Ancillary Editorials

Ai Editorial: Where does NDC fit today?

IT infrastructure and distribution of data - where does NDC fit in today?

NDC, as a communication standard, has been in the limelight for three years or so. Ai’s Ritesh Gupta finds out how this initiative is shaping up on a couple of counts

There has been a continuous scrutiny of how the XML-based data transmission standard is going to pave way for superior air travel retailing.

Standard development is the core to the entire initiative. The first version of “end-to-end” schemas was published late last year. Airline adoption, from testing to deployment, is expected to be gradual this year as well as in 2016.

As much as airlines themselves refer to the limitations of legacy distribution and the potential of a modern industry communication standard in opening gates for a differentiated product offering, they, too, have comprehended a couple of lessons over the past few months. For instance, one can’t really foresee replacement of all the airline systems with NDC-compliant systems at this juncture. (It [replacement] is still untimely, as there isn’t yet a standard to define “NDC-compliant”,” mentioned an airline executive. Also, there is a need to gear up for the data that NDC will bring along with it. Indeed there is an option to enhance offers and corresponding take rates. This is going to be a key development for airlines in how they market their product.

Here we explore a couple of important aspects that are related to IT infrastructure and the impact on distribution of data that NDC is resulting in:

Is NDC-XML the only answer? It is clear that airlines are looking at a mechanism such as NDC that would result in them responding to a fare request from a user, who reaches out to any indirect distribution partner. The response to such request is going to be facilitated by their shopping engine via an API. And this would mean as a user whatever I was looking for from a direct channel owned by the airline, and what it had to offer to me, same way the airline would end up pushing offers when indirect channels pass on a request from the passenger (can this passenger be directly approached by the airline has been a concern of third party intermediaries).

To their credit, carriers have invested in merchandising platforms tailored to dynamically bundle ancillary services based on a passenger’s value. There have been concerns about transparency, with questions over whether the price resulting from a specific request is lowest or not, in case pre-filed fares come to an end. Also, multiple direct connects featuring agencies can make price comparison more difficult.

For their part, GDS companies have been integrating with NDC-like XML APIs from carriers.

At the same time, a section of the industry also points out that NDC-XML is only a part of the merchandising effort underway in the industry and is far from the only connectivity standard.

“We are already seeing that usage of NDC -XML by airlines and GDSs will vary in its shape and form, resulting in a mix of EDIFACT and XML connectivity,” shared a source.

A case in point, IT specialists are introducing their merchandising systems, integrated with their PSS offering. They promise that this would also help carriers to work out dynamic and relevant offerings: any time, any point of sale or channel, direct or indirect, through any device.

So is this just another way of improvising existing legacy technology? Can it last? Only time will tell.

It is often debated whether the IT specialists behind PSS’ deliberately tend to resist change and rather not succumb to an attempt by new players to enter their territory in any fashion.

Sebastien Touraine, Head - Airline Merchandising, IATA, says the NDC technical standard provides the opportunity to implement a modular environment where valuable assets are leveraged, out-of-date assets are renovated and new assets can be added easily.

“In effect, this modular architecture will allow airlines to respond rapidly to changes in their business environment; this is a must for retail organizations,” he says.

Ancillary revenue generation: It is possible to file and sell products related to the flight through 3rd party channels, including through GDS and interline partners.

But it’s time airlines move on to an API or other XML-based technology. It’s simply for the fact that even “with the frequent updates to and from the ATPCO databases, the pricing remains relatively static and is difficult to personalize”, as an executive shared. The IATA NDC initiative is expected to improve this.

It must be mentioned that airlines have been waiting for the continued rollout of EMD-A, which makes it possible to relate a non-flight item to a flight ticket, offering insight into the buying trends of flyers. Until EMD-A comes to full implementation, any ancillary sales will continue to be recognized as a separate transaction; however, that does not prevent an airline from selling it, it only makes it difficult to associate it to a specific flight activity.

The industry has been waiting for standardization of ancillary offerings to support interline sales, fulfillment, settlement and reporting, etc.

Touraine says: “Having led on behalf of IATA, the Electronic Miscellaneous Document (EMD) implementation across the industry, modernization of end-to-end process, capability and industry standard is a must. While some industry functions will be simplified/ modernized through the capabilities enabled by the NDC standard, there are definitely more opportunities to update/ modernize the order and delivery processes. As airline merchandizing provides greater options, some processes (for example PNRs, ETs) were not designed with this level of complexity in mind.”

He also referred to One Order, an industry-led initiative intended to “modernize the multiple and rigid booking, ticketing, delivery and accounting methods with a single, flexible order management process”. As a result, a flyer wouldn’t require different reference numbers and documents. One order reference would be sufficient. For carriers, this would do away with expensive reconciliation between PNRs, e-tickets and EMDs. And agencies would be able to pursue same procedure to book flights and products from airlines regardless of the airline’s business model or technology capability.

According to the IATA, the One Order business case is ready and will be presented to the Board of Governors in December this year for the final decision on whether to move forward.

Going forward it’s interesting to assess how airlines can get closer to creating their offers. Also, the NDC adoption is the way to go, but how much of IT infrastructure would be changed hangs in balance at this stage.

Gain an insight into the world of NDC at Mega Event in San Diego which is taking place on the 4/5th of November. More information at www.MegaEvent15.com

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Ai Editorial: Is the future of comparison shopping in jeopardy with NDC?

Would it be possible to gauge the lowest available price for a personalized offer coming from an airline in the NDC-driven environment?

NDC, as a new, XML-based data transmission standard, continues to be in the limelight. The standard is moving on, with the lure of the industry drifting away from commoditization of air travel.

A prime example of this exercise is the drive to do away with any process and technology that was designed to manage static price information. Either way, associated stakeholders have concerns or case for improving upon the state of affairs. The likes of aggregators and travel agencies are guarded against what would happen when there would be an end to looking out for options among all pre‐filed fares. It has been openly stated that this would result in loss of transparency.

This concern stems from the fact that there would only be case-by‐case personalized offers, in the absence of a detailed comparison shopping in CRS neutral display. However, equally important is to understand how comparison shopping would shape up – is there a provision for a like-for-like comparison for what a passenger is seeking, on the basis of what the indirect channel partner has requested from the airline.

