Feature

Going global

Despite the recession it's still business as usual across the world for most, so an efficient GDS is as crucial as ever. Bob Papworth takes a look at some of the industry's major players

A Yorkshireman invented what we now know as the search engine, and got no credit (or money ) for it. Meanwhile someone who did get some backing, Google creator Larry Page, has pocketed enough moolah to keep him in Theakston's Old Peculier for several lifetimes.

Now reportedly working for Citi in Hong Kong, Yorkshire-born Jonathon Fletcher invented the search engine in 1993 - he called it his 'JumpStation' - while working as a systems administrator at Stirling University.

The concept was so far ahead of its time, he couldn't get any backing for it, gave up, and went to seek his fortune elsewhere. Which is why, today, we happily admit to Googling when we could have been JumpStationing.

Segue with me, if you will, to Cowley, Durand and Lukan - the UK heads of the three key global distribution systems (GDS). For what is a GDS if it is not a glorified search engine? OK, so it's travel-specific, but the principle's the same - key in a few basic details and up come squillions of options; key in more specific details (taking care to keep within policy, naturally) and your trip is sorted.

It's at this point, of course, that the whole analogy thing begins to fall apart. For a start, while Jonathon Fletcher may have moved to coalfaces new, Martin Cowley (senior vice-president, Europe, Middle East and Africa, for Sabre Travel Network), Stephane Durand (managing director, UK and Ireland, for Amadeus, although shortly moving on to another part of the organisation) and Patrick Lukan (UK and Ireland general manager for Galileo by Travelport) are very much still here, and keen to win your business.

And as Buying Business Travel suggested to each of the above-mentioned, they've all got much the same content, the technology's almost identical, and they all perform the same basic function with similar degrees of efficiency and efficacy - so what's to choose between them? To say that they found this a silly question is a bit like saying English cricket's going through an iffy patch, or that Elle Macpherson's not ugly ... Sabre's Cowley would appear, at least at first sight, to have a bit of an edge. His GDS has recently been judged to be the best, at least in the EMEA region for finding lowest available fares.

Independent research group Topaz International says that Sabre found the region's lowest ticket prices four times more often than rival GDSs, producing average savings of 20 per cent, or €112, per ticket. "A key part of any travel agency's expertise is being able to find and offer the best travel options at the best value for any traveller's journey," Cowley says. "Now more than ever, travellers demand the best value for their travel spend and this study reinforces that at Sabre we're making the right investments to enable our customers to deliver this kind of value."

GDS users today, he suggests, tend to take the core technology for granted - they assume, not unreasonably, that the thing actually works. To an ever-greater extent, they also take the content for granted - or at least the volume of it. The deal-clincher is the question of after-sales service.

"Travel management companies [TMCs] are looking for a core technology offering, and that has got to deliver the content that they need to do their business," Cowley says.

"We are talking about 'relevant' content - TMCs are being judged on the basis of performance, and technology has a very significant role to play in that, as long as it provides the content that they want."

And he makes the point that the scale of content has enjoyed something of a revival in recent times. As cash-strapped airlines cut capacity and even routes, it is increasingly important that a GDS has comprehensive coverage to flag up all the options. It doesn't stop there, however.

"At the end of the day, we are information managers, whereas we used to be data managers," Cowley says. "TMCs rely much more on the information we can supply to them. They are looking for a service offering, and a credible delivery of service, but increasingly they are looking to us to be more than a GDS. "We want to touch our customers in many more ways, because that binds them to us, and us to them."

So there you have it. With Sabre's investment levels, content volume and relevance, service delivery, and added value offerings, you're well on the way to GDS heaven.

Cue Stephane Durand, Amadeus' UK & Ireland boss: "We are well ahead in terms of investment commitment," he says. "Amadeus spends €200 million a year globally on research and development and in Europe we are one of the top 10 companies - across all industry sectors - for investment in research and development.

"We think we invest more than everyone else, probably put together. Keeping up that level of investment is a risk, but the payback is excellent. Amadeus is the number one GDS worldwide, with more than 34 per cent of the market and quite significant growth."

Ah, but what about content? Just weeks ago, Amadeus signed a five-year, worldwide, full-content agreement with Emirates - its 131st such deal. That total represents more than 255 million bookings a year, or 70 per cent of all airline bookings sold by Amadeus travel agencies worldwide.

