Travelport taps G2 SwitchWorks

April 07, 2008 | Online Travel

Travelport GDS has entered into an agreement with G2 SwitchWorks Corp. under which it has acquired certain software assets and intellectual property to be used in the development of a future Travelport agent desktop solution.

The agreement includes G2 SwitchWorks’ Kestrel point-of-sale application, the G2 web service core and a number of associated software development tools. Specific terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Gordon Wilson, president and chief executive officer, Travelport GDS said with this initiative, Travelport has taken another significant step towards the creation of the industry’s first comprehensive, fully-integrated agency desktop.

Wilson said, “Our customers require the seamless integration of selling and merchandising programmes, improved workflow, process automation and content aggregation. Integrating the G2 technology into our existing plans will accelerate Travelport’s delivery of what we believe will be an industry leading capability.”

“Additional value-added services, such as comprehensive traveller profiling and expanded agency search and customer service options, will combine to create a compelling proposition that suits the way today’s agents want to sell,” he said.

Travelport intends to utilise Kestrel, the G2 web service core, and associated tools as key elements in the development of a new unified, travel agent desktop solution, expected to be released in early 2009. This new Travelport solution will incorporate, build upon and ultimately replace the company’s current agent point of sale products—FocalPoint/ViewPoint from Galileo and Go! from Worldspan.

Travelport also intends to expose these new capabilities via its messaging platforms to enable development partners to gain access to the new functionality that this acquisition is expected to provide. The addition of this capability to Travelport’s Web Services platform is expected to enable partners to reduce their development and operation costs.

Developed over the past year by G2 SwitchWorks, Kestrel provides a “point-and-click” point-of-sale solution that enables agents to search for and book travel content across multiple sources including the GDSs. It also includes the ability for agents to manage data-rich traveler profiles outside the GDS, enabling precise targeting of customer-specific offers, upgrades and incentives. Travel bookings are stored in a GDS-sensitive Universal Record Database, which provides enhanced functionality in the agent desktop resulting in significant productivity gains independent of the GDS to which the agent subscribes.