Visibility Enablement for Express Mail/Cargo industry

Value added services hold the key to differentiate one service provider from the other in the increasing competitive express mail/cargo market. Near real time visibility of shipments and proactive exception management are essential for improving the customer experience and operational efficiency.

However, there are significant challenges in providing these value added services – large number of players, huge volume of shipments, intermediate manual operations and lack of electronic data exchange. In addition, the current technology infrastructure has limitations with respect to providing new features like messaging, e-tracking, m-tracking, proactive alert generation as well as interfacing with multiple devices for recording shipments.

Since a large number of players and platforms/technologies are involved, messaging holds the key to providing seamless connectivity required for real-time visibility enablement. At each check-point, the various parties who have subscribed to the specific checkpoint, would receive messages indicating real-time status of the shipment. Messaging would connect different systems with minimal changes to existing applications and system interfaces. In addition, it will enable workforces to become increasingly mobile and facilitate rapid response to shipment related issues.

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Future of PSS Solutions

Airlines are one of the earliest adopters of technology in the field of reservations, check in and departure. These systems are mainly on TPF (IBM) or USAS (Unisys) and are main frame based. The dilemma of the airlines to move to new technology probably could be due to doubts on the efficiency of new technology in meeting the split second response and ability to handle large volume of transactions in real time and that is one of the main reasons that majority of the airlines are still using systems that are 30+ years old in technology.

With the advent of new technology resulting in direct contact with customer, the justification for CRS, shifted from operational efficiency, to marketing strategies, to competitive advantages of essential business tools, etc. This progress contributed to fundamental changes in the structure of the industry. In large part, network externalities created by these systems, possibility of avoiding the intermediate layer GDS, drove these changes.

As we all know, Air Travel is not an isolated activity and the customers are looking for comprehensive package of which air travel is only one component. Sensing this and also due to the threat of airlines marketing directly to customers, GDS have actively started providing connectivity to all the players thus helping the agents provide customer service with a single window. Further many have started forward integration, reaching out to the customers with their own websites.

The new systems of CRS/GDS, called GNE (GDS, new entrants), pronounced “genie”, are internet-based access and distribution systems not requiring data in the system to be stored, unlike traditional CRS/GDS antiquated mainframes which required advance storage in order to book (and where they made most of their revenue in the past.). The GNE can search multiple individual travel sites (airlines, car rental agencies, hotels, tour operators, cruise lines, etc.) as well as other consolidated travel sites (Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, etc.), and other airline/car/hotel/tour/cruise, consolidators/wholesalers/discounters, etc., all at the same time; create a virtual data set for use in the GNE, and then present the data under many different parameters/filters for the purpose of creating a travel arrangement, i.e. a Passenger Name Record (PNR.). Unlike traditional CRS/GDS systems, elements of the PNR do not have to be booked thru the same supplier of data; each element can be booked directly with each individual supplier, thus lowering data storage costs. The GNE then creates a master record of the arrangements booked, i.e. a Super PNR (SPNR), and provides a summary of the arrangement for the traveller.

It is likely that global distribution systems new avatar will lead to the fragmentation of airline inventories across different distribution channels. Airlines will seek to increase the proportion of sales they make directly on their own website, thereby reducing their costs. Providers of channels of reservations (GDS, Airlines, Portals, etc) need to go the extra mile and demonstrate their value to corporate clients clearly. Corporate clients are most concerned about ensuring access to the widest possible range of airline products and tariffs, at the same time as distribution costs are removed from the value chain. It is going to be a challenge for each of the service provider to stay afloat unless they invest on technology and come out with a ‘single point’ solution.

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Imminent adoption of SOA for the Travel & Hospitality Industry

Service Oriented Architecture or SOA as it is popularly known is a logical evolution of component based architecture and distributed computing, both of which were prevalent in the 1990s. Today SOA is on the threshold of maturing into a design technique that helps align business with IT initiatives and leverage this alignment to get various benefits.

The travel industry, particularly airlines, has always been on the leading edge of adopting IT into core business. The likelihood of Travel Industry being an early adopter of SOA appears very high.

