT Awards aims to acknowledge and promote exceptional ICT inventions and applications in Hong Kong, thereby encouraging innovation and excellence among Hong Kong’s ICT talent and enterprises in their pursuit of creative solutions to meet business and social needs. The objective of the “Smart Tourism” category is to foster the innovative use of technologies to optimise resources, maximise competitiveness and enhance sustainability for the tourism industry.