As for putting an end to pre-filed fares, there is a case for bringing in efficiency, too.

“The current pricing model is bizarre when you look at it from the context of almost any other industry, or even other travel verticals. An airline will tell you the current availability using RBD letters and single digit numbers (e.g. M4), and the retailer or distributor needs to have previously subscribed to millions of complex pricing records from ATPCO to be able to convert that into a price,” says Paul Byrne, SVP Development, OpenJaw Technologies, and Member Board of Directors, Open Travel Alliance.

Byrne further adds, “Not only is that so complex it requires specialist companies to provide consumers the shopping experiences they expect at a reasonable price/ performance, but every step from that point on through ticketing, revenue accounting, reconciliation, interline billing, agency settlement, etc. has added and unnecessary complexity.” In the long run NDC has the possibility to simplify this process, to one of API based offers and orders that can be reconciled with standard off-the-shelf accounting and ERP software, says Byrne, who on behalf of OpenJaw, is an active contributor to the Order Management taskforce as part of the DDXWG pushing forward IATA’s NDC initiative.

The future of comparison shopping

Commenting on this, Byrne points out that NDC would not put an end to comparison shopping; in fact, it is one of the underlying principles i.e. it allows a like for like comparison where the consumer can see exactly what is included in the offer price from one airline versus another airline’s offer.

“It is also bizarre when considered in the context of almost any other industry that some retailers would rebel against getting better product information. The real threat to agencies is that airlines want to be the retailers themselves. That is a commercial issue airlines and agencies have to work out. As in any supply chain everyone from suppliers and distributors to agents and retailers need to add value,” said Byrne.

It is also being asserted that airlines would gain an upper hand with the possibility of the direct connect model featuring airlines and travel agencies. Also, there is an apprehension that the new standard would result in escalation of costs for agents.

Byrne doesn’t deny that airlines would have greater control of their pricing in NDC; however, as he points out, it is not true that this will inevitably lead to higher costs/ prices for agents. “If an agent sends an anonymous request to the airline where the airline knows nothing about the traveller, a different offer may be returned than if the airline knows something about the traveller e.g. his/ her FFP tier status,” shared Byrne.

Paris-based Hélène Millet, Senior Consultant, Conztanz, (she was New Distribution Processes Director when she quit Air France KLM in 2013), believes pre-file fares aren’t going to disappear completely as of now. She adds, “There are concerns whenever there are changes. NDC comes from the IATA, of course, so those standards have been designed by airlines first, indeed. It is quite natural that travel agents would have concerns. But the goal was not at all to unbalance the airline economy against the agents. The initial need of the airlines was to be able to distribute their product as a whole to travel agencies too, the way they were able of doing it on their website.” She further adds, “As for offers, (it would be about) only show what you can sell, avoid proposing something which is not available anymore! Sounds like a better situation for agents, too, doesn’t it?”

Over the past few months, a couple of distribution and e-commerce executives associated with airlines based in the U. S. and Europe that I have spoken to are in favor of NDC.

NDC is an opportunity for airlines to start controlling their own content and how it is presented in GDS and other indirect channels. “The major threat is that the adoption will cost airlines a lot of money, but at the end the additional content will be another opportunity for GDS to charge airline extra. It also seems that they are not clearly adopting the NDC XML standard, but building their own XML schemes, which also add complexity related to interfacing and data flow,” says an airline executive.

More to come on this…stay tuned!

By Ritesh Gupta

Ai Editorial: Time for Airlines to take a Deeper Look at Deep Linking

As mobile apps usage continues to grow, ease of access and relevancy become highly important. Deep linking can help in this context, writes Ai’s Ritesh Gupta

What is decisive when we are shopping or seeking information online/ via a mobile app?

Time that is takes to complete an action, not being exposed to irrelevant pages or sections, feeling secured etc. are some of them. Also, when purchasing online, every customer is required to undertake a specific sequence of actions that require time, memory, and effort. These include setting passwords and preferences, entering external information, remembering past choices and making decisions relevant for the conversion.

A big goal in digital business is reducing these gates, making the process as much smooth and simple as possible.

Deep linking help us doing exactly this, says Federica Grazi, performance marketing analyst at hotel mobile booking app HotelQuickly.

Grazi says this tool is in fact able to create bridges between different pages, both within the same app and between different apps. When clicking a link, instead of being directed to the home page, the customer immediately lends on the page relevant to him, without the need of following a complex series of steps. This of course impacts positively on the bottom line of the business: the easier the process, the higher the purchases.

The travel industry offers a big potential to deep linking: imagine yourself lending in Sydney for an event and receiving a push notification from a travel app, inviting you to book a hotel for the same night. Clicking on it, you would be redirected directly on the city specific hotel listing, without needing to specify your selection. Once paid, you might want to book a cab. You wouldn’t need to insert either your location, or the address of the hotel, as they would both be recorded without losing the metadata. Also, you wouldn’t even need to download the app!

Trends to look out for

It’s becoming common practice to enable “view on app” notice when a user is browsing the content on the mobile web, says You Teck Lam, head of performance marketing, HotelQuickly.

He says by implementing deep linking, developers/ marketer can easily offer the option for the user to consume the content in a native app experience. Push notification deep link and email content deep link is also something to look out for.

Deep linking has been around since the first version of Android and a very early version of iOS. But it is pointed out that only handful of native apps went ahead with the technology because it’s so confusing to do so. Teck Lam says this could be down to a lack of documentation, platform integrations and cross-functional adopters to push deep linking.

“Developers are aware of the feature but it’s probably seen as a marketing feature than a product feature. Either the product or marketing team will have to decide upon the schema (deep link) before any integration can be done. Real world usage is also not immediately apparent as there is a lack of standard between the different platforms to enable cross-device deep linking. It creates a scenario where the technology is available but there is clear use case to use it,” he says.

Why it’s important now?

Mobile content is quickly becoming an important aspect of search engine optimization. App discovery is one of the key challenges for most of the apps out there and Google already provide app indexing to allow Google search to crawl through the app content. Enabling a deep link to direct users directly to the content they were searching for will greatly enhance the user experience. This would simply mean that the link quality is high which will result in better SEO.

