Ai Editorial: Banking on a robust API offering for retailing and servicing
First published on 31st August, 2016
Ai Editorial: An efficient API strategy paves way for pervasive adoption of applications, enabling an airline to greatly expand its presence across related applications, writes Ai’s Ritesh Gupta
Travel vs. retail is one topic that continues to rule whenever we talk of a transaction in the omni-channel shopping environment.
I recently wrote about the significance of the travel sector finding its own niche, rather than just focusing on delivering “Amazon-like” experience. I felt airlines need to understand the implications of IoT, artificial intelligence etc. on one side, and in conjunction evaluate how their existing IT, data and analytics infrastructure can make the most of gamut of new technological advancements.
There are ample indications that airlines and IT specialists are collectively working on digital transformation, acknowledging the importance of digital business processes and enterprise models and aligning them with the digital ecosystem. And as Datalex points out, to compete in a digital marketplace, the industry must adopt the technology principles and methods of digital natives = API First.
Airplane seat vs. book – just not the same
Before we understand the significance of APIs, comparison with the retail sector needs to be equated in a balanced manner.
Last week at MegaAPAC in Kuala Lumpur, Christian Baillet, Regional Director, Airline IT Sales, Amadeus IT Group, gave an example: You buy an air ticket and a book on the same day, both transactions done via digital channels. Be it for a transaction (distribution) or fulfilment, channels and touchpoints vary vastly. The number of direct and indirect channels an airline can have are much more than Amazon, pointed out Baillet. Also, there is a huge difference in the delivery and consumption of these buys. The book is likely to be delivered at your doorstep, and you track delivery status after your order. In case of travel, even if I dream of door-to-door transportation i.e. being picked up from my original place to where I am staying at the destination, there can be many touchpoints where my experience can go awry. And Baillet made another pertinent point: personalisation isn't about recognising customers all the time (or being creepy), rather it’s about relevant offers.
API-driven
“All systems – whether digital or legacy - must work and run on APIs,” stated Malachi Faughnan, Chief Information Officer, Datalex. Referring to the likes of Google, Uber, and Alibaba, he highlighted that with technology at their core, these organizations are in a position to serve their offerings with outstanding accuracy, maximising their operations while engaging directly with and owning their consumers. “They have leveraged technology to unify their end-to-end operations,” said Faughnan.
A competent API platform lets interoperate with other enterprise solutions regardless of technology or platform. It facilitates an enterprise model that opens technology to connect people, organizations, and resources in an interactive ecosystem. Airlines can reap several benefits, be it for serving customers during their various stages of their journey as well as working out tool sets for configurability and integration to partner merchants. As Datalex states, application developers thrive on API developer tool sets to craft a superior digital retail experience and deliver real-time business insights for real-time retail decisions.
Airlines can reflect upon several aspects as they see where they stand: is there infrastructure cut out for unified pricing, offer and order management? What makes the experience immediate - connected and intelligent?
An example – Ryanair
In April this year, at one of our conferences in Barcelona, Dara Brady, Ryanair’s head of digital experience, spoke about how the carrier is gearing up to deliver “an Amazon Travel Experience”. Brady said Ryanair’s goal is to be the platform of choice for all travel needs, not just flights. Brady mentioned that the carrier “dominates in 20%” of the whole journey, which is just not about flights. The plan is to target a bigger chunk of the total spend (accommodation, transportation/ parking and in-destination spend) by becoming a travel platform that specialises in lowest fare flights. And about a couple of weeks later in May, Ryanair announced its myRyanair platform, letting users to select their travel preferences by creating a personal profile, securely store payment and passport details, and aiding them in trip planning and buying, and managing it, too. myRyanair is built to handle the details of 106 million people, and handling even a bigger pool won’t be an issue. A couple of facets that stood out with Ryanair’s approach - platforms need to become more flexible, and there is a need to move towards creating a single view via staged approach to data.
So how can an efficient API strategy play a vital role in overall digital transformation?
“Essentially, it provides for pervasive adoption of applications. An efficient API strategy enables an airline to greatly expand its presence across related applications. Developer communities open up significant distribution potential for those airlines with an efficient API strategy,” says Farelogix CEO Jim Davidson.
Optimizing digital touchpoints
Today e-commerce companies are working on APIs using data intelligence, for instance, making recommendations to users on their platforms.
So how should the travel industry go about counting on APIs for offering an optimized experience across various digital touchpoints?
This is about having instant access to content and information, says Davidson.
He further explained: Recommendations are generally based on historical or real-time interactive information. Airlines are now wanting to interact with their customers and prospective customers through a variety of touch points and timeframes. “APIs enable efficient connectivity to these various touch points and value aggregators can utilize these airline APIs to enhance their value creation to their customers. I believe we will see much more airline related content finding its way into a variety of applications, especially social networking apps, like never before. Key words or conversation topics will invoke airline related offers, etc.,” explained Davidson.
So airlines need to dig and explore how they can craft experiences around booking and travelling. Digitalization is about being relevant to the customer throughout the journey.
As Kevin O’Shaughnessy, CEO and co-founder, Indigo.gt, says, “Be your own API”.
Explore where your organization stands today and how to excel in this arena at the upcoming 7th Mega Event Worldwide 2016, The Event for Loyalty, Ancillary & Merchandising & Co-Brands, to be held in Toronto, Canada. (25 -26 October, 2016).
Twitter hashtag: #MegaEvent16
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