The New Travel Technology Landscape

When the travel technology forefathers were mapping the automation of travel distribution they had a distinct set of goals in mind.

(PRWEB) January 23, 2005 -- When the travel technology forefathers were mapping the automation of travel distribution they had a distinct set of goals in mind. The business objectives included reducing the cycle time required to complete a reservation, improving the accuracy of a reservation; and reducing the labor cost of travel distribution. In addition, the technical objectives were scalability - transaction speeds that support demand, reliability - 99.9% up time, and efficiency - the benefits outweigh the costs.

In 1962 when IBM and American Airlines rolled out the SABRE system to its first travel agency, it was immediately apparent that the goals would be met. In automating the distribution of travel, ecommerce was born.

With the introduction of what is now referred to as the GDS came the pioneering of many remarkable time tested concepts; the first commercial real-time application, the concept that computers had applications beyond number crunching, data can be presented remotely and maintain integrity, and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) within a supply chain.

What is even more intriguing is that in the subsequent two human generations and arguably five technology generations, both the data and technology have remained relatively unchanged. Only since the new millennium has data begun to migrate from ancient TPF platforms to open architecture technology and relational data formats.

The fact that such archeologically significant solutions are still in service is astounding. It is not exactly as if the PNR were spit from the great pyramids, but to put things in perspective, the historically significant VCR gained ubiquity twenty years later and began negotiations with the grim reaper long before the hearty green screen.

Does this mean that the airlines and GDSs have juxtaposed into monolithic technophobes too timid to jettison the cocoon and brave the new world? Or does it mean that the age old mantra of if it aint broke, dont fix it" has been taken to extremes. Perhaps the pioneers possessed far superior intellect and vision than higher minds of the new breed. Or just maybe, gen-x technology has just matured enough to support the fundamental requirements supporting travel distribution automation.

The technical solution has been available for several years in the form of high-end, redundant, and scalable non-stop servers. The issue has been the cost of storing and processing data in excess of 25 terabytes in a fault tolerant environment.

The internet not only fragmented the itinerary by rewiring the traditional travel distribution supply chain, but also made limitless GDS data available to the consumer not accustomed to precision shopping. This unfiltered burden on the GDS data sources has driven the cost side of the efficiency equation through the roof. In reality, the bookings have never kept up with the shopping. Unlike internet tire kickers, consumers typically dont window shop with a travel agent.

The solution to the problem was to maintain the high standards of scalability, reliability, and efficiency for applications supporting booking", while lowering the bar for looking". This allowed the GDSs to absorb the cost of high-end solutions for mission critical processes, while migrating to open system/open source architecture for less fault tolerant applications. So when a shopper transitions to a buyer in the application, data and processes transition over to the mission critical environment. Efficiency objective met. In fact, when Sabre began the migration of shopping data to an open system environment, their stated goals were to reduce TCO by 40%, reduce fare rules administration by 75%, and increase developer productivity by 100%

The goals havent really changed since SABRE 1.0 was released in the 1960s.

What does this mean to the travel IT professional? What new niche appliances will sprout from the migration to new platforms? What are the skills required to be an effective steward of your automation in the new world? How will the travel distributors offset the cost of implementing the new technology? What are the next generation applications that will surface?

The New Travel IT Landscape:
The Travel IT professional will no longer be subservient to inflexible data constructs and awkward extraction techniques. Knowledge of assembler and TPF should be archived to the same area of the brain that knows how to properly spell without a right mouse button. Waterfall project management techniques will give way to more iterative customer involved practices. Understanding a PNR will no longer require bachelors in obscurity.

The migration of applications and data to the new environment will require a substantial investment. Along with the capital investment of equipment, there are labor costs of migrating applications and data, as well as the development of disruptive" applications that will be a natural consequence of the migration. Finally, there will be a cost of transitioning developer skills to those required to support and develop applications in the open systems environment.

The CIO will need to balance migration of the applications, transition developer and support skills, and develop and integrate emerging applications. The ideal senior technology professional is a strong blend of domain, functional, and technological expertise. Add organization and communication skills and you have built the prototypical project manager for outsourcing your projects while you develop the appropriate skills internally.

There are technology companies that offer the services of globally sourced developers to take on projects or even enterprise IT roles while they apply their mentoring and training techniques to bring the clients staff up to speed. One such company, Valtech Technologies, perhaps recognizing the trend in the travel industry earlier than most, has provided these services to more than twenty flagship travel companies. This has proven to be a popular service, as Valtechs industry knowledge helped bridge the old world to the new for suppliers, GDSs, and travel managers alike. Valtech now serves as the enterprise level development partner for one travel distributor.

The majority of our Catalyst (agile project management mentoring program) clients are companies that have migrated from a legacy platform to open systems" says Curtis Hite, CEO of Valtech. They also recognized that freezing development during the transition would stifle momentum. The fact that globally sourced development is in most cases a fraction of the cost of in-house development makes us even more attractive".

Now that travel data will be normalized in relational form, the next generation of applications that integrate travel with other corporate data will emerge. Look for emerging integration with accounting data in order to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley legislation. Integrating that information will also help CFOs manage what in most cases is a significant SG&A line item; travel.

Merchant business model, open standards computing, GDS deregulation; does that mean the travel industry is becoming mainstream?

About the Author
Bob Schmidt is the Travel Technology Leader of Valtech, a technology skills transfer and agile offshore development company that has been migrating the travel industry to an open systems environment. You can learn more by visiting www.valtech.com/us

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