Also in the context of how to make the most of what Google can do for a mobile app, it should be noted that there are two valuable use cases - the deferred deep link model which direct new users to the intended content after installing the app and retargeting ads which direct users to the content most relevant content based on their interaction with the app. This essentially help build a better customer journey which would increase customer retention and thereby sales.

Also, setting up of deep links is a way to leverage an entity’s social media presence. The likes of Facebook and Twitter allow the use of deep links on their platforms (allow to promote deep views as ads, and this is helpful in retargeting campaigns).

Contextual deep linking

Contextual deep linking can uplift the user experience.

Citing an example, Anthony Collins, lead iOS developer at HotelQuickly shares: As a traveller, if I see an advertisement or receive an email from a company which is focused on a very specific thread e.g. ‘Great hotel deals on the HotelQuickly app today, average 28% discount in Bangkok!’, I have been provided with the important contextual information that not only does HotelQuickly have “great hotel deals...” but, more specifically, that ”...Bangkok!” is being highlighted.

From a deep linking perspective, the aim is to connect the statement to the relevant content in the app.

“I expect to click on the link, be navigated to the app and presented with the heavily discounted hotel deals in Bangkok automatically. A fully seamless journey. A regular deep link lacks the contextual awareness of opening the app in Bangkok and perhaps, would simply open up the app,” says Collins.

As a developer, Collins says the team knows a lot more about the traveller, their habits, their favorite destinations, where they are right now, what time of the day they prefer to book. With this data the team can have an incredibly granular approach in targeted marketing that, based on the data the traveller has shared, is far more user centric than ever before.

“Looking into our data, we see you have used our app recently, you looked for a luxurious hotels in Singapore. You closed the app whilst viewing ‘W’ Singapore. Today you also did the same and looked at exactly the same hotel. We can then provide you with a push notification informing you that we have 1 room left, in the hotel you were looking at two hours ago, at that fantastic price you won’t find anywhere else and might want to return back to the HotelQuickly app. Clicking on the ‘push notification’ we have sent to your mobile device with this information, opens the app and takes you straight to the hotel. We have saved you the disappointment of losing out on that hotel room you clearly have a keen interest in,” explained Collins.

Approach

So how to approach seamless transition from the link to the app?

The first is to ensure the schema is properly integrated into the app and take note of the logic flow for the particular deep link the user is entering to. For example, if a user needs to be in login state before they can access the screen, the developer should ensure that the user is properly transitioned through the user flow.

The second is to use a cross-device link to enable proper transition between devices. Platforms like URX and Appsflyer OneLink already provide that level of transition.

Maturity level

Very few companies are using deep links today on mobile, says Jerome Seidita, mobile commerce director, Nok Airlines. “But I believe it is a top priority for any companies offering their services on different devices types, even more when it comes to retargeting,” he says.

To answer this problem, the team at Nok Airlines created an efficient tool that allows to understand how users are connecting with the airline and redirect them to the best available channels using deep links.

“If you have the application installed we will open the app with pre-filled fields whereas if you are connecting from your computer we will redirect you to the right page on our desktop website. Other companies started to do that recently like LinkedIn but we are still at the early stages,” says Seidita. “We are also working on one-to-one push notifications, targeting the right person at the right moment with detailed information such as weather or traffic linked to booking information and behaviour. A very exciting and promising area,” he says.

So clearly the industry should go in this direction. Nobody likes to arrive on a page that is either not related to the advertising or not mobile/ desktop friendly.

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Ai Editorial: Airline IT and Embracing Change!

As a specialist in the arena of airline IT solutions, Amadeus is gearing up for the new XML-based data transmission standard in NDC as well as focused on refining its merchandising offering. Ai’s Ritesh Gupta finds out

Airlines have successfully targeted new revenue streams over the past few years, but the contribution of a PSS and the lowering of associated costs still remains a topic of discussion. It is an issue that continues to hover around the possibility of finding new ways to replace what are often termed as “old-fashioned” distribution connections.

There have been IT companies in the airline distribution technology space that have been propagating the significance of improving upon core aspects, be it for managing bookings out of the airline reservation system, apt way to merchandise offerings, settlement and reporting for every sales outlet, embracing an efficient business rules processing engine and the last component being NDC-enabled XML API.

It should be noted that the existing PSS systems, which are platforms featuring reservation, inventory and departure capabilities, have supported selling airline offerings, which have always been termed as a complex proposition.

It is often debated whether the IT specialists behind PSS’ deliberately tend to resist change and rather not succumb to an attempt by new players to enter their territory in any fashion. As a result, the new age IT players at times just come across as provider of ad hoc solutions.

So to what extent are airline IT solution companies, the owners of a PSS system, ready to embrace change?

As we all know this happens to be a crucial juncture for the industry.

At this point of time the industry is evolving to embrace a new, XML-based data transmission standard in NDC. Also, the new commerce platforms are promising to assist airlines in ensuring they offer an opportunity to a passenger to buy any air or non-air product at any touch point. Also, modern merchandising and pricing engines do not operate independently.

So can we expect an established airline IT entity to strengthen their merchandising capability? Also, develop an NDC-enabled API to ensure the content is delivered dynamically in the omni-channel shopping environment?

Christian Baillet, Regional Director – Airline IT Sales, APAC, Amadeus acknowledges that the progress is being made in the industry, and says the development of an API or even a merchandising offering isn’t a technology constraint anymore. A core aspect of merchandising is building personalised offers, which is managed by business rules, and Amadeus’ PSS makes extensive use of business rules to help airlines deliver tailored services to travellers.

“Amadeus’ PSS system has responded to the changes in the travel landscape, and we are equipped to support airlines’ needs today for a competent merchandising strategy,” says Baillet.

“Our technology manages massive volumes of shopping transactions, works out pricing in real-time, for both simple and complex itineraries. This functionality encompasses the ability to process all sources of fares. So airlines can count on us for flexibility, and configuration and management of new products and pricing. We have been refining our merchandising engine. The technology is in place, as it is relies on open architecture, XML-based,” he says.

Why is it tough for legacy systems to manage ancillaries?

