Travel Market Blog - Pass Consulting Travel

Lufthansa City Center and PASS present new business travel system

2011-06-15T07:53:00.000-07:00

VICTOR offers customer-oriented service and professional workflow

Aschaffenburg/Frankfurt, May 20th, 2011 – At the PASS Travel Talk Event in Frankfurt, Germany, on May 3rd, 2011, together with its partner Corporate Travel Partners GmbH, a subsidiary company of the Lufthansa City Center Giller Reisen GmbH in Munich (Germany), PASS introduced VICTOR (Virtual Corporate Travel Organizer), the new business travel system that was developed on the basis of the PASS Travel Framework. VICTOR is a modern system for business travel booking and the overall management of all related processes. However the corporate client wants to book his trip – online, offline via an order system, or conventionally via email or phone –, he will always find his booking in VICTOR. As opposed to many traditional online booking tools, VICTOR takes into account the travel agents’ requirements for customer-oriented service and a professional workflow. “Customers want fast and individual adaptations without mismatches between media formats. VICTOR offers exactly these advantages,“ says Andreas Giller, CEO, Corporate Travel Partners GmbH.

VICTOR was created based on the question how current business travel stakeholders can be better served. Both, Lufthansa City Center’s long-term experience and interviews with customers and other users, have contributed to today’s business travel solution.

“This is not an off-the-shelf product” highlights Michael Strauss, CEO of PASS Consulting Corporation and Head of Business Unit Travel worldwide “it is a Built-To-Order (BTO) Corporate Booking Engine using our proprietary VTO framework that was originally built for our Agent Desktop. We do not want to compete with Standard Corporate Booking Engines, but if they cannot deliver the individual needs of a customer we have the option to ‘generate’ a version that does. This is the power of next generation software development! In addition the Corporate Booking Tool, the Agent Desktop and any other frontend such as a mobile device all are based on the same core. This means a change in e.g. the corporate policy, can automatically be reflected in all frontends.”

VICTOR offers the following options:

Electronic purchase tool
As a shopping tool, business travel can either be directly booked online or be sent to the travel agency’s service team in charge as an offer enquiry / order via an electronic order system.

Workflow system
VICTOR facilitates the consistent illustration, controlling and simplification of all workflows, such as permit procedure, travel expense report procedure, or travel guidelines.

Central administration system
It administers all data that are necessary for the processes of business travel, such as profile data, funding agency agreements, or in-house/statutory provisions.

Information system
All relevant information is at all times available to the users in current and summarized form, such as travel management, travel or reporting information, etc.

Travel expense report system
Due to the integration of the modern and professional travel expense report system VIATOS, travel expense reports can, among other things, be created automatically and be compared with statutory provisions. The travel expense data are automatically forwarded to bookkeeping or the HR department.

Development on SOA and component basis
The travel industry is subject to a consistent and partially very fast change process. Whenever changes such as new booking options of additional services appear, a good business travel management system needs to be able to react within a short period of time. Here, the key size is “time to market”. When these changes are made available to the customer (and therefore also to the user) in a quick and uncomplicated way, only then the company can get a benefit from it.
One requirement is the use of pre-assembled components, the implementation of a rules engine, a configuration manager as well as a stable SOA architecture. It is essential that the entire logic is controlled from a central point. Thus it is guaranteed that all variants of such a system dispose of the same application logic, no matter if they are made for the Internet, for smart phones or an agency interface. A change at this point will then immediately be available to all connected interfaces. This is facilitated by the comprehensive PASS Travel Framework structure. Thus, individual software can be developed at the price of standard software.

About Corporate Travel Partners GmbH:
Giller Reisen was founded in 1987 and has since been run by both owners, Peter and Andreas Giller. In the almost 25-year-old company history, the Gillers have been constantly expanding their business. Today, with over 75 employees in eight offices in and around Munich (Germany),, including a Japan department as well as two offices in Salzburg, Austria, the Giller Reisen Group operates a travel volume of about EUR 70 million, making it one of the biggest private travel agencies in Germany. Corporate Travel Partners GmbH is a subsidiary of Giller Reisen in Munich. The focus of the consulting company for modern travel management is the process optimization for travel agencies and corporate clients as well as the development of software solutions to illustrate these processes.

About PASS Consulting Corporation:
Miami Beach based PASS Consulting Corporation provides users with easy access to the diverse content and data of the travel industry. The PASS Solution World Travel offers a huge array of building blocks and components which, in accordance with the individual requirements of our clients, can easily be customized into one travel technology application. All our services, regardless whether they are part of the content aggregation, booking or post-booking process, can therefore be deployed independently. This in return offers our clients great flexibility in the fast changing market place of today. PASS Consulting’s customer base includes the world’s most successful TMC’s, businesses, GDSs and technology providers. Among these: BCD Travel, Omega World Travel, The Travel Authority, Airtrade, Morris Murdock Travel, Lufthansa City Center, E-Travel & Amadeus One, Hewlett-Packard, nuTravel, Travelport, Emirates, Farelogix, International SOS, MEDEX, Starcite, SureWare, TravTech, Lufthansa, vayama.com, Hotelexpress.com, Sandals & Beaches, Vail Resorts, swifttrip.com and Costa Cruise Lines. PASS has also helped Cheaptickets.com, ARC and Navigant (a Carlson Wagonlit Travel company) to become a leading provider of travel related services.

About PASS Consulting Group
Founded in 1981, PASS Consulting Group employs 675 people and has built up a highly respected high-growth IT consulting business based on strong project management and integration skills. This implies a competitive advantage in terms of productivity.
We strive to improve our customers' competitive strength and productivity by implementing effective business solutions based on the most appropriate new technologies. Our main vertical markets are in Financial Services, Insurance, Tourism & Travel, Logistics, Telecommunications and IT.
Our professional working methodology is focused on IT Strategy Consulting as well as the complete set of Integrated Consulting Services: We encompass the entire implementation process and project lifecycle - ranging from studies & analysis over the development of complete business models to the implementation of individual IT applications and their introduction to the market.

Contact:
Michael Strauss
CEO PASS Consulting Corporation &
Head of Business Unit Travel Worldwide
PASS Consulting Corporation
420 Lincoln Road, Suite 219
Miami Beach, FL 33139-3019
Phone: +1 305-2696975
Fax: +1 305-2646575
E-mail: michael.strauss@pass-consulting.com
Internet: www.pass-consulting.com/pass-travel

30 Years of PASS Consulting Group A forward-Looking Company: On the “PASS-Agenda 2025”: Strategic Consulting, product business expansion, and the la

2011-05-03T12:12:00.001-07:00

Germany, April 13, 2011 Following the philosophy “The best way to predict the future is to create it” (Willy Brandt, former German chancellor and Nobel Peace Price winner), PASS celebrated their 30-year anniversary on April 1. PASS was founded in 1981 by the former computer science student Gerhard Rienecker in as the consulting firm. He had the vision of developing an individual software program at the price of a standard software that is based on reusable components. PASS experienced strong growth in the IT and consulting business in the 1980s and 1990s. This was followed by the rapid opening of numerous branches in Germany and the USA, and development centers in Hyderabad (India) and Würzburg in the beginning of this century.

Another milestone at the beginning of the new millennium was the foundation of the partner network Global Consulting Alliance by PASS. Today, this serves as a platform connecting more than 25,000 consultants all over the world. The network replaces the opening of additional branches, but existing offices will continue to remain, however. At the same time, PASS was ready to treat itself to a New Profile. This new approach also meant the opening of the additional lines of business Research, Software, and Service. This way, the previous line of business Project received congenial support through the upstream and downstream activities of the company innovation process.

The focus is on the constant expansion of the existing customer base into new industry sectors: PASS can offer business units designed for the specific, individual needs of banks and insurance companies. The new business units are travel/tourism, logistics, telecommunications, government, and IT. PASS’ core competency is the automation of company processes (PASS signifies Process Automation System Concepts & Solutions). The high-level requirements of time-to-market have led PASS to the automation of their own core processes of software development. PASS also created a new development paradigm, which is software production. The traditional phases starting with the analysis through to testing are being automated in the sense of a factory-based process. Using this factory approach, which is known under the term Virtual Software Factory, PASS not only sends out a clear signal regarding their software quality but also the productivity with regard to their range of applications offered.

Today, PASS employs a staff of 675 at a sales volume of 114 million euro (over $169 million) and sees itself as the market leader when it comes to development productivity.

The future of PASS is called “Agenda 2025” or: Only those who change stay true to themselves

As the company founder Rienecker sees it, the ability to understand the world, markets, and customers, coupled with the ability to translate this into relevant action steps, is the key to success. Hence, this means forward looking all the time: PASS takes 30 years of software development, project management, and IT projects for large and medium-sized companies and extracts components and know-how for tomorrow’s solutions. This and the results from PASS Research as well as an actively embraced idea and innovation management create additional value for the customer.

The past 10 years especially have been a strong growth period for the PASS B2B software products market. As of today, the company holds market leadership in Germany regarding installations in the areas of core banking software and the so-called Riester-Engine (administration of pension system contracts for end customers on behalf of major banks and insurance companies). PASS technology solutions for modern travel booking systems are in use all over the world. PASS Consulting as an authorized third party developer for all GDS’s offers access to GDS as well as non-GDS content through its XX/1 high-performance transaction server.

New markets
Thanks to an idea contest during the opening of the FrankfurtPASSPerformanceCenter, PASS for the first time in the company history offers their services to the end consumer. The iPhone app “PASS Notfall-Hilfe” (Emergency Aid) has already had over 30,000 downloads. The free-of-charge base app can be added on with paid additional services. It seems only a logical consequence to expand the portfolio to end consumer applications. Even without the amazing success of apps it has become clear: The huge database of software components is increasingly suitable for the development of private sector applications.

Focus on employees
PASS’ personnel philosophy is assigning responsibility and succession management on all levels, offering tangible perspectives. Great emphasis is placed on a healthy mix of generations. In 2010, PASS was recognized with the “Fokus 50+ Award” for the exemplary employee development of best age personnel.

Rienecker goes for orientation: Due to the career and promotion programs, employees have a clear picture of where they are headed and in which ways they can achieve their personal goals.

Corporate Citizenship
“One cannot separate leading a company from making a contribution to society”, says Rienecker. Starting with the first job, PASS has always included social projects in their success, be it in less developed countries or in the immediate community. Today, PASS donates approx. 60,000 europer year to charities, projects, and other volunteer activities.

Success calls for celebration:
Skyparty in the PASSPerformanceCenterFrankfurt
The entire staff celebrated the company’s 30th anniversary in the PASSPerformanceCenter located on the 25th level of the Skyper Frankfurt. Company founder Gerhard Rienecker presented an entertaining information journey with images, videos, and stories showing the development of PASS from a student’s idea to the present international consulting and software firm. Guests went on a time journey with multimedia presentations of the 1980s, 1990s, the current century, and all the associated political, economic, scientific, cultural, and artistic events. At the same time, they were able to follow the growth of PASS as film and animation. The future room was an invitation to the guests to experiment with new technologies and to sketch their own ideas of their personal and professional future.
(The exhibition in the PASSPerformanceCenter featuring 30 years of PASS is still open until the end of May.)

Please read more on our website: www.Pass-Travel.com

DOT Defers its Decision On Requiring Airlines To display ancillary Fees In GDS

2011-05-02T11:02:00.000-07:00

The public battle between airlines and GDS about direct connects in general and the display of ancillary services in particular has taken its next step when the DOT finally examined whether airlines should be required to make ancillary services data available through the GDSs.

An official decision on this topic would have a dramatic impact on both. airlines, GDSs and the consumers. And since there is at this point not enough information to decide whether requiring the airlines to provide their ancillary services data to the GDSs leads to more transparency for the consumer, the DOT decided to defer its decision.

“We cannot at this time agree that it is in the public interest to mandate that step, since we lack additional information about costs, benefits and consequences of requiring U.S. and foreign carriers to provide ancillary fee information to GDSs […] The Department wants to ensure that any action it takes does not have unintended consequences, particularly given the sensitive nature of the market and the negotiations currently taking place between carriers and GDSs.”, said the DOT as reported by Tnooz.

However, the DOT implemented some measures to address the problem of hidden fees and lacking transparency. Airlines and travel agencies are now required to list all ancillary fees on their websites and must inform consumers if additional costs may apply to their fare. Furthermore, information concerning bag fees must be provided on e-ticket confirmations.

Proponents of direct connects such as the Air Transport Association supported the DOT decision and ensured that airlines are committed to fully disclosing all ancillary fees to their customers: “ATA appreciates that DOT shares our goal of providing safe, reliable transportation, treating customers fairly and providing the best service possible. The airline industry supports increased communication and full transparency, ensuring that our customers always know exactly what they are getting every step of the way; and market forces – not additional regulations – are already providing customer benefits. As the DOT statistics demonstrate, airlines already have made many service improvements and many of the regulations formalize procedures already in place, including prompt delay notification, one-way fare advertising, and irregular-operation contingency plans. We share the DOT goal of continuously improving the customer experience and our member airlines will implement the new rules as efficiently as possible,” as stated by ATA President and CEO Nicholas E. Calio.

So, the DOT is making some progress regarding consumer protection, but it is still in a dilemma: On one hand it is important to guarantee transparency and fare comparison for the consumer but on the other hand there is the danger of too much regulation that might ultimately lead to higher prices and less competition.

“In general ancillary services are a good thing for airlines and customers. While airlines can achieve differentiation from their competitors, customers can finally book “personalized” flights. However, the ability to compare flight fares and the full disclosure of all additional fees in a way that is easy to understand for the consumer should be guaranteed at all times. I am confident that our industry will find a solution to solve this problem. We should simply let the market decide which solution is best. This will lead to more innovation and a better service for the customer than governmental regulation. Technology is here to step up and provide such service to the user. In internet age you don’t need standards and regulations - the market will find a solution as long as it is an open market and access is provided to smart companies – from airlines as well as GDSs. Were we able to compare prices from different OTAs 10 years ago? No, but sophisticated screen scraping technology by the likes of sidestep or kayak made it possible. So I’m totally convinced the market will regulate itself as long as every entity opens access to their content. I just hope we don’t need the internet giants Google and alike to show us how it can work!”,

says Michael Strauss, CEO of PASS Consulting Corporation and author of “Value Creation in Travel Distribution”.

Probably it will still take a while until the DOT makes its final decision. It might be better, if airlines and GDSs can find a solution without the help of the DOT though.

Delta Airlines Enters Into Partnership with Farelogix to use Direct Connects

2011-04-26T08:55:00.000-07:00

Ever since American Airlines started to distribute its content through direct connects, there have been discussions whether others would follow, who would win the direct-connect-GDS-battle and if there is really a value for the consumer in such a direct connect strategy.

Recently, Delta Air Lines started its own direct-connect strategy in partnership with Farelogix. According to their plan, Online Travel Agencies and Travel Management Companies will then be able to access Delta’s full-content through a Delta-Farelogix platform, thus bypassing the GDSs and saving additional costs.

However, Delta does not plan to switch to direct connects completely. Delta rather sees its direct-connect platform as an alternative to the GDS: “Farelogix and Delta will implement a platform to allow customers additional access to Delta content. It will provide another source for the travel agency community to access Delta’s fares and other products and services, in addition to the legacy Global Distribution Systems with whom Delta currently participates.” as Delta stated in an email.

Aside from financial reasons, there is still much discussion about how direct connects really benefit OTAs and the consumer. Airlines such as Delta and American Airlines believe there are advantages both for Travel Agencies and consumers.

Sabre, Delta’s GDS partner, certainly is an opponent of direct connects. Therefore, it is interesting that Sabre tolerates both Delta’s move and even Expedia’s direct connect with American Airlines. Sabre’s justification is that their technology is still at the core of the Expedia deal as Chris Kroeger, senior vice president of marketing at Sabre, told customers in an email: “The most important thing to note in the Expedia/AA announcement is that GDS technology is and will be at the core of their arrangement, in the short-term and beyond. The companies’ joint press release makes clear that AA content has been restored to Expedia’s sites using GDS technology and that Expedia plans to access AA’s content using GDS technology in the future.”

And according to Sabre using GDS technology is still superior to using only direct connects, since they can handle many different direct connects without any problems:

“Using ‘aggregation technology’ to enable efficient comparison shopping, booking and fulfilment across hundreds of direct connections is at the heart of what a GDS does.”

So what does this mean for the future of travel distribution? Will GDSs and Airlines find solve all their problems in the near future? Well, that is not very likely, but the latest deals between airlines, GDSs and Travel Agencies show that there is a development in the industry that might in the end lead to a better travel booking experience for the customers.

“Ancillary revenues and merchandising is extremely important for airlines. They can generate additional revenue, differentiate themselves from the competition and thus strengthen their own, unique brand. Also, the unbundling of products offers customers the freedom to choose only those services they really need and thereby saving money on services they personally do not consider valuable. The technology to realize this is out there. That is why all players in the industry should focus on innovating their products instead of negotiating and trying to maintain the status quo. The GDSs have this technology, too. And the last weeks and moths have shown that there is a great improvement in their offers. I am confident that both airlines and GDSs can find a solution that everyone including the customer benefits from. Technology providers such as PASS are ready for this change,”

says Michael Strauss, CEO of PASS Consulting Corporation and author of “Value Creation in Travel Distribution”.

About PASS
Miami Beach based PASS Consulting Corporation provides users with easy access to the diverse content and data of the travel industry through its XX/1 Multi-GDS transaction server. The PASS Solution World Travel offers a huge array of building blocks and components which, in accordance with the individual requirements of our clients, can easily be customized into one travel technology application. All our services, regardless whether they are part of the content aggregation, booking or post-booking process, can therefore be deployed independently. This in return offers our clients great flexibility in the fast changing market place of today.
PASS Consulting’s customer base includes the world’s most successful TMC’s, businesses, GDSs and technology providers. Among these: American Express, BCD Travel, Omega World Travel, The Travel Authority, Boulevard Travel, Airtrade, Morris Murdock Travel, Lufthansa City Center, E-Travel & Amadeus One,Morgan Stanley, Hewlett-Packard, nuTravel, Travelport, Emirates, Farelogix, International SOS, MEDEX, Starcite, SureWare, TravTech, Lufthansa, vayama.com, Hotelexpress.com, Sandals & Beaches, Vail Resorts, swifttrip.com and Costa Cruise Lines. PASS has also helped Cheaptickets.com, ARC and Navigant (a Carlson Wagonlit Travel company) to become a leading provider of travel related services.
More information: http://www.pass-travel.com/

Department of Justice To Allow Google-ITA-Deal

2011-04-15T19:48:00.000-07:00

Almost 10 months ago Google proposed to buy ITA for about $700 million. However, it took much time and many public battles with opponents of the acquisition such as Fairsearch until the DOJ made its decision and finally allowed the acquisition. Google has to comply with several restrictions though.

To ensure fair competition Google has to continue to license ITA’s QPX software to competitors, to fund research and development of ITA’s QPX software and to further develop and offer ITA’s next generation InstaSearch product to travel websites. Furthermore, the DOJ imposed restrictions to prevent Google from abusing “commercially sensitive information”. For example, Google will have to implement firewall restrictions within its company to prevent unauthorized use of ITA’s customer data.

Interestingly, both Google and Fairsearch members expressed their satisfaction about the DOJ ruling:

“We’re moving to close this acquisition as soon as possible, and then we’ll start the important work of bringing our teams and products together. We’re confident that by combining ITA’s expertise with Google’s technology we’ll be able to develop exciting new flight search tools for all our users. Up, up and away!“, said Jeff Huber, Senior Vice President, Commerce and Local at Google in a blog post. He also confirmed that Google would let ITA customers extend their contracts into 2016.

On the other hand, Fairsearch released a statement saying: “Today’s decision by the Justice Department to challenge Google’s acquisition of ITA Software is a clear win for consumers. [..] By putting in place strong, ongoing oversight and enforcement tools, the Department has ensured that consumers will continue to benefit from vibrant competition and innovation in travel search.”

While it remains to be seen who really benefits the most from the DOJ’s decision and what happens in 2016, Google achieved its main goal: To enter travel vertical. After all, Google is allowed to develop its own products for travel search or develop on top of the QPX software.

Additionally, the DOJ’s ruling did not really touch the problem of search discrimination. Google may have to honour existing agreements, but there is the danger that it could use its dominance in travel to favour its own products. And given the importance of travel for Google’s overall revenue, it is not unlikely that Google will try to do so.

“For years our industry has lacked behind with innovations. Rather than using technology to improve customers’ experience to the fullest extent possible, many industry players tried to play it safe and maintain the status quo. Considering the revenue generated in the industry, it was only natural for competitors outside our industry to enter and close this “innovation gap”. And this is exactly what Google has done and will do in the future. I expect Google to initiate a remarkable technology push and to significantly improve users’ travel search experience. It is no surprise to me that the acquisition was approved. If this ruling will have an impact on the Sabre / Farelogix ruling has to be seen, as this ruling was put on hold until the Google ruling was finalized. One might think that if Google does not have monopoly then how can GDSs have one? But the recent AA accusations show that there is a lot more to the stake. Let’s hope everything will be open and we can build on each other for the good of the traveller.”,

Says Michael Strauss, CEO of PASS Consulting Corporation and author of “Value Creation in Travel Distribution”.

The next months will definitely be very exciting for our industry. Not only because we will see what Google really wants to do with ITA and what kinds of products they are developing, but also because many industry player will have to react to Google’s market entry and maybe reconsider their own strategy.

About PASS
Miami Beach based PASS Consulting Corporation provides users with easy access to the diverse content and data of the travel industry through its XX/1 Multi-GDS transaction server. The PASS Solution World Travel offers a huge array of building blocks and components which, in accordance with the individual requirements of our clients, can easily be customized into one travel technology application. All our services, regardless whether they are part of the content aggregation, booking or post-booking process, can therefore be deployed independently. This in return offers our clients great flexibility in the fast changing market place of today.
PASS Consulting’s customer base includes the world’s most successful TMC’s, businesses, GDSs and technology providers. Among these: American Express, BCD Travel, Omega World Travel, The Travel Authority, Boulevard Travel, Airtrade, Morris Murdock Travel, Lufthansa City Center, E-Travel & Amadeus One,Morgan Stanley, Hewlett-Packard, nuTravel, Travelport, Emirates, Farelogix, International SOS, MEDEX, Starcite, SureWare, TravTech, Lufthansa, vayama.com, Hotelexpress.com, Sandals & Beaches, Vail Resorts, swifttrip.com and Costa Cruise Lines. PASS has also helped Cheaptickets.com, ARC and Navigant (a Carlson Wagonlit Travel company) to become a leading provider of travel related services.
More information: http://www.pass-travel.com/

Travel Agency Desktop Summit By The Open Axis Group

2011-03-25T12:09:00.000-07:00

As reported by Tnooz, the Open Axis Group, a group of industry experts trying to establish an innovative new distribution standard, will hold a meeting to discuss the inadequacies of current travel agency desktops. Following the name for their distribution standard, Distribution 2.0, the working group is called Desktop 2.0.

In addition to the Open Axis Airline Members and third party developer allied members, several representatives from travel agencies, OTAs, TMCs will be invited. However, it seems detailed information about the participants will not be disclosed, since some participants fear retaliation by the GDSs. According to the Open Axis Group some if its members worry that – especially with regards to ancillary services - current agency desktop are not able to display and new airline products to the fullest extent possible. Therefore, the Open Axis Group aims to develop standards and support developers to solve these problems.