"We have won quite a lot of new travel management company business over the last few years, but the conversations leading to those gains have not been about the GDS itself - technology is not a commodity," says Durand. "We talk about the true value that we can bring to their bottom line, and that's about multi-channel delivery. It's about the efficiencies we can bring, but most of all it's about content. We never say 'no' to content."

As for service delivery and added-value, the Amadeus boss comes over all animated, insisting that there is no pro forma approach. "We migrate hundreds of customers every year, and with all of them we sit down and ask questions: 'What are your business cultures as a company? Tell me where you are today, what's good about it, what's less good, and where you want to be.'

"We spend a lot of time with customers, prospects, corporate buyers, asking: 'What next?' Whenever we start an application, we do it in partnership, and then we open it up to the whole community. We are saving travel management companies time and effort, so they can really focus on how they can differentiate themselves, and not on the booking process itself.

"Our vision is to become an enabler, through technology." If that sounds a tad missionary, Travelport's Patrick Lukan is positively evangelical. "Over the past three or four years, I think the GDSs have run the risk of looking the same, becoming commoditised, and I am a believer that in this world nothing should be commoditised," he says. "I am passionate about service and support, I believe it's something companies buy, and I believe it's something I and my team can deliver."

Just to confound Sabre's Martin Cowley, Travelport also references Topaz International's study, which shows that its e-Pricing solution consistently finds the lowest available air fares worldwide - Sabre's claim to fame was restricted to the EMEA region. Topaz says e-Pricing not only finds lowest fares more often than its rivals do nearly 60 per cent of the time overall, but also generates an average saving of $68.13 per ticket. To Lukan, that's a selling point, but not the core message for TMCs.

"The TMCs are looking to us to add value to the equation. We have got to up our game, to make them look like rock stars. I don't make money unless they succeed, which is all the more reason to be service-andsupport- focused. I win when they win," he says.

Galileo struck promotional gold last year when it forged the first GDS links with easyJet, a breakthrough which has since sparked an upsurge in low-cost carrier content, but the Travelport boss is adamant that such successes are all part of a customer driven day's work, not content for content's sake. "The reason we went out to get easyJet was because our customers wanted it; the reason we go out after non-GDS hotel content is because our customers want it. We get up every day and ask ourselves how we get more, and new, content. We have the low-cost carrier content now, but hotel content is still an important aspect, as is rail," says Lukan.

It's a two-way, mutual-backscratching process. Members of the Advantage Focus Partnership TMC consortium, who appointed Galileo preferred GDS supplier at the beginning of last year, have been closely involved in the development of new Travelport products, including the Topaz-lauded e-Pricing and a new tracking tool, Journey Reporter.

Travelport's UK & Ireland sales manager Kathryn Wallington explains: "Travelport GDS prides itself as a business partner that really understands its customers' businesses and listens to their needs. Our relationship with the Advantage Focus Partnership has demonstrated this. Input from the Advantage Focus members was instrumental in driving the development of Journey Reporter, and we now have a product that leads the way in terms of functionality and ease of use."

As well as client involvement and feedback, Patrick Lukan's lengthy catalogue of "important aspects" also includes geographic location, which - conveniently overlooking the more immediate proximity of Slough - he places "just outside Windsor".

"We have UK-based sales and support, so for our travel management company clients, I can look them in the eye and promise they will be serviced from here in the UK, and I know that's extraordinarily valuable to them - after all, it's about the people on the ground. It's not about what we do, but how we do it," he says.

And what about investment? "We are in a fortunate position because when we bought Worldspan one-and-a-half years ago, we were able to take a lot of costs out of the business. Consequently, now we can continue to focus on things that add value. We are going to continue, through the not-so-good times, to figure out how best we can help our customers punch above their weight."

The technology just keeps getting better. Even though the basics tend to be taken for granted, new and improved products are an almost everyday occurrence. Equally, content is being expanded and enhanced across the board. It is also being fine-tuned to match TMC requirements.

Financial investment in research and development continues at recession-busting levels. Most importantly, investment of time and energy in establishing and fostering client relationships - perhaps the only true differentiator as far as the big three GDSs are concerned - has reached unprecedented heights.

Jonathon Fletcher undoubtedly could, and arguably should, have been part of the success story but, for reasons which now seem unfathomably short-sighted, the money men remained unconvinced.