Product Launch for Amadeus Business Intelligence for Travel

Transcription

Product Launch for Amadeus Business
Intelligence for Travel Agencies
EMMA
WIKLUND
Master of Science Thesis
Stockholm, Sweden 2008
Product Launch for Amadeus Business
Intelligence for Travel Agencies
EMMA
WIKLUND
Master’s Thesis in Business Development and Media Technology (20 credits)
at the School of Media Technology
Royal Institute of Technology year 2008
Supervisor was Christopher Rosenqvist, HHS
Examiner was Nils Enlund
TRITA-CSC-E 2008:085
ISRN-KTH/CSC/E--08/085--SE
ISSN-1653-5715
Royal Institute of Technology
School of Computer Science and Communication
KTH CSC
SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden
URL: www.csc.kth.se
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The objective of this study was to investigate whether a new product, Amadeus Business
Intelligence for Travel Agencies, should be launched and if so, whether the current target market
of small travel agencies is suitable.
Amadeus is a leading actor in the global IT solutions market for the travel industry. Business
Intelligence within Amadeus is responsible for analyzing the constant flow of data being
received and processed in order to extract valuable information for Amadeus customers. This
information is used by decision makers and is key to developing performance strategy.
This study was initiated after a pilot program that was launched in June 2007 by the Business
Intelligence team at Amadeus; purpose of the program was to evaluate a product prototype that
consisted of an extensive set of reports. This study entailed collecting feedback from the
prototype and find out user needs. The result is based on information from questionnaires,
interviews and research on competition that was used to gather feedback about the pilot and
prototype. The questionnaires were the main source of the study and made with the web tool
survey monkey. They were sent out to the involved travel agencies and other stakeholders.
Following the questionnaires interviews were made with Amadeus Commercial Organization
(ACO) and teams in Amadeus headquarters. Based on this feedback analysis was made
concluding in three feasible recommendations about the future of the product, presented below
in no particular order.
Recommendation 1 - Product launch: Amadeus not only has a product ready to be launched
with data that is proven to be of use to the target segment; they also have interested customers.
Launching the product adds value to Amadeus as a world leading GDS, since many competitors
already offer a similar service. If a full product launch is chosen, changes are necessary to
improve two important features, the usability of the user set-up and website, in response to
comments and suggestions made by those surveyed. An ideal situation for ACOs and the
Business Intelligence team would be automatic administration and ordering of reports and
through the Amadeus Online Business Intelligence website.
Recommendation 2 - Bundle approach: To offer the product to as many customers as
possible, one recommendation would be to bundle it with other products offered by Amadeus.
Amadeus has a range of different solutions for travel agencies with many of them
complementing Business Intelligence. This bundle approach gives Amadeus a competitive edge
over other GDSs who only offer single products with complicated descriptions. For those
unfamiliar with the technical side of the industry, as many of the small agencies are, this can be
hard to understand. The bundle approach has met with some resistance within Amadeus
however, as teams in Amadeus work independently and with their own budget.
Recommendation 3 - Kill the product: One final recommendation is to stop distribution and
cancel the product launch completely. Many uncertain factors still remain, with little revenue to
be gained from this product. The product is currently a cost factor in the Business Intelligence
team’s budget yet it does not generate any revenue. Set-up and maintenance is time-consuming
and everything is done free of charge for the customer. Although Amadeus hopes this product
would create revenue after being launched, due to limited customer interest the likelihood of
this happening is small. Amadeus has invested significantly in this product, but by not
cancelling the product as soon as likely failure is realized, they would face further investment
with bigger risk of losing money.
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Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka huruvida produkten, Amadeus Business Intelligence
för Resebyråer, ska lanseras och om så är fallet om den valda målgruppen små resebyråer är
mest lämpad.
Amadeus är ledande aktör inom den globala IT marknaden med lösningar för reseindustrin.
Business Intelligence team inom Amadeus är ansvariga för att analysera det konstanta flöde av
data som tas emot och processeras för att kunna extrahera information av värde för Amadeus
kunder. Denna information används av besultsfattare och är nyckeln som behövs för slutsatser
inom prestationsstrategi.
Denna studie startade i och med ett pilot program som skulle utvärdera en prototyp av en
omfattande mängd rapporter som lanserades i juni 2007 av Business Intelligence teamet på
Amadeus. Denna studie innebar insamling av data från feedback av protypen och användarnas
behov. Resultatet är byggt på information från enkäter, intervjuer och genom undersökning av
konkurrerande lösningar som användes för att samla in återkoppling. Den huvudsakliga källan
var enkätundersökningar som skapades med webverktyger surveymonkey. De skickades ut till
involverade resebyråer och andra intressenter. Utöver enkäterna gjorde intervjuer med Amadeus
kommersiella organisation och team hos Amadeus huvudkontor i Nice. Baserad på denna
återkoppling analyserades den insamlade datan och resulterade i tre rekommendationer om hur
Amadeus ska fortskrida med produkten, dessa presenteras nedan utan inbördes ordning.