“Finding common ground is what this new Desktop 2.0 Working Group is all about – balancing the need to go from today’s selling systems with their commoditized airline display to a display based on traveler authentication and personalization, all the while maintaining agency productivity and workflow consistency,” says Jim Young, Executive Director of the Open Axis Group.

This announcement is quite remarkable, since with Sabre Red Workspace and Travelport Agencia two GDSs lately launched agency desktop solutions that are supposed to offer the abilities demanded by agents and airlines. That’s why they strongly refuse the Open Axis’ opinion on agency desktops:

“The implication that current desktops don’t meet the needs of agents and airlines means they clearly haven’t seen the significant innovations Sabre has made over the years, including being first in the industry to provide airlines the ability to market and sell their ancillary fares through the global distribution system and travel agents”, says Sabre spokeswoman Nancy St. Pierre.

So while it is not entirely clear to what extent both the GDSs and the airlines are just commercially motivated, it is obvious that we need more innovation to improve our customers’ buying experience and in the end to improve our competitiveness. What has to be considered though is that travel agents do not only sell flights, but also hotel stays, rental cars, rail etc. Therefore we should not only focus on ancillary revenues and airline direct connects, but ensure that agents can provide their customers with a complete service covering all their needs.

“For years, there has been a lack of innovation in the travel industry. But to remain competitive against possible new entrants such as Google it is important to provide unique value to our customers. Technology should enhance innovation, not restrict it. Thus, travel agents need a desktop solution that enables them to offer their customers personalized offers and to meet their entire requests. With our VTO 2G PASS offers such an agent booking engine. The VTO 2G enables access to any modules in an existing arsenal which includes standard functions such as booking flights, hotels and rental cars but also specials such as customer relations management functions, a profile database, direct connections to service providers and travel management functions,”

says Michael Strauss, CEO of PASS Consulting Corporation and author of ”Value Creation in Travel Distribution”.

PASS has always been a pioneer when it comes to new technology. PASS was the first to introduce XML to the travel industry back in 1999. Today the schemas are the ones Open Axis group uses - “donated by Farelogix” who licensed source code from PASS. In 2003 PASS introduced the first graphical agent frontend when cryptic screens were still dominant. Long time PASS fought the fight cryptic vs. graphical on the market front – which seemed to be fair competition. In the meantime PASS introduced its second generation Virtual Travel Organizer which is much more robust and flexible based 100% on SOA architecture with a rules engine integrated and many other features.

When inventory providers decided to introduce their own graphical frontends to finally arrive in the 21st century it also came with restrictions for 3rd parties and consequently PASS among others today is not authorized to provide innovative out-of-the box graphical multi-GDS desktops to the industry, although the technology is ready to be used. It would be interesting to see all the graphical multi-GDS agent desktops next to each other to let the market decide which one is the best and most efficient one for the industry, but fair competition to enable innovative products seems to be a foreign language in this industry.

About PASS
Miami Beach based PASS Consulting Corporation provides users with easy access to the diverse content and data of the travel industry through its XX/1 Multi-GDS transaction server. The PASS Solution World Travel offers a huge array of building blocks and components which, in accordance with the individual requirements of our clients, can easily be customized into one travel technology application. All our services, regardless whether they are part of the content aggregation, booking or post-booking process, can therefore be deployed independently. This in return offers our clients great flexibility in the fast changing market place of today.
PASS Consulting’s customer base includes the world’s most successful TMC’s, businesses, GDSs and technology providers. Among these: American Express, BCD Travel, Omega World Travel, The Travel Authority, Boulevard Travel, Airtrade, Morris Murdock Travel, Lufthansa City Center, E-Travel & Amadeus One,Morgan Stanley, Hewlett-Packard, nuTravel, Travelport, Emirates, Farelogix, International SOS, MEDEX, Starcite, SureWare, TravTech, Lufthansa, vayama.com, Hotelexpress.com, Sandals & Beaches, Vail Resorts, swifttrip.com and Costa Cruise Lines. PASS has also helped Cheaptickets.com, ARC and Navigant (a Carlson Wagonlit Travel company) to become a leading provider of travel related services.
More information: http://www.pass-travel.com/

Kayak To Establish Direct Hotel Bookings

2011-03-18T14:37:00.000-07:00

After collaborating with Microsoft’s Bing, Kayak has made its next move by implementing a direct hotel booking possibility on its site.

Doing so, Kayak partly leaves its role as a traditional metasearch engine. However, at this point Kayak is not going to become a travel agency. They entered a white-label partnership with the Travelocity Partner Network. The Travelocity Partner Network which interestingly is not part of Kayak’s metasearch results will be the merchant of records and thus functions as the travel agent. Since it is not an exclusive deal, Kayak can bring in other partner and might also extend its direct booking offers to flights or car rentals.

Kayak also plans to implement the hotel booking option in their iPhone app in the next weeks. This can be seen as an attempt to increase the conversion rate between information display and booking. Again, this is another sign for the growing importance of mobile apps for travel.

“Over time, travelers will demand information faster and with less effort, which means that changes in the booking process will be necessary. In this context, consumers (not only in the travel industry) will demand more efficient access to relevant information than they now do, so that all the intermediate steps must be eliminated. Customers must be offered a point of sale without detours from whichever site they visit. This is especially true for mobile applications. Including a booking function will most likely improve the ROI for Kayak,”

says Michael Strauss, CEO of PASS Consulting Corporation in his new book ”Value Creation in Travel Distribution”.

The general advantages are obvious: Kayak can increase its revenue and make customers stay on its site longer. And since the booking will be done on their site, Kayak has access to its customers’ data. With this valuable information Kayak can then improve its customer relationship management and further adapt its offers to its customers’ needs. Furthermore, this new feature might influence Kayak’s IPO positively and thus increase Kayak’s overall stock market value.

Establishing a direct booking option might also have disadvantages for Kayak. However, when announcing their direct hotel booking option, Kayak’s chief marketing officer Robert Birge denied the possibility that relationships with metasearch distribution and advertising partners might be hurt: “Online travel agencies are accustomed to choice within Kayak and how they view their relationship with us will not change”, he said.

But it seems he was wrong: Orbitz which holds a contract with Kayak that ensures exclusivity rights for Orbitz is pursuing legal remedies claiming that Kayak’s direct booking through Travelocity violates against their agreement.

“Orbitz believes these promotions violate Kayak’s contractual obligations to Orbitz. We are confident that our contractual terms will be enforced through these channels”, said Orbitz spokesman Brian Hoyt.

So far this issue has not been resolved and it remains to be seen if Kayak can manage to establish direct booking options without creating further conflicts with its advertising partners. With regards to Google’s acquisition of ITA diversifying its product offerings might be a good strategy, though.

About PASS
Miami Beach based PASS Consulting Corporation provides users with easy access to the diverse content and data of the travel industry through its XX/1 Multi-GDS transaction server. The PASS Solution World Travel offers a huge array of building blocks and components which, in accordance with the individual requirements of our clients, can easily be customized into one travel technology application. All our services, regardless whether they are part of the content aggregation, booking or post-booking process, can therefore be deployed independently. This in return offers our clients great flexibility in the fast changing market place of today.
PASS Consulting’s customer base includes the world’s most successful TMC’s, businesses, GDSs and technology providers. Among these: American Express, BCD Travel, Omega World Travel, The Travel Authority, Boulevard Travel, Airtrade, Morris Murdock Travel, Lufthansa City Center, E-Travel & Amadeus One,Morgan Stanley, Hewlett-Packard, nuTravel, Travelport, Emirates, Farelogix, International SOS, MEDEX, Starcite, SureWare, TravTech, Lufthansa, vayama.com, Hotelexpress.com, Sandals & Beaches, Vail Resorts, swifttrip.com and Costa Cruise Lines. PASS has also helped Cheaptickets.com, ARC and Navigant (a Carlson Wagonlit Travel company) to become a leading provider of travel related services.
More information: http://www.pass-travel.com/

Bing uses Kayak for its travel metasearch – another chapter in the Google-ITA story

2011-03-11T13:57:00.000-08:00

As reported by Tnooz, Kayak and Microsoft’s Bing will enter a strategic alliance. This is remarkable for two reasons: First, Kayak and Bing used to be - and in a way still are- competitors and second, this alliance is directly connected with the Google-ITA deal that still is being investigated by the Department of Justice.

Starting in a few weeks Kayak, the leading metasearch site, will power Bing’s metasearch for flights. Most likely other services will follow. Kayak could for example supply Bing’s hotel search which is currently sponsored by Orbitz. Bing plans to use Kayak’s search results as a basis for new innovative travel search offers, such as autosuggest solution, price predictor, rate indicator and Flight Answers.

There are several reasons for Bing to enter this alliance. It seems Bing was not content with its current travel offers. Although Microsoft acquired Farecast and tried to innovate internally, it seems they could until now not come up with a satisfying solution for their travel search that could compete with Kayak’s search engine. Part of reason might be that being a general search engine, it is harder for Bing to innovate in a special area, such as travel, than it is for a specialist. That is why they changed their strategy and entered this alliance. Now they can use Kayak’s innovative services as a basis and innovate on top of that with their products.

So by combining their complementary competencies, Bing hopes to foster innovation and create a compelling user experience that can compete with Google in the future. Furthermore, partnering with Kayak could be the first step for Bing to sever its connection to ITA. But since both Bing and Kayak use ITA Software for their flight search, Bing will not be completely independent of ITA.

Although Kayak has not yet made a comment disclosing all their reasons to enter the alliance, the reasons for Kayak are quite obvious: It will help Kayak achieve better results with its eventual IPO, it will increase their overall revenue and through Bing will have a greater distribution. And last, but not least, Kayak can strengthen its position in the market to be able to survive possible future competition with Google.

However, Kayak and Microsoft are facing a dilemma. They are both members of Fairsearch and strongly oppose the Google-ITA deal. But despite all its advantages, their alliance could just be a good reason for the DOT to allow the deal, because it might be perceived as a proof that there are strong players in the market that can successfully compete with Google-ITA.

“For a long time there has been a massive lack of innovation in the travel industry. Google’s very likely entrance into the market might finally change that, because Google certainly has the money and the technology to create a completely new user experience and thus bring real innovation to the market. In this context, it is only natural that other players adjust their strategies to stay competitive”,

says Michael Strauss, CEO of PASS Consulting Corporation and author of “Value Creation in Travel Distribution”.

The next months are going to be very interesting. We are all still waiting for the DOT’s final decision concerning the Google-ITA deal and Kayak and Bing have just started their cooperation. In any case, now that Kayak and Microsoft have made their move, it will be interesting to see how other major players, such as Expedia, will position themselves to remain competitive.

The Open Axis Forum In Miami

2011-03-04T13:13:00.000-08:00

On Thursday, February 24, a diverse group of travel industry members met at the Open Axis Forum at the Hilton Hotel, Miami to discuss the status of their proposed XML standards as the electronic messaging structure for airline system connectivity.

In his keynote presentation Jim Young, Executive Director of the Open Axis Group, delivered a status update on current developments of Distribution 2.0, a standardized traveler authenticated based set of XML schema and distribution practices, and the future plans to promote this Open Axis XML standard.

Patrick Bailey, Standards Manager, presented the Rules of Engagement, answered technical question of the participants and gave an insight into the new developments of the proposed Open Axis Group schema. At this point, it should be mentioned that Open Axis Group’s schema was initially developed and introduced by PASS Consulting over 10 years ago. PASS has been using XML with its XX/1 transaction server successfully ever since which proves its robustness. However, the XX – a relict in the schema from PASS’s XX/1 in the name convention for common messaging types - has been eliminated.
Especially the problem of versioning was intensively discussed, since backward compatibility between different versions of the XML schema has to be ensured. But attendants were assured that this will not be a problem.

The airline perspective on direct connect and XML was presented by Graham Wareham, Senior Director, Product Distribution for Air Canada. He delivered an interesting and very entertaining presentation regarding Air Canada’s implementation of direct connect and his general opinion about direct connects and the GDSs. Air Canada recently implemented the newest version of its AC2U direct connect which uses the XML standards promoted by the Open Axis Group. With its New AC2U Air Canada has the ability to effectively distribute ancillary services and create a unique shopping experience for its customers. Thanks to an agreement, agencies can also use these services through the Travelport GDS. As the biggest airline in Canada, Air Canada is a major player in the industry and its success in establishing Distribution 2.0 might have a positive impact on the entire industry.

Michael Strauss, CEO of PASS Consulting Corporation, delivered an in-depth analysis of the weaknesses of our industry. By comparing the travel industry to the mobile phone industry, he clearly showed how our industry has hardly had innovation while other industries have completely changed the experience of their users, as in the case of Apple’s iPhone.

Moore’s Law predicts that users can double their information technology “experience” every two years. Groundbreaking technological innovations would enable one to satisfy the expectations of travelers in accordance with Moore’s Law. But are there such innovations in the travel industry? Some incumbents interpret the introduction of the e-ticket as an innovation. However, in the same period, other industries have linked all aspects of entertainment to the mobile office with permanent availability in a format small enough to fit in our pockets, e.g. the iPhone,”
Strauss said.

In his remarkable presentation, ARTA Canada president Bruce Bishins offered insights into travel agents’ positions in the current conflict between airlines and GDSs. Of course, travel agents are in a complicated situation as they are very often the ones who bear the costs of the Airlines-GDSs-fights. However, travel agents see the opportunities of ancillary services: “Ancillary sales are a huge opportunity for travel agents and they want to share in the pie. They can sell and up sell”, Bishins said. That is why agents are willing to embrace direct connects and hope to find a solution that benefits both sides "Build us a new ballpark because we want to play in it", as Bishins put it.

All in all it was fascinating to see how so many industry experts gathered to discuss how to improve their customers’ experience. The forum was a great opportunity to socialize, share one’s opinion on current industry developments and on top even enjoy Miami’s nice weather.
Distribution 2.0 is prospering, but it’s still a long way to go. That’s why both airlines and technology providers have to keep on fostering XML and Distribution 2.0. So in order to spread word of Distribution 2.0 and reach industry members in Europe there will also be a forum at the airport in London, Heathrow on March 16-17.

RIM, Nokia And The Fight For Market Shares

2011-02-25T07:03:00.000-08:00

Ever since Google and Apple entered the market, well-established manufacturers of mobile phones struggle to keep their market shares. In order to survive in the market, RIM and Nokia take different approaches to differentiate themselves from the competition.

To strengthen its position among business travelers, one of its main target groups, Research in Motion, the company behind BlackBerry, has just launched a new travel app called Blackberry Travel. Although there are already various travel apps in the market, this still is important news, since RIM is the first smartphone manufacturer to market its own travel app. This not only indicates the increasing importance of mobile devices for business travelling, in particular the ability to change flight bookings or book additional services, but also shows that manufacturers try to evolve and expand their value proposition.

The new app was developed by app specialist Worldmate. It includes functions for trip planning, booking, itinerary management and flight status updates. Additionally, it offers a LinkedIn integration that enables users to inform business associates about current itineraries. And there is also a desktop function allowing users to book flights and car rental at home from their computer and thereby widening the usability of this app.

To ensure access to flights and hotel rooms, BlackBerry and Worldmate have partnered with industry players such as the Expedia Affiliate Network which provides the hotel booking. Travelport, United Airlines, Continental Airlines and Hilton Worldwide will most likely join, too. But it remains to be seen in what way the airlines will contribute to BlackBerry’s travel app, e.g., if users will at one point be able to book flights using their app on the phone.

So this app really might be the next step to improve and strengthen RIM’s position in business travel. First, it seems this new app is superior to most travel apps on the market. For example, when you book an itinerary and receive the confirmation, the app automatically updates your trips. Furthermore, it is able to identify conflicting schedules or required hotel stays and provides suggestions to solve those issues.

Secondly, RIM has managed to market its own app earlier than Apple. Apple’s role in the travel industry cannot yet be determined, since we are still waiting for Apple’s iTravel to enter the market. However, they undoubtedly have the technology and the financial means to enter the travel industry and to become an important player within the market, as the available information about iTravel indicates.

Either way, BlackBerry can increase its market share and improve its position in the smartphone market / among business travelers, if it manages to use its first-mover advantage and implement these apps into its phones from the very beginning. If this should succeed, smartphone manufacturers could develop entirely new business models around that, they could for instance become merchants of record or huge distributors like the GDSs, as suggested in a Tnooz-article.

“Travelers in particular depend on their mobile devices so they can be reached at all times and so that they can retrieve information immediately. Consumer behavior will probably change drastically: people will board a plane without having a confirmed hotel reservation at their destination as they will take care of this on the way there (or while still on the ground). The cell phone could be the primary point of sale for goods and services sold additionally post booking and even play an important role for primary bookings”,

says Michael Strauss, CEO of PASS Consulting Corporation in his new book ”Value Creation in Travel Distribution”.

So what is Nokia doing in this situation? Although Nokia still is the largest manufacturer of mobile phones with a market share of about 31%, it is losing ground to companies such as Apple or Google. Especially in the high-end segment Nokia has so far not been able to compete with Apple’s iPhone. Most of Nokia’s revenue comes from the low and middle price segment. But even in these segments Google’s android is becoming a serious threat.

That is why Nokia recently entered into a strategic alliance with Microsoft to be able to compete with Apple and Google. By combining their competencies Nokia and Microsoft aim to create not only new, innovative mobile devices, but an entire ecosystem that rivals those of Apple and Google.

As a consequence, Nokia will from now on use Windows Phone as its operating system instead of its own software Symbian. Nokia will contribute with expertise in hardware design and retailing. Microsoft will provide products like Office, Bing or Xbox-live. Additionally, Nokia’s appstore will be integrated into Microsoft’s marketplace.
With regards to the travel industry, it’s important to notice that Bing will now be set as the default search engine: Since Bing already has a travel search engine, it is very likely that the new Nokia Windows Phone devices will also be capable of using Bing travel and maybe include new travel features.

Although it might have been a necessary step for Nokia to ensure its future competitiveness, Nokia still takes a risk by abandoning its own operating system Symbian: In the last quarter of 2010 Symbian was still the market leader with a share of 36.6%, followed by android with 25.5% and iOS with 16.7%, while Windows Phone is not even listed in these rankings yet. In addition, it risks losing many developers who feel betrayed by Nokia, because the QT toolkit used to make apps for Symbian phones will not be supported on Windows Phones. It will be crucial for Microsoft and Nokia to keep as many developers on their side as possible and to put the utmost effort into acquiring new developers.

So while this alliance offers great possibilities, it is still open if Nokia and Microsoft really manage to create a user experience that compares e.g. to Apple’s iPhone.
All in all, we can see an increasing trend in business travel: business travel goes mobile: these days you can manage your entire trip from your smartphone and hardly need a computer anymore. Travel companies need to realize this development and react accordingly by offering high-quality apps and mobile-optimized websites, since both are important for travelers.
However, we are still waiting for the ability to book flights using a mobile app. When will that happen? Maybe Nokia will surprise us with such a feature in the near future.

About PASS
Miami Beach based PASS Consulting Corporation provides users with easy access to the diverse content and data of the travel industry through its XX/1 Multi-GDS transaction server. The PASS Solution World Travel offers a huge array of building blocks and components which, in accordance with the individual requirements of our clients, can easily be customized into one travel technology application. All our services, regardless whether they are part of the content aggregation, booking or post-booking process, can therefore be deployed independently. This in return offers our clients great flexibility in the fast changing market place of today.
PASS Consulting’s customer base includes the world’s most successful TMC’s, businesses, GDSs and technology providers. Among these: American Express, BCD Travel, Omega World Travel, The Travel Authority, Boulevard Travel, Airtrade, Morris Murdock Travel, Lufthansa City Center, E-Travel & Amadeus One,Morgan Stanley, Hewlett-Packard, nuTravel, Travelport, Emirates, Farelogix, International SOS, MEDEX, Starcite, SureWare, TravTech, Lufthansa, vayama.com, Hotelexpress.com, Sandals & Beaches, Vail Resorts, swifttrip.com and Costa Cruise Lines. PASS has also helped Cheaptickets.com, ARC and Navigant (a Carlson Wagonlit Travel company) to become a leading provider of travel related services.
More information: http://www.pass-travel.com/

Google Expands Hotel Offers

2011-02-11T16:26:00.000-08:00

Hotel offers on Google Maps have been around for quite a while now, but only for a limited number of advertisers. However, Google announced it would expand its pay-per-click Hotel pricing ads in Google Maps. Considering Google’s ITA-acquisition, it is interesting to see how Google fosters its travel-related services. Although it is too early to say what this will ultimately mean for the travel industry, it’s definitely worth taking a closer look.

Google Maps will offer Hotel availability and pricing and will make it possible to add direct booking links, both to OTAs and to supplier sites directly. One of Google’s new partners is the Germany-based Hotel CRS vendor Trust International which has about 60 hotel chains as customers and offers them to display their prices and availability through Google Maps. So far Google offers this Hotel information only for English-language users, but is planning to extend its service for more regions.

This might be just another step to bypassing Meta-searchers, such as Kayak and increasing its own share of the travel market. And this time it’s almost impossible to prevent Google from doing so, as in the case of Fairsearch, since Google is simply adding something to its existing service instead of acquiring a company. As huge OTAs, such as Expedia or Orbitz are relatively expensive and demand a big share of the booking fee for themselves, Google could become the better alternative for many hotels, if it manages to develop a paid business model with smaller fees than the OTAs. And if the ITA-deal should go through, Google might have the perfect combination to conquer the travel industry, thus threatening not only meta-searchers, but also OTAs.

In this context Google’s conflict with TripAdvisor is also interesting because it is another example of Google extending its activities in travel. TripAdvisor blocked Google from using its hotel reviews at Google Places and claimed Google would abuse its market power and show its own Google Places at the top if organic search results, “despite being an inferior product to sites that are dedicated to review collection”, as TripAdvisor CEO Kaufer stated.

The main question now is, to what extend customers will embrace the offers on Google Maps. So far, it seems most people search for hotels based on price and availability and not as much on location. So it can be questioned, if customers would use Google Maps to find a hotel instead of using OTA’s and Meta-Searchers. After all Expedia, Kayak and others are well-known brands and should have established a certain degree of loyalty among its customers.

“2011 will definitely be a remarkable year for the travel industry. While it is not totally clear how Google’s involvement will look like, it seems that Google will change the way business is done significantly and it might lead to a great consolidation in the industry. Therefore, we should keep an eye on this development. I hope Google will bring innovation and a better experience for travelers, but I also fear that Google might become too powerful, thus leading to reduced competition and less choice for the customer.”

says Michael Strauss, CEO of PASS Consulting Corporation and author of “Value Creation in Travel Distribution”.

So although we’re still waiting for the DOJ to decide on Google’s acquisition of ITA, we should get used to idea, that Google will be a major player in the travel industry.