The introduction of ancillary products results in a complex scenario, something that legacy systems weren’t developed for. Management of air ancillaries requires setting up of multiple processes. It isn’t an ideal scenario for a legacy system to manage it if they don’t support a multi-host and multi domain commerce.

“Unlike legacy systems, Amadeus offers an integrated solution, based on scalable and open architecture and if any airline intends to go ahead with one vendor for the entire merchandising strategy we are up to it. But we also respect airlines’ vision if they choose to take a different approach,” mentioned Baillet, referring to the best-of-breed approach or even an airline opting to work with different partners.

So do niche IT specialists have any advantage?

“Yes, there are entities that are nimble, but then large IT players like us have our advantage in serving the needs of airlines, too. Yes, we are prepared for where the distribution landscape is headed, and soon we will be ready with our improved merchandising offering,” said Baillet “Our airline customers will have access to a full range of tools to execute their marketing and sales vision for the entirety of their content through both direct and indirect channels, with the ability to execute on product, price, placement and promotion, delivering a tailored offer to travellers at the touch point chosen by travellers.”

As for the so-called pipe or the XML-based API that simplifies distribution of air and non-air products to various distribution channels – both direct and indirect, Baillet says the team has already made progress on that count. “We fully understand the significance of such development,” he adds.

What to expect in future

“Amadeus is committed to embracing technologies to drive efficiencies and greater capabilities within our industry while supporting transparency, choice, competition, privacy and innovation in the air travel market place,” says Baillet.

He says proof of this is that Amadeus is already working with United Airlines on the only NDC-XML actually in production with a GDS. Also, Qatar Airways has also confirmed working with Amadeus for an NDC 1.1 pilot.

Based on information from the IATA website, the airline introduced a pilot to cover the design of the NDC solution (this initiative’s highlight is from a user interface and architecture perspective). It would allow the airline to make and manage NDC offers and orders.

The second phase of the pilot was scheduled to deliver ancillaries to certain Amadeus agents in the third quarter of this year. The pilot will focus on showcasing the airline's premium product across all cabins to travel agents, through an Amadeus graphical user interface connected using NDC XML data standards.

It needs to be understood that NDC is a facilitator and it is about bringing consistency in display of what airlines can offer to users across all the channels, Baillet stated. “The bigger issue here is how can we support airlines in their endeavour to know their customer better, using the data they have about their customers to personalise their offering,” he added, indicating that the airline IT solutions provider is up to it. Also, the company is also preparing for what will be a stronger push into data analytics to support better retailing.

Also, NDC-XML is only a small part of the merchandising effort underway in the industry and is far from the only connectivity standard.

“We are already seeing that usage of NDC -XML by airlines and GDSs will vary in its shape and form, resulting in a mix of EDIFACT and XML connectivity. And this is why we’re launching our merchandising system, fully integrated with our PSS suite, to enable airlines to create dynamic and relevant offerings: any time, any point of sale or channel, direct or indirect, through any device,” he said.

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Ai Editorial: Getting the Art of Personalisation Right

Identifying a customer is great, but better not to intrude in everything

Airlines are getting sharper in knowing how to personalize. But there are examples where the idea of knowing a customer seems to be going too far

Airlines are in the infancy stage when it comes to controlling their products to the point of creating a consistent, personalized, and value-added product for each customer.

As experts point out, the industry is directionally positioning itself to do just that.

“Today, the majority of airlines use a fairly simplistic algorithm to create a generic “individualized” product using a frequent flyer number to identify airline status, then sending out the appropriate set of products, such as a free premium seats, special boarding, etc.,” says Jim Davidson, CEO, Farelogix. He adds, “However, tremendous progress is being made by many airlines that are starting to adopt technology capable of taking input from customer management systems (usually in the form of a customer “score” that equates to a set of products to be offered) and sophisticated optimization systems. But we are just beginning to turn this corner.”

From an airline perspective, an executive based in the U. S. recently told us the “personalization of the passenger experience becoming more and more individual, as opposed to being based on a certain market segment”. He added that this is evolving from the automation of several areas which used to be manual processes and it is through that automation that huge data sets are now being created that can be used specifically for this purpose. The executive went to add that the era of big data is actually here now, but the tools and strategies to fully take advantage of it are still just a bit below the horizon for the most part.

What does it take to “personalize”?

Being able to offer tailored travel products to individual customers is being attempted for years now. However airlines have certainly moved from a phase of consideration to a period of action over the last 12 months.

Kieron Branagan, MD, OpenJaw Business Unit at GuestLogix, says effective personalization requires a “collect, predict, act” approach.

Firstly, airlines need to collect relevant data about the customer, often from a variety of sources, and airlines with a CRM and FFP/ loyalty program partnership already have a decent start. However it is also necessary to have single e-commerce platform that provides a 360 degree view of all digital interactions (including past transaction history and current online behaviour etc.) across the omni-channel (including desktop, mobile, tablet, on-board, contact centre etc.) for the entire customer lifetime, in order to make the most of the personalization opportunity, says Branagan.

He says data needs to be mined for insights by data scientists in order to predict and continually test which offers resonate with which customers.

“When beginning a personalization strategy, many airlines categorise customers into personas, for example the “business traveller”, “family holidaymaker”, “couple”, “solo traveller” etc. As knowledge and data quality matures, it is possible to get closer to serving each customer’s need on more of an individual level,” says Branagan.

Data analytics is crucial to offer personalized offers throughout the travel process. Without knowing what a passenger has done before, it makes it very difficult to visualize what they might want in the future. Without quality data, and knowing what the data actually represents, analysis of the data becomes impossible.

In order to act on insights, airlines need a logic/ rules-based merchandising engine that is powerful and flexible enough to create and manage offers and present them in an optimised shopping experience for individual customers.

Also, from an organization’s structure perspective, the challenge for most will be identifying the need to more closely integrate IT into the commercial processes to manage the sheer volumes of data and create an output that is functional and beneficial to the passenger.

Being careful

As much as technology evolves, and customers can be tracked with much more precision, it shouldn’t be forgotten that it is the customer who dictates how far you can go at times.

