American Airlines’ technology move away from Sabre to HP presents numerous challenges, and opportunities for all parties. For the HP technologists, this is perhaps the largest and most complex system development that they’re likely to face for the foreseeable future. For the HP marketing team the challenges are different. Top of this list is the new brand for HP’s new platform (we’ll review whether this is a truly new system in a separate posting). And, after much deliberation, probably with the help of a few focus groups, we now come to learn that it is to be “Agilaire”. Sounds reasonably good, but it is slightly too close to Accenture’s “Navitaire” moniker for my liking.
More on the news below.
Hewlett-Packard today said its “next-generation” travel technology platform will include, newly branded air reservations system Agilaire, parts of which will be applied to American Airlines’ fledgling Jetstream res system. To be developed in a service-oriented architecture environment, the overall platform is meant to be an “end-to-end” system covering airlines, hotel companies, rail operators and cruise lines. HP licensed from Pegasus Solutions the RezView NG distribution platform and plans to “incorporate” it into the Agilaire platform, which according to HP would help airlines “offer their passengers a differentiated travel experience.”
When asked which parts of Jetstream Agilaire would power, HP vice president of industry software and solutions Shelley Perry wouldn’t say. “There will be specific things in Jetstream that are specific to that client,” she added. “Different clients will use different parts of the portfolio.”
Meanwhile, Perry said that HP does “not anticipate Agilaire will replace the Shares [reservations] system anytime in the near future, but it is intended to extend the functionality as part of our overall portfolio offering. There are components that will extend Shares today in an SOA environment.” Acquired when HP purchased EDS, Shares is used by Continental Airlines, US Airways and others. Perry said that HP has “renewals with some of our clients who are looking at [Agilaire],” but wouldn’t say which ones.
An HP press statement also indicated that Agilaire would include new releases of the company’s Electronic Miscellaneous Documents module and the Ticket Reissue and Refund module. Perry said the EMD module “is in production and it is going to be part of any future solution we have in our consumer travel portfolio.” When asked which airlines already are using the module, she replied, “It is currently extending some of our axsRes and Shares functionality, two of our current portfolio products.”
The refund and reissue module, she added, “is a newer module that extends our consumer travel portfolio and is used to extend the functionality of Shares and axsRes,” a res system used outside the United States.
Meanwhile, Pegasus RezView provides “a building block for the overall solution,” Perry explained. “We really wanted to round out our platform across the continuum of travel options. Extension into hospitality was a natural fit for that strategy.” Perry said RezView, though a “strong” product, “doesn’t have some of the additional functionality in terms of integrated itinerary management from an end-to-end consumer travel perspective” that HP plans to incorporate.
The new and as yet unnamed hotel system, she said, could appeal to hotel operators of all sizes, but would be “particularly appealing to tier-one, larger chains interested in an SOA solution.” According to HP, the company’s offerings would include central reservation and property management solutions, and the means to “help hotels manage room and non-room inventory, availability status, restrictions, pricing and policies per property preference.”
The big picture, Perry explained, is a “common platform” applied across the travel space and adapted uniquely for each market segment and each customer.