About PASS
Miami Beach based PASS Consulting Corporation provides users with easy access to the diverse content and data of the travel industry through its XX/1 Multi-GDS transaction server. The PASS Solution World Travel offers a huge array of building blocks and components which, in accordance with the individual requirements of our clients, can easily be customized into one travel technology application. All our services, regardless whether they are part of the content aggregation, booking or post-booking process, can therefore be deployed independently. This in return offers our clients great flexibility in the fast changing market place of today.
PASS Consulting’s customer base includes the world’s most successful TMC’s, businesses, GDSs and technology providers. Among these: American Express, BCD Travel, Omega World Travel, The Travel Authority, Boulevard Travel, Airtrade, Morris Murdock Travel, Lufthansa City Center, E-Travel & Amadeus One,Morgan Stanley, Hewlett-Packard, nuTravel, Travelport, Emirates, Farelogix, International SOS, MEDEX, Starcite, SureWare, TravTech, Lufthansa, vayama.com, Hotelexpress.com, Sandals & Beaches, Vail Resorts, swifttrip.com and Costa Cruise Lines. PASS has also helped Cheaptickets.com, ARC and Navigant (a Carlson Wagonlit Travel company) to become a leading provider of travel related services.
More information: http://www.pass-travel.com/

Riots In Egypt – Implications For The Travel Industry

2011-02-04T12:03:00.000-08:00

Much has happened during the last days. It all started in Tunisia with the self-immolation of a street vendor that led to massive protests and ultimately the end of the Tunisian regime. In a short time, protests spread across the entire region affecting countries such as Jordan, Morocco and Yemen. However, the protests in these countries are nothing compared to what is happening in Egypt right now. Over the last days hundreds of thousand people have been demonstrating in Cairo, Alexandria, Luxor and other Egyptian cities to end the 30-year long rule of President Mubarak.

Due to the overwhelming protests Mubarak declared not to run for president again, but refused to resign immediately. Although some people died and violence recently increased, there have so far been no major incidents involving tourists. Still, it remains open how this situation will develop within in the next days. This whole development in the Arab region is not only very significant for global politics, it also shows the risks the travel industry has to deal with.

Due to the riots the US State Department ordered all non-emergency US government personnel to leave Egypt and advised all US citizens to do the same and therefore arranged charter flights for those who want to leave the country. Other countries such as England, China, Australia and Greece reportedly did the same. But not only governments provide those services, there are also travel companies that take care of their clients and react to the dangerous situation in Egypt. For example, Viking River Cruise chartered a plane to get its customers flown out to Frankfurt and Expedia is trying to expatriate its staff members. Interestingly, Viking River Cruise even used Facebook to interact with its customers. Hotels had to coordinate themselves and make sure all their guests were safe. Fortunately, they succeeded in doing so and no guest was harmed.

To guarantee that nothing goes wrong during such a crisis, many companies rely on the help of crisis management companies such as International SOS and Medex. International SOS and Medex help companies by assessing, managing and advising them on security related topics of their travelling management personnel. To access the information necessary to provide those services both International SOS and Medex use PASS’s XX/1 multi-GDS transaction server.

Of course, many travel industry companies cancelled or postponed trips to Egypt. Among these companies are big players such as Abercrombie & Kent, Thomas Cook, Delta Airlines or Norwegian Cruise Line which redirected its cruise ship to Istanbul instead of Alexandria.

“Evacuating customers and minimizing overall damage and costs is a difficult task that requires a high degree of organization. That’s why the management of travel companies has to be prepared for any casualties and be able to ensure maximum service and performance during times of emergency. Emergency plans and business continuity plans have to be installed. Also, travel companies have to closely monitor the developments in the regions they operate in to be able to react as soon as possible and if possible to anticipate those developments before they escalate. After all, their reputation is at stake, if they fail to cope with a crisis like in Egypt,”

says Michael Strauss, CEO of PASS Consulting Corporation and author of “Value Creation in Travel Distribution”.

Today, it cannot be foreseen if the events in these Arab countries will have a huge economic impact on travel companies operating in this region. But since Egypt is a popular destination for tourists from Europe and the USA, this might well be the case.

Google-ITA Deal: Background, Forecast, Analysis Of Current Situation

2011-01-28T08:36:00.000-08:00

Quite a while ago Google proposed its acquisition of technology provider ITA for $ 700 million. This caused turmoil in the industry and led to an investigation by the Department of Justice to find out if this acquisition violates antitrust law. Since experts assume that there will be a judgement soon, it is time to review all the facts, analyze the current situation and the implications this acquisition might have for the travel industry.

Google’s mission is “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”. And that is basically what ITA does for the travel industry; it provides airfare search software that allows creating an up-to-date database of airfares. So acquiring ITA seems only natural for Google. With ITA Google can develop innovative flight search tools with real-time pricing and real-time inventory and thus, Google would not have to send users to other travel search sites, as they do now, but could provide this service on their own. And with more users staying on Google for a longer time, Google will become even more attractive for advertisers. Therefore, Google would increase its revenue through advertising and referral fees. These referral fees are paid by suppliers such as airlines every time a customer who has been referred to the supplier website by Google, completes a booking.

However, many fear that Google will abuse its power and manipulate travel search results. That’s why leading industry players, such as Kayak, Microsoft and Sabre, founded Fairsearch, an organization that opposes the ITA-acquisition. They claim that Google might use its dominant position in the search engine market to disadvantage other competitors and ultimately make flight search less transparent by biasing its search results and favoring partners who pay Google. In support of Fairsearch we have to admit that this is really possible. And taking into account that Google has just launched its Groupon-clone Google Offers, which offers hotel deals among other things, we should also consider Google’s general position in e-commerce. So the Department of Justice should not only look at the implications of the ITA-acquisition for the travel industry, but also for the entire e-commerce market.

Google, of courses, denies these accusations and blames its opponents for simply fearing the competition. This is a good point in so far as Google would seriously harm meta search engines like Kayak, because most people start searching with Google and with ITA’s technology Google would offer the same, maybe an even better service than Kayak, thus making Kayak unnecessary.

“We need innovation. However, there is always a delicate balance between competition & innovation by new market entrants and the development of monopolies, which could be the case with Google. The level of innovation in the travel industry is not the highest and major players decided to negotiate instead of innovate. The industry itself created a gap which might now be filled by a player outside of the community, because the travel industry as a group did not have the courage to work together for a better user experience. The industry has been resting on its laurels. Google might do in our industry what Apple has done in the music industry: Revolutionize it,”

says Michael Strauss, CEO of PASS Consulting Corporation in his book ”Value Creation in Travel Distribution”.

Google can be good for the consumers, but it remains to be seen, if the travel industry as a whole can benefit from this acquisition. Google certainly can enhance innovation, but it could also destroy competition and increase prices for advertising etc. An interesting aspect could be the change in Google’s board, with Larry Page as the new CEO. Maybe with him as a CEO Google will really “not be evil” and contribute to prosperity in the travel industry.

Right now, it seems most likely that this acquisition will be allowed under certain provisions and regulations.

Full Content Vs Direct Connect

2011-01-21T08:39:00.000-08:00

Besides being up to date with the newest technologies across industries, as a travel technology provider we are constantly observing the current developments in our industry from a business perspective. Among the hottest topics: full Content Agreements vs. Direct Connections or Google’s “alleged” market entry.

With Airlines such as AA moving away from the GDS-dependent distribution model to Direct Connections with Agencies and TMC’s some say this will finally establish a foundation for innovation in travel distribution; for the first time since almost half a century there would be a serious alternative to the GDSs while creating an incentive for TMCs to accelerate the development of their software. Economically the GDSs behavior in the last years is easy to understand: Why would anyone spend millions of dollars on R&D of new technology when you get the money anyway? If direct connections to airlines and public battles between airlines and GDSs became the “new normal” as anticipated in a podium with Jim Davidson and Michael Strauss at an event at the PASS Performance Center in Frankfurt, GDSs would constantly have to upgrade their technology in order to remain competitive. So in this way direct connections can serve as a means to pressuring the GDSs and guaranteeing permanent competition. As a result airlines can increase their overall revenues through the complete display of ancillary revenues, TMCs can concentrate on adding business value for their customers and assuming that GDS will adapt, they will still be making money as technology must manage it all. They would need to shift from their role as a distributor who controls the distribution to a “stable” technology provider - while the current technology providers and new entrants can be the “creative” ones. There is no doubt that there is enough room for everybody in travel technology – and enough value-add can be created and be paid for. Nobody had believed that technology will create so many opportunities.

The new distribution model has some obvious advantages for the seller (airlines) and the buyer (passenger): First of all, by shortening the sales chain costs can be reduced (See: Value Creation in Travel Distribution), because passengers won’t have to pay higher airline ticket fees anymore, partly spend on GDS fees which then get in part distributed to agencies. In addition airlines know who is asking and thus can personalize their service. The passenger is in control if he or she wants consulting services from an agency (and pay for it) or not. In case they decline, they are obviously on their own on the trip.
With ancillary services such as reserved seats, extra legroom etc. airlines can personalize their offers, create value for their customers and in the end increase their overall revenues. The same goes for TMCs and agencies. They are able to differentiate themselves by offering unique content and specializing in specific areas such as winter tourism, nautical tourism or cultural tourism. In business travel there could be specializations for different industries.

Some people say it’s very hard to achieve this kind of differentiation using the GDSs. Although, industry standards, like airport codes, are important and have their place, there is always one disadvantage of standardization: It limits flexibility. And the GDS’s desire to have standards may be part of the reason why it took GDSs so long to start implementing ancillary revenues. Other players, such as Farelogix, claim that the GDSs focus on negotiating and forcing airlines and partners into restrictive contracts instead of innovating and meeting their customers’ demands. Per definition GDSs should not be involved in the sales process at all. Just like you don’t want FedEx to decide how much you pay and which items you receive. GDSs should concentrate on Inventory Management and “logistics” and not on marketing and sales. And as mentioned earlier apart from governmental regulations the only option to achieve innovation triggered by real competition is to create real alternatives, i.e. to establish direct connections.

So the question is not if direct connections are going to be widely implemented in the future, but rather when and how. As TMCs and Agencies are concerned that direct connections could come together with additional costs, work inefficiencies and service challenges devaluing their business, many of them may not be willing to implement direct connections with airlines soon. But this is exactly one of the main issues: The TMCs and Agencies have been “playing not to lose” for so long and now they are afraid of change. I think there are two major rules for a TMC today: 1. their technology must be independent from a controlling supplier 2. their contracts must allow them to choose the best vendor at any time. Nobody should be locked into a single distribution model for years while the rest of the world moves on.

However, one of the most frequently voiced objections to direct connections is that airlines won’t be able to create truly personalized offers for their clients. Since the majority of travelers isn’t usually loyal to one airline but rather switches carriers according to the best offer, it will be difficult for airlines to obtain enough relevant information that is needed to create personalized offers. This is actually a domain of the indirect channel, namely the GDSs, since they are able to collect all data of all flights no matter which airline. It would be great to have the best of both worlds, e.g. direct connections through the GDSs. But again, this is only possible, if the GDSs focus on their role as distributors and allow other players to establish connections wherever needed.

With AA pulling their content off Orbitz things have started to shift and it remains to be seen how this “fight” ends, if there will be a winner at the end and if it will be the customer. What we do not need is a “chess game” between the market players where the only goal is to improve one’s position in the market and one’s revenues. I truly believe that we should concentrate on improving the travel experience of our customers. But this is only possible if we work together as an industry.

Aside from AA and Orbitz, these days we are all observing Google’s acquisition of ITA which is strongly opposed by Fairsearch – an initiative founded by major travel companies such as Expedia, Kayak and Sabre. Of course, Google already responded to the accusations made by Fairsearch. Google argues that its acquisition of ITA will create significant value for the customer and that Fairsearch’s members only fear Google’s competition.

But even in case this acquisition is stopped by the government, it still serves as an example of what will happen, if we keep on waiting and “playing it safe”: Others will enter the market and do what we hesitated to do. So what are we waiting for? How many wake-up calls do we need to finally start to renew our value chain, let technology proof what it is capable of doing and let the market decide which solution is the best.

With XML and numerous other application programming interfaces (APIs), the technology is waiting to clean up the mess created by political greed and eagerness for power. Now we need large organizations like AA and HRG to take action and implement innovation.

New Year, Not So New Conflicts!

2011-01-14T14:21:00.000-08:00

We all have celebrated New Year’s Eve and hope for an exciting New Year. And I am confident that 2011 will have much to offer for us, but right now, we seem to deal with the same problems as in 2010. The travel industry still centers on the conflict between the GDSs, OTAs and American Airlines and its direct connects. This time, two big players, namely Expedia and Sabre, have made their moves against American Airlines’ direct connect.

First, Expedia removed all the American Airlines flights from its sites after their contract expired on December 31th and they could not reach a new agreement. Only Expedia’s corporate travel agency Egencia will still have AA flights. Expedia did so, because it considers AA’s direct connects “anti-choice and anti-consumer”, i.e., direct connects will come along with higher costs and less transparency for the consumer.

Then Sabre announced that it wished to end its contract with AA one month earlier in August 2011 and immediately began biasing AA flights in its availability and shopping display. So together with the actions by Travelport AA is out of a big part of the GDS-market which still is a significant distribution channel for them. Additionally, Sabre has increased the GDS booking fee that AA has to pay to Sabre. Sabre’s move is supported by the American Society of Travel Agents, ASTA, and the Business Travel Coalition which both fear that direct connects could just increase distribution costs and add complexity without solving any problems.

American Airlines might react by charging agents a surcharge for bookings made in the Sabre GDS as a way to compensate for the increased GDS fees. But as a first reaction, American Airlines sued Sabre for biasing their search results and imposing higher fees and won a temporary restraining order preventing Sabre from downgrading AA in its search results.

Now, much is at stake for both sides and it seems that no one wants to back off and retreat. It also seems there is still much doubt concerning direct connects and it’s not sure that this will change within the next months. That’s why it is pretty interesting to hear what technology provider say about this. Tnooz has recently interviewed vendors of such technology and gained some interesting insights:

“As we earn our money with connectivity to the GDSs, in this volatile market, it is challenging for us to promote direct connects — at least for so long until steam has settled down in this ‘battle’ between airlines and GDSs. Also our clients might have contracts that prevent them from doing so,”

says Michael Strauss, CEO of PASS Consulting Corporation, in his interview.

Strauss continues: “So here we are in a world where technology is ready to be implemented but progress and innovation are slowed down by political forces. It is as if have this brand-new airplane that produces 50% less atmospheric pollution, but you are not allowed to use it as the revenue stream of the oil lobby would be cut in half as well.”

As we can see, this whole situation puts technology companies into a difficult situation and companies doing business with both airlines and GDSs might be better off waiting for the end of this “battle” before they take a firm stand regarding this topic. Otherwise they might have to deal with retaliation by the GDSs. But I believe we won’t have to wait for too long for a decision: 2011 could just be the year when this battle about the future of flight distribution will be decided. Especially the new agreement between Travelport and Air Canada proves that the GDSs might actually be willing to embrace new technologies and allow airlines to exert more control over their own merchandising. Still we have to see to what extent this agreement influences other players in the industry.

Trends In 2011

2010-12-23T12:02:00.000-08:00

Much has happened in 2010: Airlines such as AA have started pulling their content off the GDSs to foster their own direct connections, Google has acquired ITA and mobile apps were omnipresent, just to mention a few things. Now, with less than two weeks left in this year, Tnooz has asked industry experts what they believe will be the major trends in 2011. And they made some very interesting predictions.
The following is a list of the most remarkable predictions and their implications:

1.) Google-ITA deal goes through
Although there is much opposition against this acquisition, especially by Fairsearch, many experts predict that this deal will go through. It’s definitely going to be interesting to see how things develop, if this prediction turns out to be right.

2.) Bing and Facebook on another level
Facebook and social media in general will be playing an important role in travel in 2011. The ability to gain personal data about their users and thus provide personalized offers is what makes social media so attractive to travel companies. That’s why it is very likely that travel companies will invest heavily in these new channels. Bing, Microsoft’s search engine, also has good chances to become a serious competitor in travel. Not only has Bing established a partnership with Facebook, but it also already has highly developed travel services. So, after Google, Microsoft is going to become the second internet giant playing an important role in 2011. And maybe even Apple will enter the market with its iTravel.

3.) China is the place
With over 1.3 billion people China is the most populous country in the world. And with its growing economy and a new upcoming middle-class, both demand for business and leisure travel will increase. Therefore, travel companies should develop specific strategies to participate in China’s growth.

4.) Rise of the tablets
When Apple introduced its iPad, many people didn’t believe it would be a success. As we know now, they were wrong. Tablets enjoy great popularity and some experts predict that they will have a big influence on the travel experience. So companies will develop tablet-specific apps that make use of the larger surface tablet. These apps could then include video, gaming, social media and booking. The possibilities seem endless and maybe tablet apps will be the next big thing in mobile travelling. Either way technology providers should be prepared.

“It is important to anticipate future developments to stay competitive. Travel companies should prepare for the upcoming challenges and try to be always one step ahead of the new trends. I believe, especially the internet giants Google, Microsoft and Apple along with the increasing number of mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, will bring a whole new level of competition into our industry”
Says Michael Strauss, CEO of PASS Consulting Corporation.

We’ll see how things turn out in the next months. But for now, we wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Reclining Your Seat In The Plane – Right or Privilege?

2010-12-10T12:13:00.000-08:00

CNN recently reported on an in incident that took place on an American Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Denver: When a passenger reclined his seat, he got into a heated argument with the passenger sitting behind him. As he insisted on his “right” to recline his seat, the passenger behind him grabbed his ear and pulled it back and down. When the aircraft landed, the attacker was arrested by the police.

What sounds like a rather amusing story, raises an interesting question: Is reclining your seat a right or is it a privilege? Some people consider it as an invasion of other passengers’ private space and even demand airlines to ban reclining seats. Especially for taller persons it can be uncomfortable in planes that are already very narrow and crowded these days. "Your toes will never touch the ground for the whole flight because your knees are resting against the seat in front of you. ... If the person in front of you decides to lean their chair back, then you just sort of enter a whole new level of hell" says Everard Strong, a magazine publisher in Concord, California in an article by CNN.

The supporters of reclining seats state that it is a right they purchased along with their seats and that everybody on a plane can make use of. However, some add you should not recline your seats as a courtesy to fellow passengers.
Interestingly, low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines has installed pre-reclined seats on some of its aircrafts. But they did so to save space and costs, thus neither helping people who dislike reclining seats nor those who like them.

So what can airlines do to solve this problem for their customers? Regarding the current discussions within the travel industry about ancillary fees I think it’s funny that this incident happened on an American Airlines flight, since AA is trying to establish direct connects with agencies to foster the supply of ancillary services. You can already buy extra leg space, why not make reclining seats an ancillary service, too? The different opinions about reclining seats imply that not everybody wants to have the possibility to recline his seat, so why pay for it? This way, airlines could ensure that people who really want to recline their seats can receive these additional value by paying a fee and that people who don’t want to do so, are compensated by a lesser ticket price.

“At this stage, ancillary revenues are already an important source of revenue for many airlines and their importance is very likely to increase in the future. The possibilities of unbundling are almost endless, but its potential is still not used to the fullest extent. Airlines have to concentrate on their customers’ needs and create offers that meet their individual demands. If they act accordingly, airlines can create custom-tailored services and thereby increase customer loyalty and overall revenue. Thus, additional value for each part along the supply chain is created,”

says Michael Strauss, CEO of PASS Consulting Corporation.

Who Is Asking? Customer Needs As A Scale Of Rating For Travel Technology - Not Vice Versa

2010-12-06T11:37:00.000-08:00

Around $ 22.6 billion - is the estimated additional revenue in 2010 that airlines are generating by direct sales to passengers or additional trip-related services, the so-called ancillary services. An increase in the years to come is expected.

On the occasion of the PASS Travel Talk, Farelogix CEO, Jim Davidson pointed out the huge revenue that is possible, by unbundling flights into individual services to complement other services and then pricing these "modules", such as Door-to-door baggage service, lounge access or jump-the-line. The customer receives and pays only what he wants - Click & Buy.

The idea is nothing new. Especially Low Cost Airlines have been using these additional services for a long time to get ahead of their competition and to stand out. Over the base price, this is sometimes not possible. "A seat is a seat. Airlines have to go other ways to offer their customers something special and additional services are the perfect tool to do that. "said Davidson.
But the potential is currently underused and is far from exhausted: not the customer is the center of attention, but the existing technology. The current technology systems are inadequate when it comes to displaying the bandwidth of additional services. "In the first place there have to be services that offer benefits for the customer and what he wants to buy" said Davidson.

The concept of additional services must be the strategy. Michael Strauss, CEO of PASS Consulting Corp. and Head of the Business Unit Travel Worldwide, says that this is a long overdue development, "Who is my client? What does he want? This question must be the focal point for product development. Technology providers need to listen to exactly what customers want. "Customer oriented systems offer the ability to create custom-tailored service, and therefore increase customer satisfaction or retention.

If the strategy of unbundling and instead offering additional services works out, it could benefit all participants of the value chain, especially the customer. Michael shares his thoughts about this topic in his new book titled “Value Creation in Travel Distribution” detailing the current inadequacies and the distribution struggle in the travel industry and offering no-nonsense solutions to address them.

Please click here to purchase the book starting at $9.99.

On November 11th PASS invited Jim Davidson to talk about ancillary revenues to a selected European audience at PASS’s Performance Center in Frankfurt, Germany. To learn more about Jims’ views and to see how he reacted to critical questions compiled by Michael Strauss about one of the hottest industry movements: Watch the webcast on our website .

Google vs. Facebook – Who Will Be The Future No.1 In The Internet?

2010-12-03T07:36:00.000-08:00

Google for a long time seemed to be the undisputed champion when it comes to search on the internet. It successfully put rivals such as Yahoo and Microsoft out of the market, becoming the leading search engine in the world. But search is not where Google makes its money; it’s advertising that accounts for the biggest part in Google’s overall revenues. So even if they are the dominant search engine, the “real war” is about advertising revenues and it is not decided yet: Even though Google’s advertising revenues were about $ 7 billion in Q3 2010 which is much higher than Facebook’s estimated ad revenues of about $ 1.3 billion a year, with 23.1% in Q3 2010 Facebook has the biggest share in the market for display ad impressions.

As far as this business segment is concerned, Facebook is Google’s biggest rival. It should be noted here that both companies, Google as well as Facebook started out with no real business model of how to make money: “Get a large number of users and then think about how to make money”. No-one seemed to believe at first that you can make advertising dollars on the Internet. And today they are the largest thought after internet giants.
Facebook has some pretty serious advantages over Google: With over 500 million users it is the biggest social network in the world that contains and controls a huge amount of information. But because of Facebook’s privacy settings for the users’ accounts, Google cannot access this information. This is tricky for Google, since it undermines their status as the leading search engine. And more important, Facebook has access to all of its users’ data, such as age, hobbies, educational background etc. So unlike Google, they do not even have to know your search history etc. to make conclusions about you. They know “Who is asking?” They already know everything that’s relevant, because you voluntarily told them. And by agreeing to Facebook’s terms of use, you allowed them to use this data for advertising purposes. Facebook even expands its knowledge about the users by convincing them to stay logged-in at all times. This way every website that belongs to Facebook’s “ecosystem” knows who you are and Facebook knows which websites you visit.

Google on the other hand promised never to use users’ private data which puts them in an unfortunate situation. Until now Google has mainly used contextual ads, i.e., if you search for jeans, ads from online shops selling jeans will be displayed. When Google started to expand their advertising to third party sites, they kept on using contextual ads. This used to be sufficient for Google, but the current developments prove that contextual ads are not always enough. Not only is targeted advertising becoming increasingly popular among companies, but it’s also more suitable in certain situations, for example with newspapers. In this case contextual ads simply do not work: Imagine, you’re reading an article about a plane crash and an ad of the exact same airlines is displayed. That’s not good. In contrast, targeted ads work: Knowing that you prefer travelling by car anyway, ads of car rental companies could be displayed.