Data can do wonders. But if the user behind the technology disables certain functionality then one can’t do much.

For example, if a passenger using a particluar mobile app has the location functionality deactivated then it is unattainable to offer location-specific offers.

In one of our recent articles, Ryan M. Harris, e-commerce and ancillary products manager, InselAir and InselAir Aruba, explained that in the EU, there is a requirement for a passenger to opt-in to accepting tracking cookies, which allows you to collect information on their search habits. “If a passenger does not opt-in, I can’t tell that they have been searching for a trip to Milan, so I can’t offer them a personalized offer when they come to my home page,” he mentioned.

Importantly, Harris also emphasized that there is a deep public distrust, in general, in automated tracking.

“Full personalization opportunities requires building that trust with the passenger and ensuring that the information will not be used except for the specific reason that the passenger grants access. Technology has made many things possible, but there are limitations as to how far you can take it without being “creepy”,” Harris mentioned.

Also, for those who don’t understand much about how retargeting works, when they get a feeling that they are being followed they may not like it.

For instance, I know of OTAs who sort of “follow me everywhere” after I abandon certain booking flow. I might have just touched upon a fare or a hotel for a particular destination and left the site in few minutes. But then session after session, when I access any website on my PC, I get to see a banner ad for the search I had conducted. It can go on and on for a week at least, as far as I can remember. Yes, the ad that is being shown to me is personalized but certainly not the way technology should be used to annoy the potential traveller.

So airlines definitely need to be cautious about their plans for personalization. It is not easy to foray into new areas of technology or analytics. Yes, there are huge benefits to be reaped by being data-driven, but not at the expense of losing out on customers in the name of knowing them better.

By Ritesh Gupta

Many of the latest developments pertaining to personalization will be discussed at our global Mega Event (04 & 05 November 2015, San Diego).

Follow Ai on Twitter: @Ai_Connects_Us and Checkout our events at: www.AiConnects.us

Ai Editorial: Big Data = Good Data?

Combining all valuable data sources into one customer hub – how to make it work?

What’s impeding the effort of airlines to fully capitalize on the prowess of personalization? Ai assesses the same, featuring recommendations from Boxever and OpenJaw

Advancements in data analytics and how the same paves way for understanding the intent of the customer is one area that is being followed closely.

As Datalex’s CEO Aidan Brogan puts it, the effort is in combining all valuable data sources into one customer hub and ensuring that the commerce system can turn an insight into an offer.

It is also vital to ensure that passengers are duly recognized across every digital touch point. In this context, it becomes imperative to have a single view of the customer. But then there are still hurdles in attaining the same.

Ai’s Ritesh Gupta spoke to senior industry executives about some of the crucial areas related to personalisation and analytics:

Being data-driven

Boxever’s CEO Dave O’Flanagan explains there are several key points to being data-driven:

1) Understand why you’re doing it. There’s no point in building a large repository of data unless you’re clear on the RoI and can clearly demonstrate the business value to your organisation, which can be direct revenue, says O’Flanagan.

2) Start small. Deploy the solution in your digital channels first, focusing on minimizing integration while and maximising impact. “We find that web, email and mobile are great places to start then expand to call centre, operations, in-flight and beyond. This allows you to build the business case to deploy the solution across your organization,” says O’Flanagan.

3) Hire the best talent. O’Flanagan says data is useless without people to help you understand it and translate the insights into personalized customer experiences.

4) Align your organization. Omni-channel can mean omni-department for your organization and key functions will need to work together to make it a reality. “We’ve found that the organisational challenges in achieving true omni-channel are every bit as difficult as the technical ones,” says O’Flanagan.

Single customer view – dealing with silos

O’Flanagan says, “In our experience the toughest part of creating a single view of the customer is that it requires many departments to work together for a common purpose.”

He says coordinating this against other priorities, aligning on common goals, allocating resources, defining ownership of the new SCV (single customer view) - these are all new efforts for many of these departments, who have traditionally worked within their own silo. “Orienting around the customer really means transforming how the company thinks about its data, resources, and operations. Part of Boxever’s approach to addressing this challenge is helping companies understand the organisational as well as the technical challenges to doing this,” says O’Flanagan.

Mark Lenahan, VP of Product Strategy at OpenJaw says the biggest barrier to a single customer view is the persistence of technology and corporate silos, per customer touch point, as opposed to the creation of a single platform for retailing.

According to him, a single platform is one where the airline can leverage its buying power to present any product in any channel. “For example, contracting a hotel takes effort (direct connect or channel manager integration takes a different kind of effort), but why repeat it for every airline brand and again for the holidays company and again for the loyalty program?” questions Lenahan. He further probes and says: from the customer’s point of view, why are they seeing entirely different hotel products on the airline.com website than they see on the airlineholidays.com website, or the airlineffp.com website, and again on board the plane? Why are they seeing different offers in-line, before they ticket, than post sale, after they ticket, pre-departure and on-board?

“I'm not saying every product must be visible in every channel. What I do believe is that the decision of what products to offer where should be a business decision, not a technical one,” he says.

At this point, not only do very few airlines have a true multi-channel single-platform approach to travel retailing, they also don’t have corporate structure to support retailing. There isn’t a single person who can own the business case for a product across all channels - direct/ indirect, web/ mobile, holidays, loyalty, on-board, at destination etc., added Lenahan.

Identifying a customer

Technology is making progress when it comes to identifying a customer in the multi-device environment.

“My view on this is that the suitability of probabilistic methods depends on what you are going to subsequently do with that assumption of identity,” says Lenahan. He says if you are using aggregate data to discover patterns in consumer behavior, probabilistic is probably fine within error bars that your data scientists and analysts will understand. “Likewise if you are targeting advertising, you only need a good percentage of hits, and even the misses are quite likely to be similar people,” he says. “Although it is based on cookies, I like Amazon’s multiple levels of authentication. They welcome you back with an assumption, but you still need to deterministically “log in” to view account details or complete an order.”

Lenahan says he also thinks customers have a right to some transparency here. If a consumer has a reasonable expectation of anonymity and they are not in fact anonymous, the airline risks some reputation damage “if they abuse that and get caught,” warned Lenahan. “There should be a way for any consumer to see the standard, anonymous market price for example. I think common sense will prevail, and no matter how clever you think you are as a retailer, you can't outsmart a market (in the long run) and you shouldn't try. Ultimately, retailers work for the customer not against them and they mustn’t forget that,” he said.