What makes it imminent for the travel and hospitality industry to adopt SOA?

Traditionally, the travel industry is heavily dependent on mature, relatively expensive core systems such as the CRS and the GDS. The industry has a requirement for a large number of complex integrations with relatively disparate systems. At the same time, the numerous entities involved within the travel industry – airlines, hotels, car rental companies, intermediaries, increase the need for increased interoperability. SOA facilitates reusability and interoperability both of which are critical in the travel industry. Let’s take the example of the booking process for an airline. Very broadly, this process consists of the following – getting the availability, pricing the selected itinerary and completing the reservation. If these three sub functions were built as services, these could be plugged in from various sources such as the airline website, the airline’s internal reservations application, a partner site such as a hotel that can access the airlines inventory, a travel agency with access to the airline’s inventory or even a corporate that has an agreement with the airline. This ensures consistency across the booking process while allowing flexibility by changing parameters depending on the entity accessing the service.

SOA, if used appropriately and in conjunction with standardization (such as the initiative by the Open Travel Alliance), can help alleviate some of the industry’s challenges with respect to integration and interoperability.

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Is this the right choice???

When I began writing this blog, I really thought that why did I even think of broaching the topic of change in the aviation sector. I am not an expert in this area so to say. But I am not a novice either. I mean around 4 years in this area has made me realize that this is an area incorporating change on a regular basis. Change is inevitable and has a deep influx in a domain that has been technology driven for ages. But the important factor is that when change is ‘properly guided’, it can yield excellent results in every aspect of this area.

Airlines today are not just about size, stature or time span of operation, but more about adaptability to change. For ages, it was an industry dominated by IBM (mostly) and Unisys machines. No longer seen as too feasible to continue with, the industry is looking for alternatives in the ‘Open Systems’ domain. There is no doubt that this will take time to stabilize, but there is no denial of the eventuality taking place some time soon in future.

So what do we (neither experts nor novice) people do in such a scenario. My personal take on this is that we let ourselves amass as much knowledge as we can. The reason being that whatever is the technology used, the industry would not give up its current practices/functions entirely. It might keep changing them from time to time to suit its needs. It takes months to build a software product, but years to build practices and turn them into standards. We need to understand that domain expertise is something that takes time to grasp and is an added boon. To add to it should be our ability to translate it into the technology desired by the end user.

It may not be as easy like this all the time. But change is what one needs to keep looking out for. For instance, today airlines are not just interested in plain reservations or check-ins. They are also interested in knowing where are they going wrong, what are they doing right, where can they improve. And this is what we can also focus on. Data Warehousing for instance today is a necessity for airlines rather than a liability. Web based services that enhance passenger – airline associations are of considerable importance too.

These are just a few examples that I am citing, but the crux of it is still that people who have a broader picture in mind are ready to look at the old system in a new way. It would be foolhardy to ignore the changing trends. But it cannot be achieved in a day either. It is for each individual to analyze his/her own personal strengths in the domain (this is apart from programming). The reason being that every one of us has a different way to interpret information. That is what separates an analyst from a programmer. And to understand this subtle difference, one needs to not just look at the current generation of work but look at what in the future can take it’s role. This is what I personally believe is the right recipe to bring about the guided change.

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Technology Solutions in the Travel, Hospitality, Transportation and Logistics Industry

This blog is opened to create a common platform for those who are working in the Travel & Distribution, Hospitality, Airlines, Transportation & Logistics Sectors. I like to encourage professionals working in these industries to share their thoughts on the latest developments, industry & technology trends and challenges, standard standards and best practices, solution needs and alternatives.

This industry is characterised by early adoption of technology (and hence deployment of many legacy systems that are disparate in nature), many products that are still evolving, emergence of platform based solutions etc. The constant change in business models and operations in a globalised environment, continuos evolution of technology and software makes it more demanding and ambiguous for the business users as to chosing a solution for their requirements.

This platform is the right place to network to find out the best solution catering to their needs.