“Social media is the next big thing. Nobody who wants to remain competitive can neglect social networks such as Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. Concerning the travel industry especially Facebook and targeted ads are very interesting: Facebook can become a distribution channel for the travel industry within the next few years and its targeted ads can be an effective means to reach new customers and increase revenues. Picture a college student interested in going to Miami for spring break. He will not just see randomly selected ads for hotels in Miami, such as business hotels in Downtown etc., but he’ll see ads for inexpensive hotels on South Beach, since Facebook knows that he wants to party on the beach and not spend too much money. That way the likelihood of him buying a trip increases significantly. Thus, travel companies have to make sure they are well represented there”, says Michael Strauss, CEO of PASS Consulting Corporation.

Facebook does not have a third-party ad system yet, but establishing one in the future would just be the next logical step. Then companies could pay Facebook to display targeted ads on their own websites. Google is well aware of all these facts and tries hard not to lose to Facebook. That’s why they hired skilled people to find a way to successfully incorporate a social component into their system. Additionally, Google gave its employees a 10% pay raise, as mentioned in a previous blog entry. Definitely a part of the reason was to prevent its high potentials from leaving Google to work for Facebook.

Google’s acquisition of ITA and the alleged acquisition of Groupon could also – at least partially - be intended to improve Google’s position in targeted advertising and to get a competitive advantage over Facebook. By acquiring ITA, Google gets very deep insight into the buying behavior of travelers, and could, according to Fairsearch, also manipulate search results and list companies that have paid advertising fees on top of its organic search results. Similarly, the acquisition of the 2008 founded “deal-of-the-day” website Groupon would provide Google with knowledge about the buying behavior of millions of people. With this information Google could then create personalized ads that exactly reflect its users’ interests and preferences. However, it is still not sure, if both acquisitions will be approved by the Department of Justice.

The outcome of this “battle” between Facebook and Google is still uncertain. But although competition is a good thing for us, we should be concerned that in the near future a few companies, such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Yahoo, will control the internet market. Then innovation and flexibility that often come from small companies and start-ups are likely to decrease.

Expedia To Acquire Mobiata

2010-11-26T12:59:00.000-08:00

Last week Expedia - the world’s largest travel company - announced the acquisition of Mobiata to improve its position in the fast growing mobile travel market.

Mobiata is a mobile travel app developer based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Since its creation in 2008 Mobiata has developed several top selling mobile travel applications such as FlightTrack, TripDeck or HotelPal. Keeping this in mind the acquisition clearly indicates the growing importance of mobile devices in travelling. State-of-the-art mobile phones such as Blackberry or iPhone and easy accessible high-speed internet connections at almost every location in the world have provided the basis for convenient mobile booking. Especially businessmen use their mobile phones to organize their travelling, look for restaurants and check the public transportation at their destination or simply check the departure time of their flight.

"With the pace at which mobile traffic to Expedia sites is exploding, we wanted the right team to help us address the sizable opportunity swiftly and successfully,” explained Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Expedia, Inc in a press release. “There's simply no better company out there doing mobile travel apps with the same level of design sensibility and utility as Mobiata."

One could ask why Expedia didn’t try to improve its own apps instead of acquiring Mobiata. Simply put, Expedia was confronted with a make-or-buy-decision. And it is pretty obvious why they decided to buy Mobiata: It would take a huge amount of money, skilled staff and time to develop an app that surpasses Mobiata’s apps and then even more time to gain the reputation Mobiata already has. So why should they try to compete with Mobiata when there’s no guarantee they’ll win the competition and when there’s the risk that one of Expedia’s main competitors acquires Mobiata and its knowledge?

Additionally, Expedia already offers a variety of services that can be perfectly combined with Mobiata’s apps to create a holistic approach covering every aspect of travelling, i.e., the time prior to the trip, during the trip and after the trip. In particular, Expedia’s TripAdvisor that provides information and personal reviews about hotels, travel destinations etc. and access to Expedia’s booking engine are highly suitable to complete Mobiata’s apps. So by acquiring Mobiata, Expedia ensures that all travel-related transactions can be made through its system. This might ultimately result in a higher market share and higher revenues for Expedia. The fact that some of Mobiata’s apps can also handle ancillary fees makes Mobiata an even more attractive acquisition.

“According to Forrester, business travelers already want to shift tasks from their desks to their cell phones. Consumer behavior will probably change drastically: people will board a plane without having a confirmed hotel reservation at their destination, as they will take care of this on the way there. The cell phone can become the primary point of sale for goods and services additionally sold after booking. Thus, it is only natural for a company like Expedia to adapt to this development and foster its mobile offers by acquiring an innovative app developer such as Mobiata”,
says Michael Strauss, CEO of PASS Consulting Corporation.

“I’m convinced that a huge benefit for the success of Mobiate was its 3rd party relationships with companies such as TripIt and Flightstats” Michael continuous. “So Expedia got qualified staff for high end mobile GUIs, good partnerships which also help with getting content which is not in the GDS, and the best selling mobile Apps altogether. It is an interesting package with great potential, however it remains to be seen, if all content provider will continue to provide their content as they also compete at the fingertip. TripIt and FlightTrack was a healthy competition – if TripIt however wants to compete with an ultimate bigger opponent Expedia and also if TripIts’ other customer such as BCD like this fact is unsure. An additional acquisition however might solve this problem.”

We are really excited to see what will come out of this acquisition. Hopefully, the Mobiata crew does not lose its entrepreneurial and innovational spirit and keeps on developing great travel apps that simplify travelling.

Google Raises Salaries By 10 Percent

2010-11-19T09:57:00.000-08:00

As reported by wired.com Google awarded all its employees with a 10% pay raise. In times of economic recession and a troubled world economy this is a very remarkable decision that comes with a huge price tag for Google.

What could be the reasons behind this bold decision? From a business point-of-view this move is interesting, because it shows that Google tries very hard to keep its talented workers and to prevent them from quitting their jobs at Google and start their own businesses or move to other, competing companies like Facebook, Twitter etc. These companies offer advantages that Google cannot offer anymore. They are still relatively small: While Google has about 23.000 employees, Facebook “only” has 1700 employees and with 300 employees Twitter is even smaller. They still have flatter hierarchies and thus leave there employees more room for creativity and “entrepreneurship” and employees enjoy a greater degree of independence. “Google isn't the hot place to work” as a recruiter for companies such as Facebook states in a WSJ-Interview. In addition, Facebook is still private and can therefore offer their potential employees pre-IPO stocks which can become very valuable once Facebook goes public.

However, Google knows that it’s the human capital, the employees, who are the reason for Google’s competitive advantage. Without the best employees, Google cannot remain the best IT-company. So every dollar invested in its employees will yield a high ROI for them. This is especially true in industries that are innovation-driven and change frequently.
And the same is true for the travel industry. We also need innovative and smart people who initiate the necessary changes for our industry. Unfortunately, most companies do not put such effort into attracting the best people. To invest in human resources might be a good idea for the GDSs. They too have the money and instead of spending it to secure their current market position and playing it safe, they could invest their millions to attract a creative and innovative workforce. Maybe then we would finally see groundbreaking innovations by the GDSs or start-ups they support in any way. This would not only be good for the GDSs, but also for the entire industry, since we still don’t really know, if Google will use its talented employees to conquer the travel industry.

“Innovation is the key success factor of our industry and innovation requires the right people. Individuals, who are smart and dare to think in different ways on not the same pattern over and over again. Entrepreneurs who like to take risks as risks always involve chances. Travel executives need to know that the world is moving – and if it moves to direct connects as we can see from recent news then you need to hire the people who will find ways to make technology work for you. After all, it’s our employees who create value for us and our customers. “, says Michael Strauss, CEO of Miami-based PASS Consulting Corporation.

Ironically, the only one not to receive a pay raise, was the employee who leaked the information about Google’s pay raise to the media. He was fired instead. Poor guy, but he should have known best that you cannot hide anything you do online from Google. And as pointed out in a comment on the article on wired.com: “Mouths and ears are effective communications devices. Their packets are not logged by any of Google’s servers.”

Statement About Travelport's "Myth-Busting"

2010-11-08T13:20:00.000-08:00

These days, direct connections and the GDSs’ ability to display airlines’ ancillary services are an important issue for the travel industry and each side’s opinions are diametrically opposed. Travelport has published a statement concerning AA’s direct connect . Travelport disagrees with AA and claims most of AA’s statements to be “myths”. Although Travelport’s argumentation seems valid at first glance, when thinking about it you realize that things are not as easy as Travelport would like them to be. We believe there is a need for clarification.
So, to understand our point-of-view, please read the following statement made by Michael Strauss , CEO of PASS Consulting Corporation:
“I would like to add my 5 Cents to the topic – again just to justify movement in the industry with no personal interest as we provide connectivity to the GDSs and gain nothing by direct connect – but I’m personally surprised by how certain individual try to save the status-quo and do not realize that the world has already changed.

1. Travelport: “Travelport understands that AA wants to drastically reduce agency distribution payments even though those payments already represent a very small percentage of the value of the tickets sold. AA is aggressively trying to persuade agencies to bypass the GDSs by offering agencies short-term incentives to shift AA bookings to a direct connection. But a successful direct connection will result in the 100 percent long-term loss of an agency’s financial assistance (FA) through the GDS for all of its AA bookings. Also, even if AA offers an agency an increased incentive to offset the lost FA for some period, the agency is still left with the inefficiencies of booking most airlines through the GDS, and having to book AA through a direct channel….”

Strauss: Travelport seems to forget that it is not the airline that pays the bill in the end, it is actually the traveler. Our understanding is that AA tries to make the travel distribution chain leaner which usually brings the price down. If an agency brings value to the table we believe no airline (respectively the traveler) would hesitate to pay an incentive for such value. If an agency just takes the first call and executes the booking why would a traveler need to pay for this? Agencies need to have their own infrastructure in place. The supermarkets also build their shelves themselves and don’t let their forwarding companies build them.

2. Travelport: “Direct Connect would require agencies to connect directly to AA’s systems to book a flight. Direct Connect would therefore require an agency to spend time and money to change its computer systems to allow the booking to be made on AA’s internal system. Direct Connect would also generate multiple travel records that agents would be required to coordinate, thereby creating still more inefficiencies. Additionally, typical GDS processing (i.e. availability, pricing, shopping, PNR creation, and ticketing) would be moved within AA’s platform, causing the agency to create duplicate steps in day-to-day processes. The Direct Connect process will not allow shopping and booking to be completed in the GDS which eliminates the tremendous one-stop efficiencies that led to the creation of the GDSs by the airlines in the first place. Again, if additional carriers follow AA’s lead, these inefficiencies will be compounded.”

Strauss: If Travelport would open their system and i.e. offer their universal PNR to everybody (not just the party who books a flight through the Travelport GDSs) they could actually make profit on this – if their universal PNR is better than the one from the competition. Otherwise there are tons of companies (incl. TripIt, etc.) who would happily step in and fill the gap.

3. Travelport: “…. But AA’s proposed Direct Connect solution is really confusing because you will be forced to use multiple systems thereby causing great difficulties in providing your customers informed choices. The comparisons you make every day to serve customers’ best interests – to match their preferred flight times and find the best routings and fares – will be dramatically more difficult.”

Strauss: Technology is here to fix things. I believe technology is capable of handling huge amount of comparison. If not and Travelport’s assumption is correct than nobody will be able to handle that complexity and everybody will return to Travelport and alike as the one and only(s) who have figured out travel distribution. So the question becomes is Travelport up for the challenge and do they provide the best possible service for the traveler?

4. Travelport: “Travelport is ready, willing and able to work with AA to deliver the customization AA is talking about. The Travelport Universal Desktop and Travelport Universal API products demonstrate commitment to invest in new technology that solves for individual customization and aggregation of new content not historically available within the GDS, while creating an efficient desktop for travel agents that also allows suppliers to customize and differentiate their content…...”

Strauss: And here it sounds like Travelport is up for the challenge and well prepared! So what is there to worry about unless they fear that others might do it better?

Read more about my thoughts in my new book “Value Creation in Travel Distribution” .

First Green Screen Mobile Booking Application Launched

2010-11-05T13:22:00.000-07:00

Tnooz recently reported on a green screen mobile booking application developed by Mobile Travel Technologies for the GDS Abacus. It is the first time that a green screen and mobile booking have been combined. This is interesting insofar as green screens are just the opposite of what could be considered an innovation. They use the same cryptic, DOS-like commands agents have been using 20 years ago and yet – or maybe therefore – they are extremely popular among travel agents. It seems, for many travel agents green screens are more efficient and faster to handle than modern GUIs (Graphical User Interface). We have mentioned a similar example earlier this year: Travel agents seem to prefer using keyboards over using a mouse. So, what can we learn from that?

If this is not just a reluctance to embrace new technology, but if these green screens really are better suited for checking airfares and serving customers, we have to ask ourselves, if we overdid it with our demand for innovation and if sometimes old is just as good as new. In the end an innovation has to be substantially different and has to increase the value for the customer. Thus, can travel agents really work faster with green screens on their mobiles? It depends:

“A clear dividing line between the generations can be seen: while experienced agents accomplish tasks efficiently with a cryptic screen, younger colleagues who grew up with digital media, cell phones and social networks perform significantly better with graphical media”,
Says Michael Strauss, CEO of Miami Beach-based PASS Consulting Corporation.

Ironically, the iPhone does not have a keyboard. And without a keyboard and its shortcuts even the most experienced travel agent won’t be faster than someone using a GUI. Also, green screens are limited as they only allow for a certain number of letters to be displayed, thus reducing information. In contrast, with VTO 2G, PASS created an agent booking tool that uses a state-of-the-art graphical interface which allows for the display and handling of much more complex information. The reason for this is obvious: Even relatively small graphics and pictures can contain information that equals pages of written text and commands. Consequently, customers can easily be offered useful advice about their destination and additional products and services by the airlines such as special meals, exclusive movies, concert-tickets at their destination etc. So even if the booking of a simple flight is faster with a green screen – which is not true for all agents, as we’ve learned – agents using GUIs can provide a much better and more extensive service for their customers.

Therefore, with modern GUIs we can create a win-win-situation where customers receive valuable service and airlines increase their revenues. With the over-standardized green screens you cannot achieve the necessary flexibility to do that. And just in case agents do not only want to use graphical interfaces, the VTO is able to understand written (GDS native) commands, too.
As a result – although the majority of travel agents are older than 45 years old - it is still a good idea to innovate and integrate new technologies into our daily business, even though we have to encounter resistance. In addition, over time the older travel agents using green screens will retire and then we need to have the technology that enables the new generation of travel agents to provide the best service possible for their customers.

“Innovations tend to be viewed critically or even get blocked. Openness and cooperation are rare. It is apparent that some market participants in the travel industry pursue a strategy of defending obsolete systems, business models and processes. Clinging to what is claimed to be ‘proven’ can have a somewhat inhibitory effect on innovation. Shouldn’t leading market players drive technologies forward instead of being driven by them?” says Strauss in his new book ”Value Creation in Travel Distribution”.

While other industries completely reinvented themselves in the past years, we made relatively little progress. It’s time to change that, because if we do not change and secure these additional revenues others will enter the market to supply customers’ demands and make that money.
All in all green screens on mobile application are a nice reminder of the “good old times”, but not more.

Ancillary Revenues – Blessing or Curse?

2010-10-28T09:48:00.000-07:00

According to a study recently published by Amadeus and IdeaWorks Airlines’ ancillary revenues will increase from $ 13.5 billion in 2009 to $22.6 billion this year. In 2009 United Airlines had a total of about $ 1.5 billion in ancillary revenues. For airlines ancillary revenues accounted for a huge part of their total revenues, like Allegiant (29.2%), Spirit Airlines (23.9%) and RyanAir (22.2%). This clearly indicates the importance of ancillary fees for the entire travel industry including low-cost-carriers, traditional airlines travel agencies and the GDSs.

By offering a variety of additional services such as extra legroom, assigned seats, meals or drinks, airlines can now differentiate themselves and charge a fair price for services and thus create value for their customers. The $500 middle seat next to the $80 window is supposed to be a thing of the past. Airlines can satisfy the individual needs of both leisure travelers and business travelers as they can choose the set of ancillaries that’s best suited for them. This new flexibility in turn can increase customer loyalty and brand awareness. So in the end both the airlines and the customers might benefit from these changes.

However, most airlines’ unwillingness to provide sufficient data to the GDSs makes it very difficult for customers to compare prices between airlines and to estimate the real airfare. Since competition is tough and airlines need to be cheaper than their competitors, no one wants to be the first one to reveal their real airfare. Thus the airlines’ habit of hiding fees could be a huge disadvantage for customers. And even if airlines provide their data, - be it voluntarily or by governmental regulations - it still makes booking flights and comparing airfares extremely complicated.

This is a challenge the Travel Agencies, OTA’s and Booking Engines will have to face in the first place. They will all need a new point-of-sale interface that is able to present the different options airlines give their customers and to make airfares fully transparent. With its XX/1 Multi-GDS Transaction Server and the VTO 2G, PASS Consulting Corporation helps its customers to meet these new challenges successfully.

Future developments will show whether extra charged services are good or bad for the customers. Either way it means a significant change for the travel industry. Along the entire value chain companies will have to adapt in order to remain competitive.

“Creating a brand based on values and not just frequent flyer alliance is one of the most important criteria for the future. The sales process will not stop at the process of booking. And the parties will know who’s asking and thus give a little extra to the person who changed the flight three times and bought a number of amenities. [However] Companies want to know the total cost of a trip, which poses a challenge, as the fees are no longer just incurred upon booking, but at some point between the booking and the return of the traveler”,
says Michael Strauss, CEO of PASS Consulting Corporation, in his new book ”Value Creation in Travel Distribution”.

Facebook Apps Leak User Info – How Safe Is The Internet?

2010-10-20T08:56:00.000-07:00

A Wall Street Journal investigation has revealed that several Facebook applications including the top 10 Apps have been leaking user information to third party companies, in particular users’ unique Facebook ID, which grants access to the users’ names and names of their friends.

With about 500 million registered users and still growing, Facebook is the biggest social network in the world. And about 70% of its users use apps each month to play games or to customize their own Facebook pages. Considering the huge number of users, leaking sensitive data to advertising companies is a serious issue. Although Facebook announced that they would take care of the problem, this new case of data leakage leaves many internet users skeptical about the safety of social networks and the safety of the internet in general. After all, nobody wants his private data to be traded on the internet.

Although at first glance unrelated to the travel industry, there are two important lessons to be learned from this incident. First it shows that internet security still is an on-going issue and that OTAs and TMCs have to put the utmost effort into protecting their user’s data and making them feel safe while using the internet to book flights.

Secondly, millions of Facebook users already employ travel applications to share their travel experiences or to get the latest information about travel destinations, which demonstrates the chances and risks of Social Networks like Facebook for the travel industry. They can become future sales channels and will definitely be important to gain competitive advantages in the future.

“If one extrapolates the trends of the social networks, they could be distribution channels within ten years. Travel providers will soon be trying to market their products via social networks”, says Michael Strauss, CEO of PASS Consulting Corporation, in his new book “Value Creation in Travel Distribution”.

But before the travel industry can take full advantage of social networks as an additional marketing and distribution channel, they have to make sure that their clients’ sensitive data such as passport and credit card no. is safe at all times. So one question remains: Will Facebook be able to find a balance between securing their users’ data and providing information for app developers and advertising companies?

The PASS XX/1 Multi-GDS Hub Offers Comprehensive Connectivity to the Complete Travel Offering

2010-06-08T06:54:00.000-07:00

The recently announced partnership between Hotel Reservation Systems (HRS) and Concur is supposed to not only provide mutual clients with rich hotel content but at the same time lower travel costs. This cooperation means that any of Concure’s corporate customers can now access HRS’s hotel content directly from their online corporate booking tool. Providing direct access to more than 250.000 hotels in 180 countries that are both chain and independent hotels make HRS the largest non-GDS source of online hotel content available today.

Changing Distribution Economics

This method shows that there are various different distribution economics existing besides the traditional GDS-based distribution. Airlines’ ongoing efforts to reduce costs have been moving the distribution chain. However, the issue of content distribution remains the same. Travel agents are caught in the middle. Thence they struggle to make themselves relevant to consumers while keeping one step ahead of suppliers.

Nowadays airlines begin to renegotiate their Global Distribution System contracts. We all know that they intent on cutting costs and wherever possible pushing those costs onto travel agents and consumers after all. American Airlines for example moved large travel management companies to its direct connect product and thereby changed the current financial model.

Industry experts predict a couple of future events and developments: Airlines need continuing competition and bargaining power, GDS incentives to travel management companies will eventually be reduced to zero, travel management companies still provide high margin customers, airlines need the corporate traveler to maintain yields and profitability, relationships between agency and airline are beginning to come full circle.

Besides, many companies look to more tightly manage their T&E budgets. They demand access to travel content outside of the traditional avenues of distribution. Partnerships such as the one between Concure and HRS are one way to provide a wider variety of content and pricing thus satisfying these customers’ rising demands.

The More Convenient Way of Accessing Travel Content

“But there is an even more convenient alternative to connect with HRS’s rich hotel content while at the same time enjoying Multi-GDS access as well as non-GDS channels,” explains Michael Strauss. Access to inventory and various sources is what PASS Consulting’s XML based XX/1 Server offers. This product is not only providing its customers with HRS’s entire content but also with several alternative ways to book air. These alternative distribution systems include TUIfly, Booking.com, Partners and Elsy Arres.
Due to its multi-GDS capability it is the ideal product for automated quality assurance of large booking volumes. PASS XX/1 supplies the single point of entry to all global distribution systems (GDSs). It simultaneously allows access to direct providers, low-cost airlines, back- office systems and proprietary product databases such as hotel programs. During this process, PASS XX/1 compiles information from each source and puts it into the easy-to-use XML data exchange format. Companies handling fulfillment and invoicing will also be able to use the advantages of XX/1. It allows them to view the PNRs of their customers and to invoice them correspondingly. XX/1 is of course also able to supply systems for follow-up processes with the necessary data.

Especially its high performance and level of reliability is a major advantage that sets the XX/1 apart from other less convenient solutions. If you're interested in all of the partners that PASS works with to help drive down costs for our corporate clients, you can find more info here.

Airport Biometrics for Border Management

2010-05-21T13:47:00.001-07:00

Given increased international travel, advanced identity fraud methods and technically sophisticated terrorist and criminals it is important that governments continue to expand investment in border technology. For the last years, biometric technology has increasingly been used when it comes to identity management.

Biometric identification started with e-passports which typically include a digital image of the face and mostly another biometric identifier like a finger print. Soon, this way of identification became the most common travel document for US passengers and those from countries being members of the EU. Facilitating automation and therefore enabling faster processing, in combination with the more secure and more convenient primary inspection process are its well-known key advantages.

From initial efforts focusing on the access control to restricted areas for staff members, respective companies increasingly develop tools enabling airports to use this technology in the check-in or boarding process.
A major advantage of biometric verification is that conventionally used identification items like passports or PIN codes cannot be forgotten. In comparison to a traditionally humanly controlled passenger crossing a security point biometrics provide 24/7 coverage without interruption or human error - all for a fraction of costs.

Privacy Issues and Other Concerns

But it is not only sunshine and roses. Data obtained during biometric enrollment could be used in ways the enrolled individual does not consent to. Using biometrics for identity verification could arouse danger to owners of secured items. Besides, some civil communities are worried about how biometric data is going to be used as they are already frequently traded.