O’Flanagan says right now the strike rates for generic matching based on cookies, IP and other environmental factors are pretty unimpressive but if you can look at booking information, search behavior and other travel-specific factors the match rate increase significantly and this is where travel-specific solutions have the edge.

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Ai Editorial: Identifying the customer is great, but better not everything

Airlines are getting sharper in knowing how to personalize. But there are examples where the idea of knowing a customer seems to be going too far

Airlines are in the infancy stage when it comes to controlling their products to the point of creating a consistent, personalized, and value-added product for each customer.

As experts point out, the industry is directionally positioning itself to do just that.

What does it take to “personalize”?

Kieron Branagan, MD, OpenJaw Business Unit at GuestLogix, says effective personalization requires a “collect, predict, act” approach.

He says data needs to be mined for insights by data scientists in order to predict and continually test which offers resonate with which customers.

Being careful

As much as technology evolves, and customers can be tracked with much more precision, it shouldn’t be forgotten that it is the customer who dictates how far you can go at times.

Data can do wonders. But if the user behind the technology disables certain functionality then one can’t do much.

For example, if a passenger using a particluar mobile app has the location functionality deactivated then it is unattainable to offer location-specific offers.

Importantly, Harris also emphasized that there is a deep public distrust, in general, in automated tracking.

Also, for those who don’t understand much about how retargeting works, when they get a feeling that they are being followed they may not like it.

By Ritesh Gupta

Many of the latest developments pertaining to personalization will be discussed at our global Mega Event (04 & 05 November 2015, San Diego).

Follow us on Twitter: @Ai_Connects_Us and Checkout our Events at: www.AiConnects.us

Ai Editorial: Dealing with airline IT Infrastructure for Distribution

Airlines’ IT infrastructure varies a lot and can affect what and how they sell, according to Paul Whiteway, commercial director - APAC, Skyscanner. Ai lists 5 key aspects of airline indirect distribution involving a meta-search site.

How competent are indirect channels when it comes to supporting differentiation that airlines are seeking? As much as the likes of GDS, OTAs and meta-search engines need to answer this question, airlines, too, are often probed about their intention for the way they intend to support indirect distribution.

Carriers have attained a high level of sophistication when it comes to serving ancillary offerings, branded packages etc. that feature on their respective sites.

“However the distribution of this data to indirect channels is limited,” an industry executive told me. So this essentially means that unless users shop on the airline website they won’t see the full range of branded offers and content. By sharing more data with channel partners, airlines can ensure their brand benefits are communicated and this will drive sales and revenues. Of course, the discussion around who owns the customer is a valid one, and the commercial association is driven by this key aspect, too.

Ai spoke to Paul Whiteway, commercial director - APAC, Skyscanner, about how and why airlines work with meta-search sites and how the traffic generation site is improving. Excerpts from the interview with Ai’s Ritesh Gupta:

Being in control: Whiteway thinks airlines have a lot of control over what they want to sell. “Their IT infrastructure does however vary a lot and can affect what and how they sell. As we have relationships with over 400 airlines, we see a lot difference in the way airlines approach their selling. Mobile is probably the area where airlines are in less control – often due to legacy systems.” He adds, “Some airlines have an amazing mobile experience and some have less user-friendly ones. Overall the online industry moves at fast pace, and airlines need to adapt to this in terms of what they sell and how they sell across multiple channels and devices. As users are constantly evolving, the move to mobile for both searching and booking is one of the biggest shifts we have seen.”

Sharing of data/ content: Skyscanner was founded in 2003. With over a decade of experience, the company is equipped with sophisticated tools for working with airlines. Whiteway asserts that there is definitely a spectrum of how easy or hard some integrations are to onboard and manage on an ongoing basis. “Overall nothing is insurmountable but if an airline has an API that can provide direct connection that definitely works best for users as it gives them access to the best data.”

“We have also seen examples where when an airline shares promotion fares and actively manages their routes and pricing by using the powerful data tools we provide they can benefit significantly as users are always on the lookout for great deals,” shared Whiteway.

Incremental reach: Any channel that has the capability to drive increment business that a supplier simply cannot target is always an attractive proposition. For a traffic generation specialist, with over 40 million unique monthly visitors to its websites across over 30 languages, Skyscanner’s Whiteway says: “If you are a regional airline based in Asia your fares can be shown to our European users who may not be familiar with your brand”. Airlines “definitely see tremendous value from direct agreements with us”, he adds. “And this benefit is not just in terms of the number of bookings they receive through us but others such as owning the customer relationship, the opportunity to up-sell and lowering their distribution costs,” he adds.

Top-notch user experience: A key focus today is to personalise the search results. And the team at Skyscanner, too, is working on it. Referring to Amazon’s recommendation engine, Whiteway says, “…it results in me buying way too many products at times. We are seeing the same trend in travel with personalization enhancing the user experience. We see our users want this based on data.” About what is being done, Whiteway mentioned that the objective is to understand and aid the decision-making - does a user have a preference for cheaper flights with a longer layover? Do you want to fly a low cost carrier or a national carrier? Do you prefer to leave at night or in the afternoon? Do you want an airline with a wide seat pitch? If done properly, it also means commercial partners are served much more targeted users.

Product differentiation: When it comes to 3^rd party intermediaries, historically the focus has been on using price as a differentiator, and it will certainly continue to be important as price is a major decision criteria for users, says Whiteway. “Having said that, at Skyscanner we recognize that price is only one factor that influences purchasing decisions. It is important to show additional information such as whether baggage is included, in-flight entertainment, seat upgrade options etc.” He says this is a key focus for the site’s product roadmap and he promises users will see innovation and differentiating features around sorting, searching and personalization as well as deeply integrating ancillary services.

In terms of general trip planning tools and non-air products such as tours, Whiteway views this as an area that has a lot of potential as it is still very nascent. There are many start-ups in the trip planning space which is a fair indication of its potential but nobody has really ‘cracked it’ yet, as Whiteway put it.