Rekommenation 1 – Produkt lansering: Amadeus har en produkt som är redo att lanseras
med data som har visat sig vara användbar för den valda målgruppen, de har även intresserade
kunder. En lansering skulle för Amadeus innebära utökat värde som världsledande GDS
eftersom många av Amadeus konkurrenter erbjuder liknande tjänster. Om de väljer en full
produktlansering bör en del förändringar göras för att förbättra produkten och
användarinställningarna. Denna studie gav kommentarer och förslag kring användbarheten av
användarregistrering och webbsidan, två viktiga delar av business intelligence paketet. En ideal
situation för många ACO och för Business intelligence teamet skulle vara automatisk
administration och beställningsfunktion av rapporterna genom Amadeus Online Business
Intelligence webbsida.
Rekommenation 2 – Paket lösning: För att kunna erbjuda produkten till så många kunder som
möjligt är en rekommendation att paketera den med redan existerande produkter inom
Amadeus. Amadeus har olika lösningar för resebyråer vilka många kan komplettera business
intelligence. Denna paketlösning ger Amadeus en konkurrensfördel då andra GDSer erbjuder
enskilda produkter. Dessa dessutom med komplicerade förklaringar som är svåra att förstå för
en liten resebyrå om de inte är bekanta med de tekniska lösningar som finns inom industrin. Det
finns motstånd inom Amadeus för en sådan paketlösning då teamen arbetar självständigt och
med egen budget.
Rekommenation 3 – Lägg ner produkten: En rekommendation är att stoppa distributionen
och ställa in lanseringen av produkten. Det finns många osäkra faktorer och sannolikt relativt
små intäkter att vinna av produkten. I nuläget är produkten en kostfaktor för Business
Intelligence teamet och den genererar inga intäkter alls. Registrering och underhållning är
tidskrävande och dessa utförs gratis för kunden. Efter att produkten lanserats skulle detta
förhoppningsvis ändras, men resultat från denna studie visar att till och med då kan det vara
svårt att erhålla intäkter på grund av minimalt intresse för produkten. Amadeus har redan
investerat i denna produkt, men då produkten inte läggs ner så fort ett troligt misslyckande
insetts innebär det större investeringar och större risk för att förlora pengar.
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1.
Introduction........................................................................................................................... 1
1.1.
Background ................................................................................................................... 1
1.2.
Problem Description...................................................................................................... 1
1.3.
Objective ....................................................................................................................... 1
2.
Method .................................................................................................................................. 3
2.1.
Work Process ................................................................................................................ 3
2.2.
Methods and Criticisms................................................................................................. 4
3.
Theory ................................................................................................................................... 6
3.1.
Business Intelligence..................................................................................................... 6
3.2.
Product Development with Prototype and User Influence............................................ 6
3.3.
User Needs .................................................................................................................... 7
4.
Background Information Amadeus ....................................................................................... 9
4.1.
5.
Business Intelligence at Amadeus................................................................................. 9
The Global Travel Market................................................................................................... 10
5.1.
Main Competitors of Amadeus ................................................................................... 10
5.2.
The Competition within Business Intelligence ........................................................... 11
6.
Travel Agencies to Target................................................................................................... 15
6.1.
7.
Facts about Target Segment ........................................................................................ 15
Product and Service............................................................................................................. 17
7.1.
The Portal and Service ................................................................................................ 17
7.2.
Overview of the Reports Offered................................................................................ 19
8.
Product Development and Work Environment at Amadeus ............................................... 21
8.1.
Customer Communication .......................................................................................... 21
8.2.
Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 21
9.
Pilot Program and Questionnaire ........................................................................................ 23
9.1.
Pilot Program .............................................................................................................. 23
9.2.
Questionnaire .............................................................................................................. 24
9.3.
Questionnaire number two .......................................................................................... 26
10.
Results and Analysis ....................................................................................................... 27
10.1.
Result from ACO Questionnaire............................................................................. 27
10.2.
Result from Travel Agency Questionnaire.............................................................. 28
10.3.
Results from ACO Scandinavia .............................................................................. 29
10.4.
Results from Interviews .......................................................................................... 30
10.5.
Analysis and Conclusions from the Result of the Questionnaire and Interviews ... 32
11.
Discussion and Conclusion ............................................................................................. 35
11.1.
Recommendation 1: Product Launch ...................................................................... 35
11.2.
Recommendation 2: Bundle Approach ................................................................... 36
11.3.
Recommendation 3: Kill the Product ...................................................................... 37
12.
References....................................................................................................................... 38
13.
Appendix A ..................................................................................................................... 40
14.
Appendix B ..................................................................................................................... 41
15.
Appendix C. .................................................................................................................... 54
16.
Appendix D. .................................................................................................................... 62
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ACO (Amadeus Commercial Organization) – The ACO includes: The central Amadeus
commercial organization - business units and central commercial departments: ABG, TOPS, eTravel, TSL, Hospitality, PMG, Corporate Marketing, and Geographical Market groups.