"Biometrics is definitely an area to innovate in the travel industry and focus on the traveler himself. Over the years especially air travel has become a nightmare for most business traveler and leisure travelers alike. The amount of carry on you can bring decreases, the pad down intensifies, lines get longer, traveler might be exposed X-rays of full body scanners and at the same time the system still fails from time to time. You cannot say that travel has become easier or more enjoyable”

says Michael Strauss, CEO of PASS Consulting Corporation and Head of Business Unit Travel worldwide.

“Biometrics can help speed up the process. I’m sure that most people agree that the gained personal time along with higher efficiency and security outweighs arguments for the loss of privacy. How can people be concerned about data collected through biometrics while at the same time they post their private lives on Facebook. If I can speed through the airport directly to my gate using biometrics and RFID, I earned one of most valuable commodity: time. But if I’m concerned about my privacy I can always choose the classical way – and wait in line. Just let the people decide, but don’t prevent innovation by assumptions – otherwise Facebook would have never been developed."

Biometric Traveler Program Agreement

Once airports realize the chances of using biometric solutions as an enabler and security issues are smoothed out they can take advantage of this efficiency-delivering, convenience-offering, yet cost-saving approach of identity management. However, so far, there is no cross-border handling but unfortunately disjoint approaching of these desired to be globally standardized verification tools.

But a first step into the right direction has been made by Germany and the USA. They recently agreed on joining their biometric trusted traveler programs what will legitimate trade and travel between these two nations while allowing law enforcement to focus on the most serious security threats at points of entry to their countries. This will make transatlantic air travel easier and more secure at the same time.

However, there is a need to avoid interoperability concerns for both the industry and international travelers, as different countries opt for different identifiers. Border management agencies also need to cooperate with the industry to develop and establish a trustworthy and a fail-safe system in order to minimize uncertainty and risk.

Travel Booking Going Completely Mobile Soon?

2010-05-10T07:11:00.002-07:00

With more than 50% of the public using in the US being smart phones and 3G networks, the basis for this scenario has already been established and time seems right for a complete switch of booking to users’ cell phones. In addition the number of advantages of mobile booking tools seems to be infinite. Not only will users have more choices with regard to their used equipment. They will also be more independent in terms of time and location, being able to make changes on the go. Furthermore, already existing applications work “right to the point” without bothering distractions from ads and other options known from web sites. Besides, Apps can handle personal settings according to individual preferences. However, the more important question is if the travel industry is ready yet and able to provide certain tools and environments in order to enable this switch.

Face the Challenge Using Enabling Technology

“When developing a mobile booking tool it is important to include the three pillars of the booking process: shopping, booking and trip management,”

says Michael Strauss, CEO of Miami-based PASS Consulting Corporation.

“With one or more flexible and exchangeable front end and a business logic on top the development of a future-proven mobile booking tool could be done”.

This being said, Strauss refers to predicted developments in appearance and functionality of user interfaces.

“Voice recognition interfaces and devices which read your movements as well as virtual agents which automatically book, once a meeting is confirmed and added to the calendar, are imaginable.”

In case GDSs keep staying inflexible and continue trying to protect their inventory instead of innovate smart minds will find a way to go around them.

“In my mind they should stay out the front end/IBE business – they are not agile enough. Their role is in back end,”

he continues.

How Is This Going to Affect Corporations and Enterprises?

Corporate IT departments should be able to support different travelers’ mobile devices instead of company-wide standard cells. They need to be prepared to manage the multitude of sources and options. Since OTAs probably lack certain technologies at this point and agencies are reluctant to invest in research and development, a strong player from outside the travel industry is likely to step up and therefore raise the bar for competition in this field.

Parallel Use of Multiple Devices Instead of One-sided Dominance

However, mobile and internet booking tools are likely to exist in harmony. While on the road, people might use their hand-held devices like smart phones or their iPad. But when they are at home they probably will take advantage of a bigger screen using a stationary device. Obviously additional services such as merchandising, check-in, seat reservation, re-booking/exchange, etc. will soon be done primarily mobile. Also hotel reservations and car reservations will be made once the trip has already been started. In the end, users will decide, what is more convenient for them at that certain time.

Google and Apple as Travel Revolutionists?

2010-05-03T13:03:00.000-07:00

Apple has been reportedly working on an NFC-based (Near Field Communications) iPhone application called iTravel enabling airline check-in and baggage identification, advanced electronic ID, car rentals, hotel and airline reservations, etc. After Google also announced in April to be in negotiations to aquire ITA Software there seem to be signs for a revolution in the travel sector. It seems like these giants of digital business want to conquer the travel market, however, in somewhat different ways.

In their own words, Google’s success is based on the developers’ brilliant ideas. With the search engine and the online ad-sales being their only financial main pillar problems regarding the company’s rate of return might arise. The money earned by online ad-sales is reinvested into the company’s free of charge strategy to enter new markets. Due to this strategy Nokia was recently forced to offer their navigation systems for free, as Google does. Uniquely aggressive Google sweeps from one market to another and forces established suppliers to cut prices and minimize their margins.

In contrast, Apple is still only one of a few still able to actually sell their digital products instead of giving them away for free. In return they ask for complete repression of customers. Apple always seems to be one step ahead in terms of innovation and design. Good branding makes the customer sacrifice performance, flexibility and accept the premium that they pay.
Thus, at present, all aggrieved parties have to choose between Google’s for-free-anarchy and Apple’s to-pay-empery. Both of them seem to collect what they can get and might possibly even attack the established business model of GDSs at some time in the future. It seems that Google and Apple might have taken their first steps in requesting market share.

How should anyone behave now, whose business model is directly or indirectly threatened to fall by the wayside because of these ongoing power games? Google and Apple fight for control over the digital citizen, including its consumption preferences, demographic data, present location and credit card information. These two digital giants’ future is as open and limitless as the internet and digital business itself. It would be fatal for any existing player to exclusively rely on one of the two market entrants. Therefore, it is important to not underestimate the disruptive effect Google and Apple could have on a whole industry. Just ask anyone in telecommunication, navigations or the music industry.

Is it once more going to be an outsider revolutionizing the travel industry instead of the ones already established? Both Google and Apple have the required funds, the needed infrastructure and the will on their disposal, to influence the travel industry significantly.
They are aware of travel distribution’s importance and could make capital by leveraging their popularity, market power and IT knowledge. The iTravel app discovers and, at the same time, solves weaknesses (e.g. waiting time, waste of paper, security issues) that appear within the check-in process. With technology being an enabler, distribution could shortly be controlled by those parties that are actually concerned. Once Google and/or Apple dominate the digital travel sector and the belonging devices, they might soon even control the distribution process. By this means, it is merely a matter of time until a reorganization or even a revolution of the travel sector can be achieved.

Keyboard vs. Mouse

2010-04-26T13:24:00.001-07:00

Agents are faster when they can enter data via the keyboard instead of using a mouse

Miami Beach, FL, March, 26th 2010. Agents do not want to give up the option of data entry and booking via the keyboard despite new graphical booking interfaces. The PASS graphical desktop interfaces for agents are designed for operation with and without a mouse.
Developments at Amadeus USA show the importance of taking agents’ usage habits into account in designing graphical interfaces: the company has postponed the rollout of its new “Amadeus One” agent desktop. Among other reasons, this was done because it became obvious that a graphical interface would be accepted by agents only if full operability was available via the keyboard.

Fast operation combined with the advantages of the graphical interface

The PASS Agent Desktop, successor to VTO, has long since integrated this function. After all, PASS experienced precisely this phenomenon years ago with its independent agent desktop VTO. Now, in the replacement product each agent can operate the application via (configurable) keyboard shortcuts or use command line input, which then translates the query entered in the usual cryptic commands into a graphical result.
These and several other tools make the agents’ work easier. Thus, the advantages of the graphical display (easy legibility of the screens, fewer errors in selection, fast recognition of compatibility with travel guidelines, etc.) can be combined with the speed of input via the keyboard.

“We were able to meet the agents’ requirements regarding both enabling keyboard shortcuts and graphical interfaces. Nevertheless, it’s time to rethink the way of displaying special offers in agent desktops even more,“

states Michael Strauss, CEO of Miami Beach-based PASS Consulting.

“Specific promotions should not be visualized by cryptic signs. Using descriptive pictures instead, while still allowing operability via keyboard is the best way to suit the agents’ as well as the suppliers needs to realize purchases. For instance, products on ebay are best sold when there are photographs provided besides a verbal description. This may be transferable to most of travel related merchandises,“

Strauss said.

Customized solutions based on standard components

The PASS agent desktop was created using the PASS Travel Framework and is part of the PASS Solution World TravelS, a solution framework which offers “off the rack” customized solutions based on established, configurable and openly combinable services.
PASS agent front ends are used by more than 20,000 agents in over 50 countries around the globe.

The Effect Of The Economic Crisis On The (Asian) Travel Industry – Response to Martin Buck at ITB Berlin

2010-04-02T07:00:00.000-07:00

After the economic crisis revealed in September 2008 the issues affecting the travel industry were already discussed at the ITB Berlin 2009 and many predictions were made. Since the crisis is not over yet, it was also widely discussed during this year’s convention. Following Martin Buck’s contribution within the framework of the convention, that can be accessed through the summary “Trends and Issues in Global Tourism 2010”, this article addresses the influence of the financial crisis on travel and tourism in Asia.

What Makes This Economic Crisis A Serious Problem?

Recent crises predicted to affect the Travel Industry like 9/11, the Tsunami and SARS didn’t result in the expected drastic shortfalls of demand. Compared to these incidents the current financial crisis, often referred to as the most serious recession since the Great Depression, is characterized by a number of phenomena that directly or indirectly influence travel demand and spending, namely more than 40% stock market declines, bankrupts of insurance companies, banks being in need of governmental bail-out and collapsing real-estate markets which result in dramatically falling investments and indirectly shrinking consumer spending.
The uncertainty about length and strength of the crisis’ impacts as well as the lack of an economic model usable to analyze the current situation additionally reinforces the inability to predict its development in future.

How Is The Economic Crisis Reflected By The Asian Tourism Demand? – A Forecast

Not only developed but also developing economies have suffered from either reduced or negative economic growth in the last two years of global recession. Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Singapore are among those Asian economies that have been worst hit by this global economic downturn and have experienced serious declines in their import and export sectors. Furthermore small and medium enterprises fail, consumer purchasing power shrinks, and unemployment mounts.
In this part, the tourism demand in terms of inbound tourism to Asia and outbound tourism from Asia is going to be fore casted. This will be done by considering the possible impacts of the current financial and economic crisis based on an empirical study published in the Journal of Travel Research using an econometric method known as the ADL-Model to estimate the relationships between tourism demand and its influencing factors. Therefore, the demand for tourism was measured by inbound tourist arrivals to Asia from non-Asian countries and tourist expenditure outside Asia by tourists from the major source markets within Asia.

Asian Inbound Tourism

The forecasts of the changes of inbound tourist arrivals over the period 2005-2014 are presented in Table 1.

Table 1: Annual Growth Rate of Arrivals from 12 Source Markets to Asia, 2005-2014
Source: Journal of Travel Research 2010; 49; 16

After the major reduction of tourist arrivals to Asia in 2009 in all of the major source markets, from 2010 onwards arrivals from all sources are predicted to experience positive growth rates. Among the 12 main source countries, the United Kingdom is expected to show the biggest increase according to the baseline forecast for 2010 (+30%), followed by Sweden (+8.5%), Canada (+4.7%), and Germany (+4.6%). Although the recovery is predicted to start in 2010, it will take three to four years for the arrivals figures of some source markets to return to their pre-crisis (2008) levels, while other source markets will recover much faster.

Asian Outbound Tourism

Table 2 presents the forecasts of tourist expenditure’s growth rates outside Asia by residents from the major source market within Asia.

Table 2: Annual Growth Rate of Outbound Expenditure in Asia (in millions of U.S. dollars), 2005-2014
Source: Journal of Travel Research 2010; 49; 16

The results show that Mainland China and Hong Kong are the only two source markets within Asia that’s positive growth in tourist expenditure in 2009 will continue in the future, although with some negative growth in 2010 and 2011 for China and Hong Kong, respectively. All other regions’ negative growth in tourism expenditure in 2009 will be reversed after 2010 for most source markets.

This forecast is not only good news for destinations and airlines but also for travel agencies and technology provider both directly and indirectly affected by downturns in travel demand.

World Travel Market at a glance

The worldwide market of travel accounts for approx. $900 billion. Currently the US, Canada and Middle- and South America account for approx. 1/3 of the worldwide market while Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) account for another 1/3. The prognosis of the growth rate of the world market decreased from 7% in the beginning of the century to approx. 4%. While Northern America, West Europe and Australia’s markets are mature, only the rapid growth of Asia helped that overall we didn’t face a negative growth in the last decade. This shows the importance of the Eastern region and Asia for the industry’s growth.

Data Source: PASS Consulting Group, Phocuswright, Forrester Research

The US’s 300 million inhabitants or Germany’s 80 million inhabitants of the strongest travel markets in the industrial regions look like a small number compared to China’s 1.3 billion inhabitants and India’s 1 billion who likely will become travelers. Along with Indonesia (230 million), Russia (140 million) and Japan (130 million) simply by the number of people it appears likely that Asia will take the lead eventually. For us this means we need to make sure that they only take the lead in numbers and not in technology. Those countries start right from scratch – backward compatibility is not an issue – and thus can build on newest technology. Once the IT has proven it works just fine, there might be a possibility that this newest technology will also proof to be effective in Western countries unless we become similar effective. German car manufactures faced similar challenges while back. They made painful but necessary changes and emerged even stronger.

GDSs’ Agent Desktops Seem To Be Inappropriate For Industry Conditions

2010-03-18T08:28:00.001-07:00

Recently Sabre announced the launch of its next generation agent tool that will as expected offer multi-GDS access. With Amadeus (AmadeusOne) and Travelport (Universal Desktop) already offering a similar solution all three GDSs offer connections to each other’s hosts now.

Constant Change Causes Difficulties For Industry Players

However, the given discontinuity of environment and volatility of the market caused by various mergers, political decisions and protectionism along with the economic downturns resulting in business travel budget cuts, make industry participants meeting new challenges. Fast moving environments that elude any control, force suppliers to become more flexible to react on changing market conditions by providing an entire framework based on business objects that can be upgraded as needed. With this in mind, static desktop solutions as provided by Amadeus, Travelport and now Sabre seem to be developed with minor recognition of the mentioned industry developments.

GDSs Turn Out To Be A Closed System – Broken Though

These big three GDSs could literally be seen as a culture group whose members by definition have a strong connection to each other based on their similar habits, opinions and actions. This causes not only well-founded cohesion and solidarity but also mutual dependencies. As soon as these dependencies become too strong, the culture group turns into a closed system that limits flexibility and effectiveness of both the community and its members. In closed systems new approaches to processes, systems, solutions and especially innovations hardly ever appear what leads to a decrease in self-aware reflection and considered response among one another. Existing processes become obsolete as they are missing continued improvement. Their lack of flexibility interfere responsiveness necessary in today’s fast moving environment. Travel industry shows considerable indications of closed systems and protectionism. The three GDSs try hard to stick to the status quo although they should follow the dogma: share and thereby rule! Industry experts say “The standard GDS model is broken” (t2impact.blogspot.com) what forces the GDSs to unbundle their services.

4 Technology Requests

The resulting desired technology characteristics could be summarized by the following four main requirements.

Flexibility:

An application has to be flexible and adjustable - without any developer’s additional input. This could be achieved by integrating a highly configurable rules engine and generic screens that can influence the already existing workflow. Thereby companies could be quick off the mark in case of shifts of the market, e.g. the recently introduced baggage fees that do not occur with every airline.

Usability:

In terms of usability the system should be able to fulfill the following requirements:
• Intuitive usage
• Instant recognition (different content sources have to be provided with the same interface)
• Automation of reoccurring functions
• Intelligent individual user interface
• Organizable Rules by means of tree structures
• Different interfaces have to be served in a different way (mobile, desktop, IBE, Corporate IBE), but with the same business logic for similar functions

Maintainability:

Technology should consist of reusable modules and adopt the approach of Service Oriented Application with each and every single element being addressable and internally as wells as externally connectable.
At best, business analysts rather than developers should be responsible to define business processes and integrate them in the architecture. With developers only being in charge for building the fundaments the desired flexibility and maintainability might be achieved as intermediate steps could be eliminated and misunderstandings avoided.

Scalability:

A huge amount of scalability is desirable since travel technology users are constantly faced to fast pace market environments. Flexibility and maintainability already cover a large part of these instabilities. However, it is likely that single modifications will have to be done on the fly.

Next generation products from companies like Farelogix and LUTE Technologies are already beginning to appear in the market place claiming to be capable to suit the already mentioned demands aroused by the threats described above.

Ownership Of Software vs. Technology Dependency

With these requirements for travel technology in mind, and new technologies being launched that provide the opportunity to substitute steps of the supply chain, TMCs have to try to keep pace with the changing trends instead of sticking to the status quo.
Travel industry not only suggests that distribution costs are way too high and in need to be cut but also that the existing supply chain is too long. On this note it’s interesting to see how airlines put effort in developing direct distribution. Furthermore, companies will aim to switch to in-house solutions regarding their travel management instead of services provided by travel agents or TMCs trying to become more independent.
Therefore, it’s hard to believe that TMCs following their leisure travel counterparts in putting all their eggs in the GDS basket who also compete with them on the sales front. Long term strategy might be clouded by shareholder value but endangers their raison d’être or might at least cause them losing significant amounts of market share.

Don’t sign your soul away

Recently Amadeus delayed the deployment of their Amadeus One product to 2011 since they realized that agents are much more efficient if they use keyboard shortcuts instead of the mouse.

“Besides the fact that we have always focused on a dual strategy (keyboard & mousse), with our new architecture such change would in no event delay a roll-out by several month.”

says Michael Strauss, CEO of PASS Consulting Corporation.

“Our technology for front end application is focused on the new WEB/Social Media/mobile era where you need to react to new movements in days rather than years – Flexibility is key: create new rules, modify the look & feel, capture new data, include internal as well as external services such as TripIt on the fly – you name it. Our new PASS Agent Desktop, the successor of our Virtual Travel Organizer (VTO) which has been deployed on 20,000 agent desktops in 58 countries, is tailored to meet all requirements today and tomorrow. Sooner or later classical developments will reach their limits. You need to prepare your technology for services you might not even know they will exist. You cannot build a corporate online booking tool (Corporate –IBE), an Internet Booking Engine (IBE), an agent desktop and mobile application on 4 different platforms. You can also not use an off-the-shelf product since you need to distinguish yourself from the competition. Thus you need to create your own individual platform based on standard components and reusable modules. The platform must serve any user interface which is important to you – be it an agent desktop, a mobile corporate exchange tool or a facebook application. We deliver individual solutions for the price of standard software which you can own and thus ensure your competitive advantage without signing your soul away.”

The Apple iPad For Travel? (Part 2)

2010-03-03T10:08:00.001-08:00

iPad vs. Wisdom of the Crowds

Well, finding advantages and disadvantages for purchasing the iPad in order to improve the travel experience has already been done by a couple of bloggers, journalists and experts. In fact, one should rather deal with the question whether and if so, in what way the iPad could influence the communication culture which also affects business travelers. As it is beyond all question that Apple has always been trying to launch products that are trendsetting, it might be, they did the same this time, being totally aware of these so called “missing features”. What if critics simply don’t understand that this new device might arouse the long overdue turnaround of today’s communication habits, contrary to “wisdom of the crowds” proclaimed by Jeff Jarvis?

The end-user doesn’t always know what exactly he is in need of and has the desire to be given directions what to think, where to move and what to buy. Customers don’t always want to set preferences permanently, but be guided through the cloudiness of revolutionary products, rules and guidelines as well as technological restrictions. This is where path-breaking innovations get to make their move.
Instead of growing complexity caused by even more detailed packages, users are craving for simplicity. The iPad is expected to reduce complexity on a large scale which could significantly change the entire culture of digital communication towards a minimalist result.
In case the iPad replaces the laptop, as predicted by Steve Jobs and his followers, Apple’s delivered message is: communication becomes minimal. In order to prevent digital overload and loss of control, the simplification that comes along with this operating device could increase clarity, convenience and might even shape a virus free environment for its users. With this in mind, the iPad should not be seen as an in-between of laptop and iPhone but as a universal remote control for digital communication and networking in a future internet that’s likely to be less participatory than expected nowadays.

The trouble with our times is that the future is not what it used to be.

Therefore we are ignoring the question as to whether or not to buy the iPad. There is no doubt though that the iPad will sooner or later change the way people view their media and that it is a valuable improvement to the early tries of other big players (Amazon, Sony, Barnes & Nobles). Unfortunately, it still seems to be inadequate for the mobile lifestyle of travelers. However, it is supposed to serve both business and leisure travelers on their journeys.

“Having worked in the field of mobile data applications myself back in the days when I was with Siemens I think it is great that today, approx. 15 years later, we have a number of capable devices such as Android, BlackBerry, Palm, iPhone, iPad out there so that every traveler on the move can find one that fits his needs.”

says Michael Strauss, CEO of PASS Consulting Corporation

“As an application developer you have the basic setup and can support your employees, users, clients, etc. in many ways wherever they are and whenever they need it or want it. Now there are no barriers to innovations and I’m looking forward to see our applications compared to others. This is exciting.”

Since Apple’s developer tool for the iPad has been launched recently the expected enhanced apps will be introduced to the app store very soon. As stated above, the iPad is not a standalone device but could, when using appropriate additions, replace the laptop as travelers major computing center.
What Apple announced as a revolutionary new device in reality is a niche utility that seems to be practical for most travelers at this point in time. Therefore the majority remains sceptical of whether the iPad satisfies business travelers’ mobile computing needs and leisure travelers desire to share their travel experiences – at least so far. Waiting for iPad 3G would probably be a good decision as these gaps might already be closed. We also might know if and in what way it is able to influence future communication, thus improving travel experiences significantly.

The Apple iPad For Travel?

2010-03-01T07:00:00.000-08:00

The iPad: expected to have the ability to make any travel marathon easier for travelers

While on the road business travelers need to be able to access email, keep up with news and do research on the web, update and maintain websites and upload content to various platforms such as Flickr and Facebook. At first sight, the iPad appears to be the ideal on-the-go device for work and play. Supposed to be an in-between solution of notebook and smart phone, the iPad could free travelers from the need to haul books, magazines and newspapers on their trips. But it is far more than an eBook reader.
There are several reasons travelers might like to carry this lightweight electronic equipment while they are on the road and experts look at the iPad as the next big thing for mobile computing.

The iPad is about media consumption, not creation!

It'll be great for
• reading eBooks with its iBook app,
• watching movies,
• Wi-Fi enabled surfing and 3G Internet,
• referencing enhanced Google Maps that could easily eliminate the need for physical maps, and even guidebooks;
• flipping through photos you have already transferred onto it from your regular laptop or desktop.

With its enhanced Google Maps and built in compass the iPad will, according to Steve Jobs, make navigating a new city much easier while the wi-fi technology will allow tourists to download restaurant reviews on the move.
The option of additions like a charging stand and an external keyboard could pretty much replace the need for a laptop. Although the iPad will be able to run any iPhone app right out the box, developers will no doubt customize their applications to take advantage of the large high-resolution screen.
With its dimensions: 9.7" display, 0.5" thin and only 1.5 lbs. it is ideal for travel and to meet the new baggage restrictions. The most expensive model, priced at $849 USD includes 64 GB of memory and a pretty amazing battery life of about 10 hours and up to a month of standby time what beats the average netbook battery.