Distribution will be on the agenda of the global Mega Event (in San Diego 04-05 November 2015).

Follow us on Twitter: @Ai_Connects_Us and Checkout our Events at: www.AiConnects.us

Ai Editorial: NDC Pilots Update

What will it take to sustain the momentum of the NDC pilots?

Airlines will have to invest in new technology that will not be cheap and the GDSs will have to invest in new aggregation and trade selling capabilities, writes Ai Correspondent Ritesh Gupta.

How is the NDC XML-based standard shaping up?

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced a spate of pilots and live deployments to test the NDC schemas in the second week of June. It is imperative to assess what sort of preparation does it require to capitalize on the opportunity.

Ryan M. Harris, e-commerce and ancillary products manager, InselAir and InselAir Aruba says it’s important to understand that the NDC initiative is still in relatively early stages. For its part, InselAir, too, is gearing up to complete a live NDC deployment, selling flights and ancillaries to corporate users and travel agents.

“Within the IATA NDC workgroups and the PADIS (Passenger and Airport Data Interchange) committees, we have had the chance to see several different pilot projects at different stages of maturity,” mentioned Harris. The range of the current projects goes from basic, single-function proof of concepts to full-scale live deployments that are running today.

“The majority of the projects have been able to reach their stated objectives, but some have had their issues, which is to be expected. We have been able to take the feedback from the pilot projects, both good and bad, and incorporate it into the standards process, hopefully successfully,” shared Harris.

“For the most part, we have the business goals of the project documented and agreed to and we have made significant progress into the technical specifications that will serve as a blueprint for the standards. There are still many functions in development and there are organizational processes that need to be completed, which takes time,” said Harris. He further added: “The main goal of the entire project is to take the industry from where we are today, which uses a fixed, “proprietary” communications format that is very rarely used outside of the travel world and move it to a more open XML standard that has the ability to consume and feed data from/to several sources.”

“Given the open-source nature of the XML language, the base of available programmers and service providers that can provide services to the industry expands dramatically, which should spur additional innovations and lower the overall costs of solutions,” said Harris.

Investment in new technology

NDC is a standardized definition of connectivity messages designed specifically with the notion of airline differentiated products delivery in mind. Number of carriers that have participated in NDC pilots/ deployments or announced their intent to do so now stands at 24.

Sharing his viewpoint, Jim Davidson, CEO, Farelogix says as NDC is simply a standardized message set and much of the opposition has either disappeared or gone “underground” some real work can finally start.

“Remember that until the airline competes in product strategy, invests in new technologies such as their own merchandising and pricing engines, and the GDSs complete their scalable connectivity, display and transact capabilities, not much transition will occur in the indirect channel,” he said.

“Frankly, most of the “testing” has been more hype than reality. Airlines will have to invest in new technology that will not be cheap and the GDSs will have to invest in new aggregation and trade selling capabilities before we see scale,” stated Davidson.

Harris believes it is still a little premature to replace all the airline systems with NDC-compliant systems, especially since there isn’t yet a standard to define “NDC-compliant”.

“While the messaging format is still under development, companies can begin to ready themselves for the data that NDC will bring through their life-cycle management approaches. Any data systems that are currently nearing end of life should consider adding XML connectivity into their replacement requirements. By taking this simple, and highly available, approach, airlines can prepare the canvas for the NDC picture while maintaining their governance and avoiding obsolescence,” explained Harris.

Single point of content creation

Airline distribute data to indirect channels via ATPCO OC, IATA EMD and XML technologies.

Until EMD-A comes to full implementation, any ancillary sales will continue to be recognized as a separate transaction; however, that does not prevent an airline from selling it, it only makes it difficult to associate it to a specific flight activity.

ATPCO Optional Services does allow most airlines to file and sell products related to the flight through third-party channels, including through GDS and interline partners.

“The big advantage in transitioning this from the simple ATPCO filings to an API or other XML-based technology is that it allows an airline to better perform revenue management on those products in real time. Even with the frequent updates to and from the ATPCO databases, the pricing remains relatively static and is difficult to personalize. For that, you really do need that direct connection to the airline’s merchandising system which is only achievable through the direct connection, which is a major goal of the IATA NDC initiative,” says Harris.

Davidson says right now the airlines and the GDSs seem to be going through what he refers to as “unnatural acts” to bring about this new distribution science.

“The unnatural acts are - for the most part the airlines and the GDSs attempting to utilize technology and processes that were never intended to do what we are asking them to do. Take ATPCO filing of merchandising – we are attempting to utilize a process and technology that was designed to manage static price information,” he said.

He further added: the concept of even a personalized price, let alone a set of products and services of which many are dynamically controlled inventory, was never conceived when the ATPCO filing system was set in place. “And even seven or eight years ago when the OC project was started at ATPCO, the architects never envisioned a time when a price and offer would be dynamically generated at the exact time of the request to the airline and distributed by the airline in milliseconds. Yet we created an add-on to the traditional ATPCO process to attempt to distribute dynamic airline ancillary products and services using same file, store, forward, utilizing a third-party to generate to the best of their ability, the offer.”

“While a number of airlines and GDSs are feverishly trying to hang on to this process, the reality is, it’s history. While I can’t predict when, the airlines will adopt the process of dynamically generating offers across their entire distribution network through a single point of “content creation”,” said Davidson.

Analytics associated with NDC

Airlines adopting the NDC model of distribution will be the ones creating their offers one at a time, and they in turn will have a tremendous opportunity to get immediate feedback on the offer – i.e. did the customer buy or not.

As Davidson says, the analytical opportunity to improve offers and corresponding take rates will be a major breakthrough for airlines in how they market their product. This is a major change to how the airlines distribute today in the indirect channel with virtually no feedback on offers until someone actually buys something.

Once the airlines get a taste of the immediate feedback loop and how they can adjust offers, it will revolutionize airline distribution as we know it.

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Ai Editorial: Comparing Airline Direct vs. Indirect

Comparing Airline Direct vs. Indirect – still a big gap in what’s on offer

The way enriched branded offers and content are displayed and sold via indirect channels isn’t an apt depiction of what airlines have to offer by Ritesh Gupta, Airline Information Correspondent.

