I have written a more than a few times on the changing face of the global distribution system products. Latest on the market is the new Amadeus One. Developed in the USA by the dev team based on the East Coast, the new tool is Amadeus' latest effort at cracking the US market--something that thus far has resisted the allures of the Franco-German-Hispano combine.
Have a read at
Amadeus' own US-based site. A good interview is available on
The Beat's subscription pages.
It is amazing how a little competition galvanizes the soul. However, there is a clear trend here. I am a whole hearted fan of this trend--whether I come from the user or the supplier community. It is welcome sight to see the GDSs' show their unbundled products.
So far, on the workstation side, we see Travelport's UDT (Universal Desktop) and now Amadeus One, neither of which has so far been deployed into the market. We are waiting to see the Sabre product. Sabre, on the other hand, was first out of the box with new off-host profiles.
On the independent side, we are seeing new next-gen technology based products from such people as Concur and Farelogix, amongst many others including our client LUTE. This includes OpenSource corporate tools, agent desktops, open supply access, expense management and profiles. These products join the already-competitive market for fare management solutions, ticketing engines, etc, etc.
The world is starting to open up. An open environment is hard for GDSs to accept. But as more than one senior GDS exec has explained--that is so yesterday--now we are seeing the fruits of their labours.
Is this enough and does the commercial model match the technology? That is an interesting question.
Cheers
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