A Media Center that lacks important features frequent travelers believe to be in need of

Augmented reality apps become useless without a built-in camera which would furthermore enable video chatting. For travel bloggers and anyone else who likes sharing media with friends, this fact spreads immediate disappointment. Moreover, there is not enough hard drive space to run multiple programs at once and handle everything one desires to work on. The missing USB, SD card slot, VGA and HDMI makes the travel experience less sharable and could be a deal breaker for anyone looking to replace a laptop as it's going to require a lot of accessories to give it extra functionality, meaning more weight in your pack.

Seymourpowell Unveils Aircruise Concept for Luxury Travel

2010-02-22T13:44:00.000-08:00

February, 4th 2010 - Seymourpowell revealed details of their Aircruise concept in which they dreamed up new transatlantic travel routes for kite-shaped airships that could herald a new era of luxury transport. The sketches show the craft floating above tall skyscrapers, huge deserts or wide oceans in a sustainable way with zero emissions.

Airships had their May in the 1930s with the famous German zeppelins. This new technology makes them increasingly attractive from an environmental standpoint and safer than their early forerunners. Silent and pollution free, the Aircruise combines solar power with a primary hydrogen drive.

Samsung plans to take off Seymourpowell's plans from the drawing board.
This colossal craft is designed to become a leisurely, environmentally friendly alternative to flying. However, the solar and hydrogen cell-powered craft will be in need of astronomical amounts of money to actually build it.

The idea of spending more time relaxing while getting from point A to point B does sound rather appealing compared to the typical frenzy of flying. As time is regarded as the most valuable good, the journey would be the reward getting away from everyday routine!
Seymourpowell based its design around a maximum of 100 passengers on board, making the journey an adventure in itself. Penthouse apartments, stylish bars and an array of glass viewing floors will be featured by the craft.

See the amazing Aircruise interior design.

The Aircruise’s maiden flight is expected to take place in 2015.

Cloud Computing as an Opportunity for Big Changes in Travel Technology? (Part II)

2010-02-03T12:18:00.000-08:00

Two possible ways the Cloud could Influence Technology Solutions for Travel

Cloud computing is not a new idea in the global sense, but it is not as widely recognized in the travel sector as it should be. There are different ways (described in the following in no particular order of importance) to affect travel as well as related technologies and businesses.

Travel Reservation Software as a Service

Cloud computing can replace applications, hardware and software traditionally used by travel agents, so that they can work online and are charged a license fee. Agents can benefit from the technology as it works on a pay-as-you-book basis that can be much more cost effective for companies during the years of recession. Not only applications are a securer option for agents, additionally companies do not need to worry about upgrading systems as online updates are being performed automatically. The software will be well modularized and layered for better scalability based on a service oriented architecture that offers additional services such as data synchronization, metadata, charging, reporting and revenue services, just to name a few.

Image Source: http://www.patni.com/media/345097/SOA_for_Cloud_based_Travel_Reservation_SaaS.pdf

Cloud computing – using internet-based applications, rather than investing in software that is hosted on a local PC - is the way forward for travel agents. On this note, cloud computing means applications, hardware and software traditionally used by travel agents can be avoided, so all the work is done over the internet and agents pay only for resources that they use.

GDrive as role model for GDS elimination

Concerns about GDS and their role in the travel market have been expressed and it became obvious that things need to be changed or reconsidered. Currently, GDSs are not more than libraries for information: “The distribution struggle in the travel industry is not exactly conducive to innovation, either. For example, airlines want to prevent third-party systems from booking their Web rates. They do not provide global distribution systems (GDS) with full content, or charge additional fees for GDS sales, which are passed on to customers sooner or later. Global distribution systems appear to have particular difficulty in coping with the pressure to innovate” as Michael Strauss, CEO of Pass Consulting stated already one year ago. “Furthermore, the global distribution systems are battling each other for market share” he goes on.
Simply following the GDrive logic mentioned above the airline content could be shifted from separated GDS hard drives to virtual clouds, aggregating all the provided data on-line and making it accessible from every computer with internet connection and thereby available for agencies, TMCs, other suppliers among others. The potential for removing all dependency on GDS systems and proprietary accounting and marketing software is quickly becoming a reality, and especially in today’s economy, it presents an opportunity for savvy travel professionals to take charge of their office rather then being dependent on others.
Cloud Computing could be the wave of the future for the travel industry and equipped with the potential to rearrange the supply chain structure of the booking process.

The head in the clouds

Cloud computing is particularly useful for the travel industry, because of its security features and automatic online updates, which can cut down on the expense of upgrading systems. In addition, travel technology provider could benefit from the cloud, because it works on a pay-as-you-book basis, can work out cheaper for companies during the financial crisis and is perceived as the way forward and this is something that we are closely observing nowadays.
Predictions on how cloud computing will impact enterprises in general and the travel industry in particular suggest that more and more companies with innovative products are about to jump on the cloudy bandwagon. With customers’ success as the main measure of cloud sourcing effectiveness, a new community of cloud developers building must-have applications on the cloud, enterprise collaboration as feature rather than a business and new business models emerging to make the cloud more consumable, we will see this technology becoming mainstream.
The interest in the cloud as a financially viable way to “survive” gained traction throughout the last year of recession which is likely to last the upcoming years as well. This could be supported by working towards open standards in order to enable interoperability for storage found in the virtual world. With cloud computing vendors making their applications more customizable by end users in future, corporations will move unique applications into the cloud. Whatsoever, if these semi-Utopian visions will apply and what the future holds for organizations in the travel sector, depends on their need to expand their network infrastructure well outside the boundaries of the office.

Cloud Computing as an Opportunity for Big Changes in Travel Technology? (Part I)

2010-01-28T07:16:00.000-08:00

With Google recently announcing the rollout of their long rumored and unofficially called “GDrive”, an extension of Google Docs which enables users to upload, store, organize and access any type of file virtually, the discussion about cloud computing, (which lately was already gathering dust), becomes worth talking about again. In combination with shared folders, Google provides users with the ability of secure and easy collaboration on online files by storing them in the cloud. Its forerunner Google Wave already changes the direction away from people thinking, 'This is my PC, and this is my hard drive,‘ to ’this is how I interact with the web. Both home and business users increasingly turn to free web-based services such as email, digital photo storage and other applications for documents in order to make the loss of hard drives or laptops less jeopardizing.

When the Forecast Calls for Clouds

The growing demand for cloud computing is based on the numerous advantages going along with this technology, provided that it is used appropriately.
Using cloud-computing services makes it easier to scale up and down technology to handle big increases as well as abrupt scale-backs in demand. Gaining popularity arisen by means for saving cost of IT ownership, for scaling flexibility of infrastructure usage, for reliable storage of data for disaster prevention and solutions as shareable pay-per-use services, the cloud delivers the fundament for SaaS and SOA respectively.
Nevertheless, several things seem shady in these early days of (seriously) using cloud computing. Shortcomings include technology, the process, legal and regulatory issues among others. However, discovering problems with the clouds is not what requires effort; offering real solutions for inadequacies should be the declared goal in order to utilize the cloud in a value creating way. The question is, in which way the more and more self-sufficient consumption of data-heavy things could be of benefit for the travel market?

The Sky’s the Limit

An interesting analogy between cloud computing and air travel was recently drawn by Whitfield Diffie in an interview concerning the effect of these developments’ growing dependence on public transportation respectively storage media. A very good point was made when he called the benefits of commodity air travel as so significantly high that it allows us to ignore its most insignificant negatives and forces us to trust in organizations that we can’t control and subjects us to rules that wouldn’t apply if we were flying our own planes. Frequent business travelers in particular are aware of the insufficiencies in conjunction with air transportation which doesn’t stop them from using the services as they are much more economical that they don’t have any alternative.
Like aircraft maintenance, the secure base for cloud computing needs to become something that is a given part of the process and the most important component in order to trust in the system as a whole. However, in the long run the convenience of cloud computing will simply overpower the uncertainty about security issues as happened with air travel.
As Whitfield’s creative imagination strength can’t be the only reason for this applicable analogy, there must be parallels between cloud computing and the travel industry which will be discussed next week in the second part.

Airline Security Today and its Impact for the Passenger

2010-01-11T07:43:00.000-08:00

This is a Personal Comment by Michael Strauss, CEO of PASS Consulting Corporation

When you come from Canada you will realize that a whole new set of security regulations are in place since the beginning of 2010.

The single most important change is that you are not allowed to bring any carry-on luggage which means you basically have to check luggage every time you fly.

Did the Nigerian terrorist slow down the merchandising business?

What does this mean for the checked bag fee? At least this time we were not charged for our 5 bags in total (for two passengers). Thus we saved around $100. So has the government just impacted the ancillary revenue stream recently installed by the airlines? Or in other words was the Nigerian terrorist with Al Quaida connections successful in killing (or at least slowing down) a billion dollar merchandising business in the upcoming years?

At least for carriers flying into US territory this seems to be the case. It seems like the US demonstrates that their domestic security checkpoints work while others outside fail.

You will have to "carry" your carry-on again

Only a small bag with two handles is allowed as carry-on luggage, such as a pocket book, laptop bag or similar - no briefcases or backpacks.
Bye bye trolley. - From now on one will need to "carry" their carry-on again. Far terminal distance stopover connections might be a hassle - especially when you try to avoid leaving the secured area.

Interestingly other "bags" within this one bag must be clear (e. g.
ziplock). So you are not allowed to bring a headset case, camera case, make-up case or similar. I guess this opens up a complete new fashion line for see-through bags. At this time, running out of options, I traveled with a recyclable supermarket bag.

At the security checkpoint I would estimate it takes at least 5 minutes per person although you almost have nothing left to be screened. You walk through the metal detector but still will have to go through a thorough pat-down including waist band. Most items of the handle bag are inspected and some bags will have to go through an explosives test.

Appropriate technology could improve the body-scanning process

I would guess things will improve when more sophisticated equipment such as whole-body imaging scanner will be widely available but at least for now, calculate some extra time if you fly into the US.

Once again I doubt that one can find explosives or other things that are hidden inside your body or in the most private areas by these examinations. As Obama said recently: you cannot make the country safer by thoroughly inspecting millions of travelers every day while at the same time you miss to use and process intelligence you already acquired.

While waiting for our departure we watched carefully to see if they could fit our luggage in the freight compartment after experiencing first hand that this should not be taken for granted.* Once on the aircraft however we have never seen so much space in our overhead bins while boarding as one of the last passengers. No rush to be the first on the aircraft anymore. But good luck finding your perfect carry-on bag for the new regulations!

* None of our luggage made it to Canada in the first place and sat in Houston for over 3 days due to fully booked flights, while we were freezing in Miami clothes at minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit. Only two out of five made it back to Miami on our flight.

Our Top Five Augmented Reality Browsers for Travel

2010-01-08T06:59:00.000-08:00

In respond to a couple of latest opinions on and due to increasing interest in Augmented Reality (AR) in general this article sets out a list of recently launched applications which are already quite widespread and rejoice in a relatively broad user group.
Theoretically, all is ‘reality’ and all can be augmented with meta-data, but what is an understandable definition? Wikipedia (01/05/2010) defines Augmented Reality (AR) according to Paul Milgram and Fumio Kishino (1994) as “a continuum that spans from the real environment to a pure virtual environment”. A more recent and catchy definition is provided by Mashable calling AR the “overlaying of digital data on the real world”.
Besides television broadcasts of sport events, the most logical application of consumer-focused Augmented Reality seems to be travel. Think of AR applications that are location based-centric, guiding tourists on their vacation, enriching the experience they undergo. However, there are several consumer and marketing companies expected to explore this new type of layering data on top of the viewed world. Numerous locations including but not limited to China, Germany, Switzerland and France already provide digital reconstructed images of landmarks and their past appearance. Given the current reality, tourists are able to enjoy a sense of traveling back in time.

Due to the increased interest of the general public in AR in 2009, some technology companies and start-ups began to focus on providing helpful information to answer questions about surrounding points of interest or historical accurate depictions of the past amongst others. With travel getting more and more personal and visual, travelers will be enabled to take advantage of these tools to better understand what their choices are. Enriched with user generated content like pictures and comments or recommendations, this could be the next big thing in travel related social media.

Nearest Tube

The nearest Tube app by Acrossair is designed to show the nearest London metro station by using the iPhone camera, its GPS as well as the build-in compass, adding directional arrows to a real-time video, taken of the surroundings. This kind of app is also available for New York City subways and is expected to be launched for several other cities in future.

Watch how it works on YouTube

Wikitude

This amongst its competitors most user-centric service enables content creators to add points of interest by simply logging in with their Google, Twitter, Yahoo or OpenID accounts. More than 350,000 world-wide points of interest can be searched by GPS or by address and may be displayed in a list view, map view or cam view. The latest feature enables the user to share the AR cam view enriched by the additional information as a picture through the mobile device.

Watch how it works on YouTube

Bionic Eye

Bionic Eye lets you visualize locations such as restaurants, coffee shops and various tourist locations. It gives a 360-degree view of all POI near your location in vertical position which is updated in real time; when you flip it to horizontal position, you’ll see a list of all the nearest POI. This app is available for all US cities as well as in France, Germany, UK, Canada and Tokyo.

Watch how it works on YouTube

Lonely Planet Compass guides

In cooperation with Mobilizy, Lonely Planet created an Augmented Reality app aimed at everyday travelers. This app uses a smart phones’s built-in camera, GPS and compass, turning what one can see into some kind of pop-up video being peppered with hyperlinks.
There are 10 Lonely Planet Compass Guides available yet: Boston, Chicago, Miami, New Orleans, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Seattle and Washington D.C. However, there are plans to expand the guides to other phones and other countries. We think the developers should even think about augmenting Lonely Planet’s lovely travel books to provide an online-offline connection and reorder their business model this way.

Layar

Quite similar to Lonely Planet’s solution is Layar. But what makes it more flourishing than the Compass Guide is the extension that external developers are allowed to submit. Starting with the basics, layers can be chosen from sites like Wikipedia, Trulia real estate search, Flickr and Twitter mash ups. All you need is to point your phone around you and the app brings up results as labels on the screen with some information about each one. One can even tag layers for the own records or as favorites, take screenshots and get directions.

Watch how it works on YouTube

Whatsoever, as long as technology remains limited by the inability of most applications to process live video of what the user is actually looking at, instead of only offering data based images on what’s believed to be in a given GPS position which is simply not accurate enough, the breakthrough is far away. Like any other innovation or innovative product, AR and its apps for travel need early adopters to release good service and attract attention. But there might not be enough meat on those bones for these apps to see a good return from its investment yet. Reaching a critical mass of users might be disturbed by the fact that the majority of those apps only runs with Google’s Android and is still only available for a limited number of locations. But as soon as all these apps become interoperable in order to make all the content accessible from the different browsers, the value added to travel experiences would be amazing. This is likely to take a lot of tough negotiation between the market players, though, to decide which technology will be the agreed-upon, besides other legal and business challenges.

Travel Innovations and Trend-setting Opportunities in Tourism at The PhoCusWright Conference

2009-12-21T12:49:00.001-08:00

At The PhoCusWright Conference in Orlando on November 17-19 global travel executives came together to discover and debate on the latest trends and opportunities in travel, tourism and hospitality. A huge variety of innovative travel solutions, technologies, and mobile apps were demonstrated which are expected to significantly impact travel planning distribution and purchasing.

“There is a huge discrepancy of what conferences promise about innovation and what is the reality.”

emphasized Michael Strauss, CEO of PASS Consulting Corporation.

“As you could recently read on Tnooz about the open source initiative of Farelogix, the most accurate view is that the industry still lacks innovation and continues to be controlled by the GDS.”

In its 16th year the three distinct major categories discussed, could be summarized as “Travel Search Analytics and Optimization”, “Travel related Social Media” as well as “Mobile Strategies for Travel”. Although focused on leisure travel these categories doubtlessly are affecting business travel as well like stated by Scott Gillespie on The Beat.

Category Online Travel Search

As we probably all know search marketing for top ten positioning with travel industry related terms in common search engines is brutally competitive between the top twenty travel related websites (ranked by traffic) including major industry players or even companies with non-travel core businesses and other minor competitors, such as technology providers, travel agencies, airlines, hotels, distributors and many more. In order to drive qualified traffic and conversions on a particular website, targeted search engine marketing, search engine optimization, link building and analytic reporting are regarded to be the core factors of success in digital media. Besides, keeping already attained visitors on the website is at least of the same importance, which makes a fundamentally well working on-site search algorithm essential to generate direct ROI from online air fare search.
One of the four who gained their five minutes of fame as PhoCusWright travel innovation summit winner is Amadeus IT Group with their Affinity Shopper which might represent the long-term desired innovation in air fare search from user perspective. The traditional parameters to be set in the Ajax-led interface like departure date and desired destination are replaced by so called organic characteristics such as type of trip, activities and budget. Fares can be selected on a map displaying the search results which, however, unfortunately might be difficult to use, as it is not as intuitive as it should be to be usable for the mass-market.

Category Travel in Social Media

With Travel budgets under pressure companies keep searching for tools and apps to get the most out of every business trip reducing time spent on the road as well as money, thus more clearly show ROI. There are several ways to travel less but do more by using the cheap and easy way to reach out and connect with people via different social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter and online communities to reach out to consumers, while bringing in a return on the own investment.
In the conference opening speech, Philip Wolf, CEO of PhoCusWright, describes the social web as the most powerful collaborative tool in the history of humankind what coincides with results of the recently carried out survey by Bigmouth Media in conjunction with tnooz which forecasts a partly shift in spend of online marketing budget from simple display advertising towards social media for the upcoming business year. Thus, all polled channel representatives claim an increase in estimated spend for 2010 of at least 30% for Social Media Activity considering engagement in these very activities as the key online marketing challenge. Although currency of online customer reviews as well as the purchase potential of Twitter are still vague and the overall ROI of social media activities keeps being a non-calculable (or at least hard-to calculate) measure, people’s fundamental need to access information in an efficient timely manner shown by daily time (10%) spent on online platforms, clearly indicates the necessity of social media engagement.
Therefore, even conference host PhoCusWright sets a good example enabling online ticket owners to interact with the audience while watching the conference program in real-time and review the content through January 31, 2010 via a new social media interface. At the Blogger Summit Social Media was discussed as a part of the overall marketing strategy of travel businesses providing exemplary social media success stories of Carnival, Southwest and LonelyPlanet amongst others.

Category Mobile Strategies for Travel

Whereas simply applying online apps to mobile devices is not in terms of the invention mobile internet at all, the third category was focused on opportunities how to use mobile channels for more than just an additional content distributor. Every Trail, another of the four innovation award winners, enables advanced In-trip planning and POI sharing based on geo-location tagging.

As you can see and as attendees will confirm, this year’s conference was peppered with companies proving that innovation in travel industry is still alive and probably benefiting hospitality and tourism. Hence, we may rest anxious what news, product extensions and innovations will be introduced during the following PhoCusWright Conference, taking place on November 16-18, 2010.

SwiftTrip, LLC Signs 5-Year Agreement with PASS Consulting to Access Multi-GDS Content

2009-12-17T06:45:00.000-08:00

PASS Consulting Corporation a leading source of end-to-end technology and services for the travel industry today announced that it has signed a 5-year agreement with The Travel Authority (TTA) and its subsidiary SwiftTrip, LLC, a software development company owned by TTA, Passageways Travel, and Morris Murdock Travel The Travel Authority is a leading provider of travel management services and online booking programs.

PASS Consulting is specialized in providing superior technology solutions and services and is a recognized industry innovator in the competitive business travel marketplace. Located in Miami Beach, Florida, PASS provides access to multi-GDS content as well as individual Agent Point-of-Sales Desktop Solutions to several of the biggest TMC’s worldwide.

SwiftTrip provides a web platform that meets the unique business requirements of travel agencies or organizations interested in selling travel online. SwiftTrip booking applications are highly customizable and can take on the “look and navigation” of the agency or organizations own website. It is no longer necessary to link out to other third party booking tools. SwiftTrip supports multi-GDS connectivity and integrates with non-GDS suppliers using Open Travel Alliance or other XML standards.

As an authorized third party developer for all GDS’s PASS Consulting offers access to any major GDS as well as non-GDS content through its XX/1 high-performance transaction server. Any party – Travel agencies, developers, suppliers and travel management providers – that holds a valid agreement with the GDS, can engage PASS to establish a connection via a standard XML interface.

SwiftTrip builds very powerful tool s which enhance the websites of its customers, deliver efficiency for Group travel pricing (Group Analyzer), and airfare trending tools (AirFare Analyzer)

“As stated on many other occasions I think the most important fact is that we all work together, be innovative and focus on the experience of the end user, the traveler.”

states Michael Strauss.

“With SwiftTrip.com, Brian Cloud and Lee Thomas have managed that Tour operators, Travel Management Companies, Technology Providers, and multiple content providers such as GDS and direct suppliers work hand in hand to deliver success”

he continuous.

Lee Thomas states, TTA and SwiftTrip are very excited about the new relationship with Pass. Their XX/1 transaction server will greatly increase our ability to delivery product enhancements and new products and services across all GDS channels.

About SwiftTrip, LLC:
SwiftTrip, LLC is a software development company specializing in building online booking solutions and Travel Agency efficiency tools. SwiftTrip was established in 2005 and is jointly owned by leading Travel Agency’s The Travel Authority, Passageways Travel, and Morris Murdock Travel. For more information, please visit our website at http://www.swifttrip.com

About PASS Consulting Corporation
Miami, FL based PASS Consulting Corporation is an end-to-end technology product and service provider, offering access to travel content and inventory from various sources through a single point of sale.
PASS Consulting provides software and professional services using emerging, yet proven technologies, such as XML, XSL and Web Services. PASS recently launched the agent point-of-sale application VTO 2G (Virtual Travel Organizer 2nd generation) that provides travel management companies and agencies worldwide, with complete access to an extensive range of access to content and inventory such as flights, hotels and rental cars. VTO 2G is a framework for a highly sophisticated Agent Desktop which can easily be customized to the specific individual needs of an agency.

More information: http://www.pass-consulting.com/pass-travel/

Interview contact:
Michael Strauss
PASS Consulting Corporation
420 Lincoln Rd., Suite 219
Miami Beach, FL 33139
Ph: 305 269 6975
Email: Michael.strauss@pass-consulting.com

PASS Consulting Corporation Successfully Supplies nuTravel with GDS-Connectivity since 2007

2009-12-15T10:03:00.000-08:00

Miami Beach, FL, December 15th 2009 - Under a multiyear agreement, nuTravel has been using Travel Technology Provider PASS Consulting to access GDS inventory via its certified XX/1 multi-GDS transaction server.

In a recent interview with The Beat’s Jay Campbell, nuTravel President & CEO Carmine Carpanzano pointed out the importance of pooling resources with third party technology providers in order for businesses to be cost-effective.

"We're an authorized developer of all the GDSs we work with, but PASS is our gateway to the GDSs. That keeps infrastructure costs low because we don't need a specialist for every GDS, or someone sitting here dealing with the adaptors that change constantly,"

said Carpanzano.

PASS XX/1 compiles information and puts it into the easy-to-use XML data exchange format. GDS access via XX/1 also helps improving both, the number of required user accounts of the GDSs as well as the number of accesses of the GDS subject to fees. The segment bookings can be bundled as well. This benefits medium-sized and small agencies in particular, as attractive segment booking figures are achieved which facilitate good incentives.