What is being done to combat disparity in how carriers distribute their content for channel optimization? The answer to this question depends upon several factors, including the intent of airlines to make the most of indirect distribution. There is immense scope for improvement if airlines intend to avoid commoditized appearance of their branded offerings on indirect channels.

Eric Dumas, CEO, Vayant Travel Technologies, says currently, many airlines offer on their websites ancillary services, branded packages and related content such as attractive images, videos, descriptions etc. However, the distribution of this data to indirect channels is limited, he says.

Citing the example of meta-search engines, he says the decision-making mostly relies on price and schedule.

“Unless the customer shops on the airline website they won’t see the full range of branded offers and content. By sharing more data with channel partners, airlines can ensure their brand benefits are communicated (and eventually gain from stronger revenue generation),” shared Dumas.

Data via industry standards and XML

As of today, the way one can shop on airline-owned channels is quite different from the third party ones. The industry has been keenly following the progress of NDC in this context.

Image 1 and Image 2

So we tried to assess how can airlines distribute such data to indirect channels via ATPCO OC, IATA EMD and XML technologies.

The EMD-S is now pretty much available through the GDS channels and has been a part of most PSS systems for a few years now. The big move forward in that arena will be the continued rollout of EMD-A, which allows you to associate a non-flight item to a flight ticket, thus providing more information on the purchasing trends of your passengers.

Ryan M. Harris, e-commerce and ancillary products manager, InselAir and InselAir Aruba says until EMD-A comes to full implementation, any ancillary sales will continue to be recognized as a separate transaction; however, that does not prevent an airline from selling it, it only makes it difficult to associate it to a specific flight activity.

Harris adds, “ATPCO Optional Services does allow most airlines to file and sell products related to the flight through third-party channels, including through GDS and interline partners.” He says the big advantage in transitioning this from the simple ATPCO filings to an API or other XML-based technology is that it allows an airline to better perform revenue management on those products in real time. Even with the frequent updates to and from the ATPCO databases, the pricing remains relatively static and is difficult to personalize. “For that, you really do need that direct connection to the airline’s merchandising system which is only achievable through the direct connection, which is a major goal of the IATA NDC initiative,” says Harris.

There is an option to use a web-based system that manages a set of fares with similar rules and services.

Technology is in place to enable carriers to finalize their own buckets and allot fares and services to each bucket to be offered to shoppers. As Dumas explains, different prices are there for the same flight indicating different fare buckets, and there is flexibility in opting for the same when it comes to outbound and inbound travel. The shown price of the fare bucket features the lowest available fare in that bucket.

So today if an airline opts to work with a specialist like Vayant for its core pricing, shopping and offers distribution to third parties (either pulled, including NDC, or pushed), the use of Vayant Fare Buckets means immediate processing of new, modified, deleted services and bundles. “This complements the ATPCO Branded Fares we use to create real-time bundles for specific needs. With just one click the airline can create a bundled sales offering for a specific channel – and if they want to change it, well that’s just another click,” explains Dumas.

Making partnership effective

Traffic generation is an interesting game.

Continuing with the example of meta-search engines, it needs to be understood that meta-search sites made life difficult for airlines by dramatically increasing the search volumes airline websites normally handle. In consequence mechanisms were built to protect the airline website from the additional transaction costs generated in the GDS or hosting provider.

“Meta-search players moved on to other methods of finding flights, such as the going to the GDS themselves. But this meant they can miss out on offers available on airline websites,” says Dumas.

He adds, “Our approach is different – and it’s about getting airlines and meta-search engines to work together for mutual benefit. We enable airlines from all around the world to give their data to the meta-search players so they can offer the full range of an airline’s offers, including optional and third party services.”

Control

As for control over what airlines want to sell, and how a passenger is being made to feel that the airline is smart enough to offer what he or she actually needs, it largely depends on the sales channel and the type of products. Through the direct channels, such as e-commerce and call centers, as Harris says, airlines are in full control and can easily leverage agreements made with other service providers to the benefit of both the airline and the passenger. Direct channels also provide the airline with merchandizing opportunities for its flight-based products such as flexible fare families, upgraded seat selection and in-flight services through the sales process. He says in case of indirect channels, it becomes “less controllable” as you become reliant on third parties, some of which have their own agreements with service providers, such as car rentals or hotels and most of which tend to be based on lowest price. Through the indirect channels, an airline must rely on the third party to be educated enough in its product mix to be able to adequately sell the services that the passenger either desires or can benefit from.

Also, airlines today are only limited by the data available to them, which is where the indirect channels have some limitations, points out Harris. Citing an example, he says, if a passenger books through a travel agent, more likely than not, the agent will put his or her contact information in the booking as opposed to the passenger. For cases of trip delays or flight changes, this is expected, as the agent becomes the responsible party to contact the passenger and can make alternative arrangements on their behalf. The problem from merchandizing is that the airline now has no direct line of communication to the passenger, so cannot directly market to them. “This is especially true of infrequent travelers who do not have an associated frequent flyer account, as I now have no information that would allow me as the airline to make ancillary offers directly,” says Harris.

Overall, there is a refreshing energy in the industry today, says Dumas. Airlines understand the critical importance of controlling their sales offering, especially the pure flight-only offers which are the very core of their business. “I’m excited by the potential to add flight-related services to core fare pricing - on the proviso that an airline can deal with disconnect between core flight offer generation and add-on services. Gaining control over offer generation, from A to Z, is the key to a successful sales strategy,” says Dumas.

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Page 23 of 25

Ai Editorial: Where does NDC fit today?

Ai Editorial: Is the future of comparison shopping in jeopardy with NDC?

Ai Editorial: Time for Airlines to take a Deeper Look at Deep Linking

Ai Editorial: Airline IT and Embracing Change!

Ai Editorial: Getting the Art of Personalisation Right

Ai Editorial: Big Data = Good Data?

Ai Editorial: Identifying the customer is great, but better not everything

Ai Editorial: Dealing with airline IT Infrastructure for Distribution

Ai Editorial: NDC Pilots Update

Ai Editorial: Comparing Airline Direct vs. Indirect

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