“Those who communicate with GDS have to be flexible and stay up-to-date on the new requirements of the major data providers. This creates work and costs that are actually unnecessary. Time, effort and money are much better invested in focusing on the role and value you create in the value chain. We are just the professionals when it comes to Multi-GDS connectivity. Let us solve the challenges that arise. Just take the new Amadeus webservice or Travelport’s Universal API. We take care of those transitions. In addition, our customers do not have to pay the large amount for a developer’s license to the GDS’s.”

said Michael Strauss, CEO of PASS Consulting Corporation and head of the business unit travel worldwide.

“PASS and nuTravel have had a long and strong partnership and we are very pleased to have the opportunity to provide them with our best possible service in the future.”

PASS is Technology Provider for AA Direct Connect

2009-12-07T07:26:00.000-08:00

By providing a direct link into the host reservation system, among others, American Airlines provides direct connectivity to shopping and pricing facilities, booking, ticketing and post ticketing servicing transactions through Farelogix. The AA Direct Connect provides technical flexibility in order to ensure enhanced offerings and customized services. Flexibility in adapting its delivery of optional services, based on changing customer demands, instead of being static by only collaborating with antiquated GDSs is the most important step towards the desired product presentation and innovation.

In a guest column published in The Beat (Travel Technology 2009: Only Those Open To Change Will Reap The Rewards) earlier this year, Michael Strauss, CEO of Pass Consulting, who partners with Farelogix in several areas, already back then stated critically:

"Fearful of losing further terrain or giving away their expertise, GDS’s are restricting the collaboration with independent third-party technology providers and are overestimating the risk of losing power in the market."

Not only blaming major Global Distribution Systems for the current situation in distributing travel content but anybody not open to change he writes:

"Insisting on preserving the status quo, they do not see the opportunities that accompany collaboration with third parties."

With this in mind AA keeps being welcoming third-party niche providers with open arms. On the American Airlines website you can find a complete list and additional information on all AA Direct Connect technology providers, which are at various stages of integration development, including PASS Consulting Corporation.

Not all GDS act the same: Amadeus aggressively targets Sabre dominated North American travel agencies (such as BCD Travel or Travel Leaders - see The Beat Travel Leaders Seeks Content Protection, Productivity In Amadeus One) with their graphical agent front end Amadeus One. Travelport aims for similar deals with their Universal Desktop.

PASS Supplies Technology for the Awarded Travel Portal “Travelment.com”

2009-11-11T07:38:00.000-08:00

Germany / Miami Beach, FL, November 11th, 2009 – The PASS Consulting Group supplies the technology for Travelment.com, a newly designed online portal, that has been honoured with “Best Innovation in Business Travel” an award issued by the leading German trade show for Business Travel.

Travelment’s exceptional innovations, which PASS Consulting has developed for the start-up, include the display of all business trip related data, such as air, car, rail or hotel and booking in only one step. This feature eliminates further searches for maps or bus schedules on other websites, which makes it a full fledged door-to-door solution.

For the first time Geo-Data is being integrated into the travel planning process which allows for door-to-door trip planning. For its optimized transportation comparison, the system takes into account taxi cab, rental car, public transportation and the own vehicle to determine which one offers the easiest, fastest or inexpensive way to the desired destination. Every trip can be optimized based on either schedule or fees. Additionally it provides the user with POI’s (Points of Interest), hotels, restaurants, theatres or gas stations close to his desired location.

The underlying technology for the user-friendly portal is a well-proven component that is part of PASS’s Travel Technology Suite, the PASS XX/1 Multi-GDS Transaction Server . PASS XX/1 unifies diverse information in one format. All GDS, GNE and direct suppliers such as airlines and Web Fares are connected via XX/1 (Multi-GDS). This means that it opens up the complete travel offering for flights, hotels, rail travel, cruises and rental cars. Due to the existing connectors and the market penetration of PASS XX/1Multi – GDS Hub, there is no comparable product. Furthermore, any adapter to any system can be realized. The largest Global Distribution Systems and Global Reservation Systems rely on XX/1 Multi-GDS capabilities, as well as many high-profile suppliers from the aviation, travel and hotel industry.
The Geo-Data for Travelement has been provided by the web based solution MAPSERVICES of the PASS Logistics Solutions AG (former Corbitconnect), the logistics expert within the PASS Consulting Group. The driving force behind this innovative project was the PASS Business Unit Innovations, which exclusively works on new ideas for the PASS Consulting Group.

Time-Saving Travel Management

The newly created online travel portal Travelment.com for the booking of business travel is not only geared towards small to medium sized businesses but private users as well.
Travelment came off as winner of the online-voting with 1.237 participants (Press release, business travel show). This makes Travelment the second online portal created by PASS that has been awarded.

“In today’s travel technology market, where providers aggressively seek for market share, the Geo-Module that PASS developed for Travelment, offers a true competitive advantage. It paves the way for more efficient and optimized processes, delivering the type of experience consumers expect in a booking tool. If you want to make a difference you have to take advantage of these time and money saving potentials now!” says Michael Strauss, CEO of PASS Consulting Corporation and Head of the Business Unit Travel Worldwide.

Travelment benefits at a glance:

Planning business trips door-to-door using geo-data
Booking all elements of a business trip, such as air, car, rail or hotel through one webpage in a single step
Trip optimization based on either schedule or fees
Taking into consideration public transportation, taxi cab or own vehicle
After a booking has been completed, the customer receives all invoices and other billing data from all service providers.
Implementation of business rules
Multi-client-capability

To learn more about PASS Travel Technology solutions please visit our website:
www.pass-travel.com

The World Travel Awards – winners are determined

2009-10-26T12:30:00.000-07:00

As the premier global Award of that kind, The World Travel Awards promotes excellence honoring the leader in the travel industry with trophies in all areas of the industry and all over the world. Since 1994 the winners are setting benchmarks in tourism to which all others aspire.

Excellence in over 1000 categories

On a global level the best of the best are celebrated each year in 1012 categories including but not limited to the following:

Leading Airline
Leading Business Hotel
Leading Marketing Campaign
Leading Tourism Development Project
Leading Travel Exhibition

Votes are cast by an audience of 167.000 travel agents and tourism professionals from over 175 participating countries. Winning an award always leads to great recognition in the travel business.

Leading Travel Management Company North America

The nine nominees for the Leading Travel Management Company NOrth America, voted by travel agents worldwide, are either located in Canada or the U.S. and work together with considerable industry player like Sabre and GetThere both of them using PASS Technology.

AllTravel.com
Carlson Wagonlit Travel
Corporate Travel Management Group
FCm Travel Solutions
Merit Travel Group
Travizon, Inc
Uniglobe The Premier Travel Group
Vision 2000
Williamsburg Travel Management - American Express

The 2009 Winner Carlson Wagonlit Travel provides excellence in global services for business travel since 1997.

The big final ceremony which takes place on November, 8th in London, ends up the series of Galas in Dubai, Africa, Mexico, and Portugal and announces "2009 World Category Winners".

PASS Consulting Broadens Relationship with BCD Travel

2009-09-30T07:16:00.000-07:00

Miami Beach, FL, Sept. 30th, 2009 - PASS Consulting Corp., a leading source for end-to-end technology and professional services for the travel industry, and BCD Travel, the world’s third-largest travel management company, today announced a broadened relationship that expands BCD Travel’s capability to offer speech-recognition services, route calls to agents with specialized skills and offer other services that lower costs and boost efficiency for corporate travel programs.

Under the multiyear renewal agreement, BCD Travel is using the PASS XX/1 Multi-GDS Hub as a supplier gateway for its transactional platform, called the Source Platform. The PASS XX/1, a certified XML API, enables BCD Travel to connect to all major global distribution systems through a single interface. It also allows direct connections to other suppliers of travel inventory.

Reliability, stability and security were key criteria in BCD Travel’s selection of XX/1 as a number of client-specific applications connect to the Source Platform. “PASS Consulting provides a stable, secure, unbiased technology suite that complements our own technologies and vision,” said Hilton Sturisky, BCD Travel’s senior vice president of Information & Communications technology. “By connecting multiple GDSes into a single interface, we can target new strategic opportunities while streamlining operations.”

"We are extremely pleased to enhance our longstanding relationship with BCD Travel, which continues to bring significant benefits to both of our organizations and to the industry,” states Michael Strauss, CEO of Miami Beach-based PASS Consulting. Since PASS hosts the XX/1 application in its data center, it was essential that the PASS environment undergo an extensive security assessment.

“The successful completion of the security assessment and the continued compliance with industry standards is a critical aspect of the services we provide,” Strauss said. “It demonstrates that PASS is maintaining a secure environment for our business partners. We are proud that some of the world’s largest travel management companies can rely on PASS technology."

About PASS Consulting Corporation

Miami Beach, FL based PASS Consulting Corporation is an end-to-end technology product and service provider, offering access to travel content and inventory from various sources through a single point of sale.

PASS Consulting provides software and professional services using emerging, yet proven technologies, such as XML, XSL and Web Services.

For more information, please visit www.pass-consulting.com/pass-travel/

About BCD Travel

As a leading provider of global corporate travel management, BCD Travel simplifies and streamlines the business of travel. This benefits our client’s organization on every level: from the bottom-line to the business traveler. BCD Travel operates in more than 90 countries on five continents, with US$14 billion in total sales and a combined worldwide work force in excess of 13,000. BCD Travel is a BCD Holdings N.V. company.

For more information, please visit www.bcdtravel.com.

Interview contacts:

Michael Strauss
PASS Consulting Corporation
420 Lincoln Rd., Suite 219
Miami Beach, FL 33139
305 269 6975
Michael.strauss@pass-consulting.com
www.pass-consulting.com/pass-travel/

Thad Slaton
BCD Travel
(678) 441-5292
thad.slaton@bcdtravel.com

Read more about this Relationship Broadening of PASS Consulting and BCD

Michael Strauss about TMCs - recent developments and future directions

2009-09-22T13:31:00.000-07:00

What do business travelers - the backbone of corporations - really need from their TMCs? What if the cost is almost down to nothing? Where does trend end - when we have to bring our own seat along with our own headset? What about innovation?

It seems like TMCs have been judged whether they own processes such as booking or fulfillment capabilities, people, facilities, global operations, etc. With new technology however everything mentioned before – even people – is exchangeable. Using modern technology, language savvy call center agents are not limited by their own performance or GDS skills, they are rather limited by the POS application they use and whether it can provide additional services such as destination information, geo data, property data, value information, points of interest – you name it!

Own travel technology as a competitive advantage

So in future the question becomes if a TMC (no matter whether online/offline) fully owns its technology as competitive advantage and how flexible this technology will be. That is why you can clearly see the threat GDS (the owner of iTMC or OTMC) pose towards the global TMCs such as AMEX, CWT, BCD, HRG and others. GDS own their technology plus they provide (sometimes even dictate) the technology used by a TMC. If you want to know where this will lead, take a look on the leisure side. However a further elaboration on this topic would be a story of its own.

I can see ownership of competitive technology, together with interfaces to anything (including social media, user generated content, sites such as seatguru, airport maps, TripIt, etc.) which can make a business trip more relaxing, to become a major decision point for a corporation to choose their future TMC. The technology also needs to be able to manage these massive amounts of contents in an effective way – which means, already today, you need to incorporate into your architecture the possibility for rules that can handle and manage content which you don’t even know it will exist in a few years!

Who cares about who does the fulfillment as long as it is carried out correctly? Who cares about whether or not a TMC is fully owned as long as the entity that takes care of your trips has integrated all your processes across your area of operation correctly? I would even say: Who cares if I speak to a call center agent in India as long I do not sit in a waiting loop for minutes, this person is friendly, I can clearly communicate with this person and he or she can help me with my problem on hand in a minimum amount of time.

Smart travelling and mobile trip organization

However what I do care about as a corporation or business traveler is to focus on “smart trips”. One example would be that my trip is supported by e.g. smart phones such as iPhone or Blackberry which tells me in accordance to my current location that considering the traffic on highway xyz I won’t make it to catch my flight at 4 pm. Thus the me for the 6pm flight and it would recommend leaving in ¾ hrs. If this is okay, it would complete the exchange through one click at your fingertips.

In addition it could provide the route planning to get me to the airport, suggest to take my own car since parking fees are cheaper than the cab ride, automatically check me in once I come close to the airport, pay additional charges such as baggage fees and other merchandizing items which I usually prefer, guide me to the baggage drop off area, the to the fastest security line, the lounge and finally the gate while at the same time my rental car reservation is changed, my dinner reservation modified, my meeting partner informed about the slight delay and the hotel confirmed for a late night arrival.

The whole travel industry needs to focus on making travel enjoyable (and easier) again! Don’t forget - The cheapest way to travel is: Do not travel for business! We all feel the general decline in travel today.

NBTA 2009 SUMMARY BY PASS Consulting

2009-08-31T12:44:00.000-07:00

Miami Beach, FL, August 31st, 2009 - PASS Consulting Corporation, a leading source of end-to-end technology and services and a recognized industry innovator in the competitive business travel marketplace, successfully presented their Travel Technology Solutions for the fifth year at the 2009 NBTA Convention in San Diego. With more than 400 exhibiting companies and over 5,600 corporate travel professionals attending, the NBTA Convention is the most recognized trade show in Business Travel.

Global industry leaders from many countries came together to discuss not only industry related subjects and trends but more importantly global issues such as the volatile economy and climate change and its impact on wealthy as well as 3rd world countries. Despite the global finance crisis and economic uncertainty, many experts had a positive outlook for the future, encouraging companies to be more optimistic: Captain Sullivan presented how lifelong training and the constant desire to learn and improve will pay back at some point of time. Dara Torres explained how she trained hard during her pregnancy and went on to become an Olympic medalist at the age of 41. Jay Leno impressed the audience with a performance packed with jokes. In a speech about humanity and help for the poor, Bill Clinton pointed out how the GDS will enable people to voluntarily spend one Dollar on each trip to help pay for affordable medicine in 3rd world countries.

"It was a great show for us - much better than we expected." summarized Michael Strauss CEO and Head of Business Unit Travel "We feel that we are recognized as a serious part of the industry. Many people stopped by our booth and told us that they have heard of PASS being behind a lot of well known applications and wanted to understand what we really do. At first glance the word ‘Consulting’ might mislead many because although we do consulting as well in the travel industry, our focus is primarily on solutions."

By impressively demonstrating its technological expertise in live product presentations of its newly launched VTO 2G Agent Desktop (Virtual Travel Organizer 2nd Generation), PASS captured consumer interest and was able to distinguish itself from the 400 participants at the trade show. Several companies were very interested and informed themselves of the advantages of the highly sophisticated booking framework.

"We have been out with an agent desktop solutions since 2003" Michael continuous "and although it might have been a little too early back then it has definitely paid off today: We realize that many are trying to copy us now and are building similar reputable systems – sometimes even on top of our backend technology XX/1. However from the feedback I received from people who have seen the other solutions, I'm quite confident that we are still far ahead. With our experience over the years we have successfully overcome the restrictions of flexibility, usability and maintainability. Currently we are watching others run into the same troubles that we faced years ago. But not just on the technology side also on the business side we are the better option. So called 'patent-pending' features have been in our portfolio for years which shows me that we are one of the major innovators in the industry."

These innovations are made possible by the PASS Software Factory, a modular system, which facilitates fast and cost-effective development of Travel Technology applications, while guaranteeing highest quality standards at the same time. With the Software Factory, modules come "off the shelf" and have proven performance, dependability and scalability through deployment in many other applications and industries such as banking or insurance or even the ARC Corporation. The Software Factory with its model and service-oriented approach (MDA, SOA) enables any company to have travel technology products that are produced faster with greater ease at a lower cost.

In times of open source technology products emerging into the market, PASS could further consolidate its position within the competitive marketplace by absorbing its customer’s professional experience and their product requirements and implement those into their latest Travel Technology Solutions.

"I realize that a major point is that some of these competitive solutions might be for free. The obvious downside is that you are locked into something. Nothing in life is really for free. Nevertheless we decided to also publish a community edition of our successful existing VTO version which is used by over 20,000 agents in almost 60 countries. So stay tuned for further announcements. In the long run I believe there will be no way you can get around PASS if you want a great and flexible, customized and independent solution for your agent workforce – the obvious backbone of any TMC’s operation. I can only suggest not to take chances in this regard. You may want to have a look on the leisure side: Who owns the Online Travel Agencies (OTA) that have taken over a significant share? With us you have the option to own source code and IP rights as well. We can demo our solution live today. In the end there is no doubt that independency will pay back multiple times because you are well prepared for future negotiations.”

Asked for his comments about NBTA increasing its efforts to go global, Michael responded “if you want to be successful you have to look beyond the horizon – otherwise America would have never been discovered. Thus NBTA has to become a global organization. As well agencies need to think beyond single GDS and cryptic commands - and they will – sooner or later! And we will be there!”

About PASS Consulting Corporation
Miami, FL based PASS Consulting Corporation is an end-to-end technology product and service provider, offering access to travel content and inventory from various sources through a single point of sale. PASS Consulting provides software and professional services using emerging, yet proven technologies, such as XML, XSL and Web Services.
With its unique and compelling approach, at NBTA PASS was able to stand out by providing a total package of Travel Technology Solutions consisting of:

XX/1 Multi-GDS Transaction Server , a platform that integrates all source systems (Multi-GDS, direct connections, proprietary databases) and makes them available via a single XML interface.

XX/1 Geo-Traveler, an intelligent booking module for business travelers, using Geo-Data (no license fees for Geo-Data providers!). It focuses not only on booking trips from airport to airport, but optimizes them based on your doorstep and your actual hotel / meeting / dining location. It also offers the logistics: Transportation comparison for routes to/ from the airport or meeting locations, based on schedule and fees. Additionally it shows POI’s (Points of Interest), hotels, restaurants, theatres or gas stations close to the desired location.

VTO 2G (Virtual Travel Organizer, 2nd Generation) which provides travel management companies and agencies worldwide with complete access to an extensive range of content and inventory such as flights, hotels and rental cars. VTO 2G is a framework for a highly sophisticated Agent Desktop (Agent POS) which can easily be customized to the specific needs of any agency.

IBE (Internet Booking Engine), a ready-to-use online booking system that travel agencies can quickly and easily integrate into their own Web site.

PASS Corporate IBE, an intelligent booking system which facilitates dramatic cost reduction while enabling the optimization of the travel management process for the entire company. With the Corporate IBE, any travel department can book their business travel fully independently.

More information: http://www.pass-consulting.com/pass-travel/
Interview contact:
Michael Strauss
PASS Consulting Corporation
420 Lincoln Rd., Suite 219
Miami Beach, FL 33139
Ph: 305 269 6975
Email: Michael.strauss@pass-consulting.com
Web: http://www.pass-consulting.com/pass-travel/

VTO 2G - Your Individual Agent Point of Sale Product

2009-08-28T14:18:00.000-07:00

The new agents‘ point of sale front-end, VTO 2G, provides travel agents and
travel management companies (TMCs) worldwide with access to booking
functions for flights, hotels and car rentals.

In conjunction with a back-end system, the XX/1 Travel Interface Manager,
which facilitates connections to all GDS, GNE and direct connect, travel
agents become independent of their technology suppliers and thus regain
control of the technology they use.

Read more about the new product on http://www.pass-consulting.com/pass-travel/

PASS XX/1 XML Application Server – a high performance XML Transaction Server

2009-08-27T09:42:00.000-07:00

PASS XX/1 XML Application Server – a high performance XML Transaction Server was specifically designed for the requirements in the travel industry.

This middleware component provides you with a standardized interface to all major Global Distribution Systems (GDS, CRS) as well as other consolidated content providers.

XX/1 Server Overview

The XX/1 XML Application Server is a high performance transaction server that can be used for data distribution, document exchange and business procedure processing.

Messages and business functions are normalized and standardized in form of XML Business Object Documents ("BOD") according to the recommendations of the Open Applications Group Integration Specification (OAGIS). The root node of the document designates the business function or message with a corresponding version number as attribute. Message flow is directed through XML Transaction Control Headers ("TC") - they can be client or server driven. BODs are defined and published through XML Schemas ("XSD"). The Remote Procedure Call ("RPC") interface is simplified and implements the following methods with few abstract string parameters that contain the BODs and TCs:

· GetSession - obtains a session context (optional)

· Transaction - executes a BOD using session context or none (stateless)

· ReleaseSession - releases a session obtained with GetSession

The overall design is consistent with Web Services recommendations and allows for quick creation of Web Services Description Language ("WSDL") documents. Data and business process integrity is preserved at all times.

The XX/1 Server framework is highly modular and provides comprehensive support for adding technologies and implementing new standards.

Data sources and legacy systems of any type and format (such as EDI) can be integrated easily in short time frames at moderate costs using the XX/1 Server SDK and productivity tools.

The XX/1 Server software was entirely written in ANSI C++ and is available for Windows, Linux and UNIX platforms.....read more.

Agent Desktop - Point of Sale

2009-08-26T09:33:00.000-07:00

read more at http://www.pass-travel.com/

You need an agent desktop point of sale?

Have a look at the agent desktop point of sale solution of PASS Consulting!

To have an Agent desktop point of sale with a multi GDS access is the basis of offering your clients the best fares possible.

If you have an agent desktop that has a single point of sale, you are able to stay competitive.

To read more about possible solutions for an agent desktop point of sale, click on more information for your agent desktop point of sale solution!

Learn also more about our new product: PASS VTO 2G Agent -POS

PASS Virtual Travel Organizer VTO 2G is a modular booking application for travel agencies and service providers with complete access to an extensive range of content and inventory such as flights, hotels and rental cars.

PASS Consulting Corporation is exhibiting at the NBTA 2009

2009-08-26T08:39:00.000-07:00

PASS Consulting Corporation is exhibiting at the NBTA 2009 Convention, August 23th – August 26th in San Diego. We will be located in Booth #3319.

PASS Consulting Corporation is an end-to-end technology product and service provider that meets the needs of travel industry.

Our most notable products are XX/1 Transaction server that offers content and inventory from various sources, such Amadeus, Abacus, Galileo/Apollo, Sabre, Wordspan, GNE, the Web, consolidator and negotiated fare databases.

XX/1 Geo-Traveler, the newest intelligent booking module for business travelers, using Geo-Data (no license fees for Geo-Data providers!). It focuses not only on booking trips from airport to airport, but optimizes them based on your doorstep and your actual hotel / meeting / dining location. It also offers the logistics: Transportation comparison for routes to/ from the airport or meeting locations, based on schedule and fees. Additionally it shows POI’s (Points of Interest), hotels, restaurants, theatres or gas stations close to the desired location.

PASS VTO 2 Agent front end system offers integrated customer and organization profiling, individualized look and feel, and adjustable profit margins.

And finally, IBE our consumer focused Internet Booking Engine that offers sophisticated pricing/faring, advance fare management system and much more.

For more information we encourage to visit our website http://www.pass-consulting.com/pass-travel/ and view our Interactive Demo OR contact us directly at 305-269-6975 to schedule a meeting with our representatives during the Exhibition.

We are looking forward to meeting you.

With kind regards,

The PASS Consulting Team.

PASS Consulting Introduces Intelligent Booking Module XX/1 Geo-Traveler for Business Travelers

2009-08-25T13:08:00.000-07:00

Miami Beach, FL, August 26th, 2009 – PASS Consulting Corporation a leading source of end-to-end technology and services and a recognized industry innovator in the competitive business travel marketplace. The PASS Travel Technology Suite consists of:

The PASS XX/1 Multi-GDS Transaction Server is a platform that integrates all source systems (Multi-GDS, direct connections, proprietary databases) and makes them available via a single XML interface.

XX/1 Geo-Traveler, the newest intelligent booking module for business travelers, using Geo-Data (no license fees for Geo-Data providers!). It focuses not only on booking trips from airport to airport, but optimizes them based on your doorstep and your actual hotel / meeting / dining location. It also offers the logistics: Transportation comparison for routes to/ from the airport or meeting locations, based on schedule and fees. Additionally it shows POI’s (Points of Interest), hotels, restaurants, theatres or gas stations close to the desired location.

PASS VTO 2G (Virtual Travel Organizer, 2nd Generation) which provides travel management companies and agencies worldwide, with complete access to an extensive range of content and inventory such as flights, hotels and rental cars. VTO 2G is a framework for a highly sophisticated Agent Desktop (Agent POS) which can easily be customized to the specific needs of any agency.

PASS Internet Booking Engine (IBE), a ready-to-use online booking system that travel agencies can quickly and easily integrate in their own Web site.

PASS Corporate IBE, an intelligent booking system which facilitates dramatic cost reduction while enabling the optimization of the travel management process for the entire company. With the Corporate IBE, any travel department can book their business travel fully independent.
“We are very pleased with the recent developments,” says Michael Strauss, CEO of PASS Consulting Corp. and head of the business unit Travel worldwide.”With our broad portfolio of Travel Technology products, we can provide all the pieces and advanced features for exciting new products and projects in the future.”

PASS’s already impressive customer base includes some of the world’s most successful TMC’s. The continuous growth in customers is a tribute to the company’s successful focus on innovation in the field of Travel Technology solutions. Recently PASS announced that it was able to further broaden strategic relationships with BCD Travel and SwiftTrip.com, LLC. (Owned by The Travel Authority (TTA), Passageways Travel, and Morris Murdock with controlling interest owned by TTA) and signed multi-year agreements for the use of XX/1.

About PASS Consulting Corporation

Miami, FL based PASS Consulting Corporation is an end-to-end technology product and service provider, offering access to travel content and inventory from various sources through a single point of sale. PASS Consulting provides software and professional services using emerging, yet proven technologies, such as XML, XSL and Web Services.

More information: http://www.pass-consulting.com/pass-travel/

Interview contact:

Michael Strauss
PASS Consulting Corporation
420 Lincoln Rd., Suite 219
Miami Beach, FL 33139
Ph: 305 269 6975
Email: Michael.strauss@pass-consulting.com
Web: http://www.pass-consulting.com/pass-travel/

PASS Consulting is exhibiting at the NBTA 2009, San Diego

2009-08-24T07:02:00.000-07:00

PASS Consulting Corporation is exhibiting at the NBTA 2009 Convention, August 23th – August 26th in San Diego. We will be located in Booth #3319.

PASS Consulting Corporation is an end-to-end technology product and service provider that meets the needs of travel industry. Our most notable products are XX/1 Transaction server that offers content and inventory from various sources, such Amadeus, Abacus, Galileo/Apollo, Sabre, Wordspan, GNE, the Web, consolidator and negotiated fare databases. PASS VTO 2 Agent front end system offers integrated customer and organization profiling, individualized look and feel, and adjustable profit margins. And finally, IBE our consumer focused Internet Booking Engine that offers sophisticated pricing/faring, advance fare management system and much more.

For more information we encourage to visit our website http://www.pass-consulting.com/pass-travel/ and view our Interactive Demo OR contact us directly at 305-269-6975 to schedule a meeting with our representatives during the Exhibition.

We are looking forward to meeting you.
With kind regards,
The PASS Consulting Team.

Successful Travel Management with our Solutions!

2009-07-31T12:03:00.000-07:00

PASS XX/1 Multi-GDS/GNE Hub ExchangeServer

The PASS XX/1 transaction server offers access to all GDSs (Amadeus, Sabre, Abacus, Galileo/Apollo/Worldspan) as standard.

If required,XX/1 will also use alternative distribution channels,thus completing our product range withprices obtained directly from the airlines, hotels, rental car companies, railways and evenWeb fares. Providers of travel content thushave convenient access to the entire range oftravel products and services on offer via a singleinterface. Thus XX/1 displays the various data formats of the individual distribution systems via a uniform interface that uses the industry standard XML. This means that ac lient system that accesses content via PASS XX/1 only needs to understand this metalanguage.This reduces our customers' developmentcosts by more than 75 percent and maintenance costs are eliminated almost completely. The optional TourAvail interface is particularly popular in Germany, as it allows travel providers to add scheduled flights to theirpackage deals. The session management of XX/1 provides customers with optimized connections so that they don't have to worry about keep-alive activities. All transactions with back-end systems are compressed and encrypted. Terminal addresses are collected in a meta-pool andallocated only as required. The modular design as well as the graphic integration and monitoring tools ensure easy operation. This modularityf acilitates the development of further interfaces for any system, for example as links to additional back-office applications or businesspartners. Even complicated interface scenarios can be implemented very quickly. XX/1 is available for Windows as well as UNIX/Linux platforms. The connection to the partner system or front-end application ensuesv ia Web services, which prevents protocol and technological problems. PASS XX/1 is operatedat the client’s site or as a hosted solution at the PASS data center.

Facing the Challenge - Easy Access to the World of Travel

2009-07-31T10:52:00.000-07:00

Innovation – mostly achieved by young and ambitious trendsetters - is lagging behind specifically in the travel industry.

While some companies are hanging on to inherited market share, antiquated applications and traditional distribution channels, they are sure to miss the opportunities that change as well as talented young people can bring.

We create Synergies between the latest IT-Trends and your Requirements

We listen! Here at PASS Consulting our main focus is understanding your specific business to then create an IT-solution customized specifically for you - at the price of standard software. Our Travel World lets you fully determine which modules and features are vital to elevate your business to the next level.

PASS Consulting – Always a Pioneer in Travel Technology

Back in 2000 we were first to introduce XML to travel distribution; In 2002 we introduced our first mobile travel service for cell phones; In 2004 we presented the first graphical Point-of-Sale (POS); And now, in 2008, PASS Consulting again paves the road towards a new milestone in travel technology: Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) - the new wave in IT. The PASS Virtual Software Factory generates most of your application. Manual programming is reduced to less than 10%. The goal is for business analysts to not only design but also “develop” IT applications. This will surely become a focal point for every organization going forward.

Travel Content and Inventory from various Sources through one Interface

We offer Multi-GDS access to travel content and inventory from various sources through one interface. PASS XX/1 displays GDS data formats via web services as a uniform XML. In addition with our 2008 Software Factory we have the ability to create a POS application that meets all of your needs. No lengthy gap analysis - You request it, we make it.

Clients who trust in PASS Technology address 75% of the Global Travel Market

Our target market encompasses any business which requires access to a GDS and/ or supplemental content for travel reservation, booking or management purposes. If your operation as a TMC, Developer, Technology Provider, Supplier or an Enterprise requires access to PNR, make sure to contact us today. Success is not a Coincidence, it is the Result of Hard Work. Our chief aim is your success. We bring more than 27 years of experience to our clients. Nevertheless we are constantly preparing for tomorrows’ solutions. Because those who are not still striving today, will not even be heard of tomorrow.

[1] The Beat „April 28, 2008“ about a recent PhocusWright Report

Business relationship with Airlines Reporting Corporation ARC

2009-07-22T12:29:00.000-07:00

PASS and ARC renewed their Successful Business Relationship and installed a Center of Excellence

Miami/Arlington, January 22, 2009 - PASS Consulting Corporation, a leading source for end-to-end technology and professional services for the travel industry, has announced that it has augmented its business relationship with Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC) by installing a Center of Excellence on ARC premises.

“The PASS Center of Excellence (CoE), a representative office installed in July 2008, provides ARC staff with product-related expertise and training. This ultimately enables ARC to carry out maintenance and enhancements by themselves using PASS proprietary software development tools. Consequently ARC is provided with methodologies which perfectly fit to manage new challenges while at the same time ensuring the ability to respond quickly to changes of business demands or technology. In other words ARC is now able to maintain and modify a product that was originally built by PASS, on its own using the newest technology tools. “Originally these tools have been developed by our research & development department to provide high competitive advantages for our own products and turnkey projects.” says Michael Strauss, CEO of PASS Consulting Corporation & Head of Business Unit Travel Worldwide.

ARC benefits from the sophisticated PASS Virtual Software Factory (VSF), which allows for more than 80% of the code to be generated on basis of templates and proofed models.

Manufacturing cars in an assembly line has been a standard for years in the automotive industry. But even for software suppliers and IT-shops industrial methods sound very promising:

Modern code-generators work based on the Model Driven Development (MDD) and Model Driven Architecture (MDA) principles to further automate the development of applications. Unlike a human programmer, code generators always adhere to preset coding policies; architecture and components are already precisely defined in advance. An essential part of MDA driven concepts is the use of abstract models. Although they merely represent the functional core of an application, no particular language or architecture is required. Highly automated processes, standardization and the modular structure of the Virtual Software Factory ensure the productivity and quality of its developments, while guaranteeing lower costs and shorter project running times. At the same time every client receives an individual solution, in accordance to his specific requirements.

Background
In mid September 2006 PASS was awarded with the creation of the ARC Memo Manager. – A web-based product that automates and improves the current memo distribution and settlement process for both carriers and agencies. The ARC Memo Manager provides an easy way for carriers and travel professionals to electronically process and settle memos. This one-stop application allows processing of both debit and credit memos, two-way communication, and electronic payment. Data is housed in a secure central repository where it remains available for review within ARC Memo Manager for 39 months. The elimination of paper-based processes, reduction of distribution and settlement costs and the improvement of cash flow through electronic payment and faster communication are only a few of the key benefits users can expect by implementing the Memo Manager

In only 6 months, PASS was able to create an application with 5,000 DIPS, a method used to measure and validate the deployed effort when designing a software application, where usually more than a year would be needed. This record-breaking pace for the development of the application was only made possible by the PASS Virtual Software Factory which ensures productivity and quality in software development through a high degree of automation, standardization, its component principle and the ability to develop schemes without typing a single line of code. After several months of intensive testing and usability tests the ARC Memo Manager was officially launched on Aug 9th 2007. This was only the first of many milestones in a successful business relationship “The project worked out very well in spite of the great distance of all its team members.” said Doug Mangold, Director of Product Management for ARC’s Industry Products and Services business line. “PASS demonstrated outstanding response times and always kept the success of the project in mind and we value our long-term relationship with PASS.”

In early 2008 the relationship was faced with the general economic slowdown in airline travel and an USD/Euro exchange rate counterbalancing the profitability of developments carried out in Germany. Forced to become creative the idea of installing PASS productivity tools outside their premises, on ARC grounds, was born. This way ARC employees themselves can increase ARC’s productivity while at the same time maintain the high quality standard of automatically generated software along with model driven architecture. This is the first time that PASS allows one of its clients to take advantage of their productivity tools. “It took some time to persuade both internal folks at PASS as well as decision makers at ARC to support this idea. In the beginning, PASS was hesitant giving away its competitive advantage – while ARC was cautious about coming overly dependent. However, in the end all concerns have been addressed and it has been working out great” says Michael Strauss. “It took us less than a month of training with the PASS software factory and we were able to support the product with minimal support from PASS. PASS came to our offices in Arlington, installed everything in days and began training. A change request was implemented in a matter of days which we originally scheduled for weeks. We are continuing to dig deeper into the VSF and expanding the number of people at ARC who can work with the VSF. ARC’s technical resources have also been able to provide valuable feedback to PASS for continued improvement in the VSF.” says Doug Mangold. “At the same time we also installed a Center of Excellence in our office on Miami Beach to carry out a first project for the European Union. With this way of software development there are no limits” says Michael Strauss with excitement about his booming US location

About PASS Consulting Corporation
Miami Beach, FL based PASS Consulting Corporation is an end-to-end technology product and service provider, offering access to travel content and inventory from various sources through a single point-of-sale. PASS Consulting provides software and professional services using emerging, yet proven technologies, such as XML, XSL and Web Services along with SOA and MDA standards.
About ARC
ARC is a technology solutions company providing transaction settlement and data information services. Airlines, travel agencies, corporate travel departments, railroads, and other travel suppliers process more than $80 billion annually through ARC’s world-class settlement system, making it the financial backbone of travel distribution. ARC COMPASS®, the leading, trusted source for travel transaction information, powers data and analytical tools that help ARC customers make confident business decisions. For more information, please visit http://www.arccorp.com/

Sabre Travel Network - Pass signs new authorized developer agreement

2009-07-21T07:18:00.000-07:00

Sabre Travel network:

Travel Market - Online Travel Agencies

2009-07-20T08:33:00.000-07:00

Travel Market - Online Travel Agencies

Michael Strauss, CEO of PASS Consulting Corporation, says

“Online travel agencies are facing tough times in the business travel segment"

Miami, Florida, 3 December 2007 – Originally, Phocus Wright had forecasted dynamic growth in the corporate segment, especially for the online travel agencies (OTAs), while a slower growth rate was predicted for the direct distributors among the service providers. In their current "Seventh Online Travel Overview", the analysts have corrected their forecasts: the growth rates of the OTAs are stagnating. This change confirmed the predictions of Michael Strauss, CEO of PASS Consulting Corporation and author of "ComPASS 2007 – Trends in the Travel Industry": "The business travel segment is now experiencing the same trend as the leisure segment, i.e., direct distributors are outperforming the online agencies. In fact, metasearch engines are the unknown factor currently creating suspense among competitors.

According to a current study by Topaz International, the large corporations are achieving the best value for money both offline and online thanks to the support of travel management companies (TMCs). In the corporate sector, online travel agencies and direct distributors are thus battling primarily for the business travelers of small to medium size companies: these travelers are often on the road, know their destinations well and prefer certain airlines, types of aircraft, seating arrangements and particular hotel chains. They don't want to be told what they have to book and where they have to do it. They're looking for flexibility, but want certain standards as well. In other words, they don't necessarily want the cheapest offer, but rather a good product at a fair price.

The online travel agencies are generally unable to meet this challenge; usually they search only the inventory supplied by their regular content providers for low-priced offers. The direct distributors of airlines, hotels or rental cars, on the other hand, offer the best terms for business travelers' needs. The only hurdle is the tedious research on the World Wide Web – who has the time these days to check all the available alternatives for each trip manually

This is where the metasearch engines come into play: they offer state-of-the-art technology and evaluate not only the prices but the quality and scope of service of the products as well. Thus users can easily compare opportunities and costs for changes in travel plans, seat reservations or upgrades. The trips are then purchased directly from the suppliers, whose offers are significantly better represented in the independent search engines than in the online travel agencies, as representatives of American Airlines or the Preferred Hotel Group confirm, for example. They are also compared with low-price suppliers in the independent search engines, but the results simultaneously detail the differences in performance.

There is a clear trend towards direct distribution. So why is acceptance of metasearch engines increasing only slowly? This is easily explained. First, the online travel agencies established themselves in the market at the end of the 1990s, while the search engines have been taken seriously only since 2004. Second, the online agencies rely on aggressive marketing, while the neutral competition (currently) lacks the funds to pursue this option. Despite this, the metasearch engines have put in a convincing performance. Marketing Researchers at California State University of Dominguez Hills, proved on the end customer side that user loyalty is significantly higher for the metasearch engines than for the online travel agencies. And it's only a question of time until the metasearch engines also discover the business travel segment.”

About PASS Consulting

PASS Consulting Corporation, based in Miami, Florida, is an end-to-end technology product and service provider offering access to travel content and inventory from various sources through a single point of sale. Our top products include our graphical user interface and booking engine known as the Virtual Travel Organizer (VTO) and the PASS XX/1 Multi-GDS Transaction Server. Leading travel technology providers including Amadeus/E-Travel, Worldspan, Travelport, Farelogix, Portaga, Omega World Travel, BCD Travel, Carlson Wagonlit Travel (formerly Navigant), MTS Travel, Starcite (formerly OnVantage/SeeUthere), International SOS, Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC), Accommodations Plus Inc., etc. rely on PASS for sourcing and technology.

Agent desktop point of Sale

2009-07-17T09:37:00.000-07:00

Agent desktop point of sale

You need an agent desktop point of sale? Get more information about everything possible with your agent desktop point of sale at Pass Consulting.
Here you can get your agent desktop point of sale with everything you need your agent desktop point of sale to have.

Multi GDS access products

2009-07-17T09:29:00.000-07:00

Multi GDS access products

PASS XX/1 for the Masses

more details at PASS Consulting

Quality Checks, Fulfillment, Invoicing

It is not just hospitality and travel companies which are interested in the XX/1 transaction server. Its multi-GDS capability means that it is the ideal product for automated quality assurance of large booking volumes.

PASS XX/1 supplies the single point of entry to all global distribution systems (GDSs). What's more, using modern technology PASS XX/1 simultaneously integrates direct providers, low-cost airlines, back- office systems and proprietary product databases such as hotel programs. During this process, PASS XX/1 compiles information and puts it into the easy-to-use XML data exchange format.

Companies which use specialist travel services on a large scale can use quality assurance to optimize their travel booking significantly. They can analyze recent bookings to see whether the best offer was selected or whether travel guidelines were adhered to. Generally, companies ask travel companies to perform this quality assurance. They are given technical access to the booking records as a basis for their evaluations.

The service provider will generate a comprehensive report for his client. The PNRs are located on the GDS. To carry out the various quality assurance projects for this customers, the service provider has to access data from different GDS. This is where the use of XX/1 with its multi-GDS capability offers major advantages and saves costs. It allows the provider to access the booking records from different GDS via a unified interface. Instead of different applications for the various GDS he only needs one single application. The high performance of XX/1 is a further major advantage.

Companies handling fulfillment and invoicing will also be able to use the advantages of XX/1. It allows them to view the PNRs of their customers and to invoice them correspondingly. XX/1 is of course also able to supply systems for follow-up processes with the necessary data.

The largest assistance service provider accesses its customers' GDS data via PASS XX/1 in order to get all the executive management travel of 4 out of 5 Fortune 100 companies, thus ensuring that the leaders of the major global companies travel safely to their destinations and back. The updating of vaccinations for crisis areas as well as the provision of optimal safety guidelines via e-mail are only a small portion of their services.

Thus, there are practically no limits to the conceivable uses of PASS XX/1. Hence, for use in the field of mobile travel, PASS XX/1 is an ideal centralized gateway to all travel content for flights, hotels and rental cars.

PASS Travel Technology Solutions - Multi GDS

2009-07-16T14:35:00.000-07:00

PASS Launches Virtual Travel Organizer:

MIAMI, June 7 - PASS Consulting Group has just announced the full deployment of their Virtual Travel Organizer, also known as PASS VTO. PASS VTO provides travel agencies with the ability to evaluate and book travel options from GDS data or other sources from a single integrated screen.

“PASS VTO offers dynamic packaging as part of a profiling function which allows the travel agent to instantly match the exact needs of the traveler,” said Michael Strauss, CEO Pass Consulting Corporation. “This means the agency has access to the most complete data filtered to the exact needs of the situation which saves the agency time while providing the best service and pricing to the customer.”

The PASS XX/1 online booking engine has multi-GDS functionality and integrates data from industry leaders such as Amadeus, Worldspan, Sabre and Galileo as well as direct connections to airlines and Web fares and displays all this data succinctly via the PASS VTO display. “PASS XX/1 opens up the benefits of comprehensive travel management to those involved in corporate travel such as Cendant Travelport, e-travel by Amadeus, Worldspan Trip manager XML Pro, so it is a proven success primed to drive PASS VTO users to new levels of ability,” added Strauss.

The VTO package is very flexible. For example, the VTO Profiling tool works in conjunction with virtually any CRM tool or customer databases. Because the PASS VTO fare quote display is able to pull from all sources, it is able to include in-house private fares. The fare display screen includes the margin on the fares, allowing the travel agent to present the most advantageous options.

As a browser based interface, PASS VTO is easy to implement and integrate into currently used systems. The graphical user interface can be customized as needed by the customer.

To serve even the largest agency operation, the VTO solution can be used in conjunction with the highly acclaimed PASS XX/1 Multi-GDS Transaction Server and Internet Booking Engine as a total management solution.

About PASS Consulting:

Miami-based PASS Consulting Corporation is an end-to-end technology product and service provider meeting the needs travel industry customers such as Amadeus, Worldspan, Omega World Travel, MSC Cruises, Brendan Worldwide Tours, Thomas Cook, MTS Travel and Unique Vacations. Moreover the PASS XX/1 helped Consumer web pages like Cheaptickets.com in their early stages.

Travel Market Technology - Travel Technology Solutions

2009-07-15T08:03:00.000-07:00

Travel Market Technology - Travel Technology Solutions

Development: Individual Software Off-The-Shelf

In case our client accepts our proposal we will accomplish the development immediately using our Virtual Software Factory. (Link zur VSF Uebersicht!) The factory approach offers a balance between standard and individuality. Going back to the industrial example: Manufacturing cars in an assembly line has been a standard for years in the automotive industry. Industrial methods were only recently introduced into the domains of IT- and software suppliers. In order to automate the development of applications, modern code-generators produce software following the principles of Model Driven Development (MDD) and Model Driven Architecture (MDA). The use of abstract models is an essential part of MDA driven concepts. Although they merely represent the functional core of an application, no particular language or architecture is required. A significant increase in efficiency and quality while ensuring flexibility at the same time can only be achieved by integrating a broad factory approach into generative technologies. The goal is to automate more than 80 percent of this process. An additional advantage is the reduction of human errors along with integrated likewise automated test procedures within the VSF.

The new edition of our Point of Sales tool, VTO 2nd Generation (VTO 2G), is developed and generated in accordance with the MDD/MDA software development of the Software factory.

VTO 2G is a framework of services which supports the search and booking process of products from the travel industry on the technological side. It is based on SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) and BRA (Business Rules Approach). Every service can be configured and is precisely controlled via Business Rules following the client’s needs. The Point-of-Sales GUI (graphical user interface) is just one of several components.

The GUI is the interface component to communicate with the user. The process engine controls and coordinates the services. The whole software application is based on SOA. Each service can also be used individually. The Rules Engine enables a fast and flexible adjustment of the whole software application according to the client’s requirements. Additional modules, such as profile data base, fare management and configuration management, broaden the possible fields of application.

With the help of the connectivity layer we are able to connect to any GDS as well as any other source.

One example of the revised look & feel of VTO 2G. The POS GUI is a fully reworked VTO with trend-setting graphics and 1024 * 768 or higher resolution. The main menu (tree-view) can be hidden on the left hand side adding more working space in the center of the screen. Portlet area with additional information supporting the process on the right hand side.

Active Selling,

- sales supporting information

Active Consulting,

- background information for agents to provide optimal customer service

Active Customer Care,

-Additional information to the current customer for most individual service.

Quicksearch:

- This sophisticated feature will increase the performance of experienced agents. It enables the agent the use of traditional native GDS screen commands for his request. The response will be displayed in VTO’s well-established graphical format. The feature will be configurable and clients can enhance the feature themselves using the PASS rule engine.

Agent desktop point of Sale

2009-07-13T11:24:00.000-07:00

Agent desktop point of sale:

If you need an agent desktop point of sale, what are you doing to get an agent desktop point of sale?
You may search in the internet for an agent desktop point of sale and find this blog entry "agent desktop point of sale" that leads you to a solution for an agent desktop point of sale:

You find a solution at a small travel company!
if you need an agent desktop point of sale, go have a look at Pass Consulting