The regional Amadeus commercial organizations - regional offices (both markets and ABG) in
Miami, Buenos Aires, Bangkok, London and Sydney
All the local Amadeus commercial organizations - the NMC organizations e.g. Amadeus
Switzerland, Amadeus France, Amadeus Singapore, Amadeus Argentina etc.
BI (Business Intelligence) – Business information and business analyses within the context of
key business processes that lead to decisions and actions and that result in improved business
performance. (Williams & Williams, 2007:2)
BIDT (Billing Information Data Tapes) – Helps to control financial strategy, supports
financial documents, contains details of all bookings made through Amadeus.
BO (Business Objects) - Business Objects offers a broad family of tools and applications to
help teams optimize business performance by connecting people, information and businesses
across the business network, regardless of the underlying business applications or data stores.
This is the software used in Amadeus to create statistical reports handled, amongst others, by
the Business Intelligence team.
BSP (Billing and Settlement Plan) - A system designed to facilitate and simplify the selling,
reporting and remitting procedures of IATA Accredited Passenger Sales Agents, as well as
improve financial control and cash flow for BSP Airlines.
Data warehouse - A separate database dedicated to decision support. Data is transferred from
transaction processing systems and integrated. It is arranged by customer - not date or
transaction. It is accessed to provide management information through report writers, query
tools, data access and retrieval tools, OLAP servers and enterprise information systems. It is
software architecture, rather than a product.
DSS (Decision support system) – This has been used since the 1970s to help business
information and structured business analysis tackle complex business decisions. DSS ranges
from sophisticated, customized analytical tools running on mainframe computers to
spreadsheet-based products running on personal computers. (S&N. Williams, 2007:5)
GDS (Global Distribution System) - The computer system that travel agents use to book
airline seats, rental cars, hotel rooms, and other travel reservations and services.
MIDT (Market Information Data Transfer) - This product provides detailed reservation data
on all air bookings made by Amadeus travel agencies on all participating carriers in the relevant
GDS. MIDT helps airline providers assess agency performance, market share, new markets,
seasonal trends, high yield routes, potential partnerships and alliances, and more when all the
main GDS MIDTs are put together
PNR (Passenger Name Record) - A record of each passenger's travel requirements containing
all information necessary to enable reservations to be processed and controlled by the booking
and participating travel provider.
PNR record locator - This is a unique identifier for a PNR, which is generated automatically
on creation of the PNR. Each GDS has its own format of identification code; the AMADEUS
code is a 9-character, alpha-numeric translation of the file address e.g. AGD0P
Sign-in code – Shows which agent in an office that is signed in and made the booking through
the GDS
SITA (Société Internationale de Télécommunications Aéronautiques) - A non-profit
télécommunications network owned by 500 air transport industry members.
2
System User - An Amadeus founding airline or an airline that has entered into an agreement to
use the Amadeus system for its own offices.
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This chapter describes the background of the thesis and its objectives. There is a short
description of the problem and the reason for this investigation. There is also a discussion on
the scope of the study and the method for the research and report.
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As Amadeus has never offered a product of this nature before. The need was identified when
Business Solutions Managers and their markets complained that competitors were offering
reporting to Travel Agencies often free of charge. It was considered necessary that Amadeus
offer a similar service. (Mellor, 2007) Amadeus’ intention with this product was to create a
solution that responded to customer needs but at a relatively low cost. Hence one important
issue with this product was that the primary target is small agencies with small revenues making
cost the key criteria.
The Business Intelligence Team tested out the concept with detailed insurance booking reports.
They were easy to create and produce - basic in structure and did not generate much cost for the
company. This was to briefly and quickly test and assess market interest. Certain markets did
show an interest in the tool and distribution method, and so as a result it was decided to develop
further reports to track all provider bookings, together with generalized reports based on agency
reporting. Amadeus finally saw a need and reason for further investigation in this area.
Amadeus Online Business Intelligence platform was re-used serving external and internal
customers. For the first release no additional data was requested in the data warehouse thereby
keeping the solution’s costs as low as possible.
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When starting Amadeus in July 2007, a pilot program for Travel Agencies had recently
commenced. This pilot program needed to be evaluated to decide the future of the current
product. The product was developed and tested on the target market to decide its potential as a
profitable product.
Business Intelligence is an increasing topic for all businesses as the solutions and its importance
becomes more visible (S. & N. Williams, 2007:5). Now there are many companies in this field,
it is not only larger organizations who can afford to invest money and time on solutions. Even
small businesses recognize an advantage of implementing a business intelligence solution in
their day-to-day business activities.
Amadeus is a leading Global Distribution System (GDS) and in order to compete in the
Business Intelligence sector for Travel Agencies they must supply a business intelligence
product that is both useful and fulfills a need in the market.
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The objective is to investigate the current single-site travel agency and SME (small and
medium) market, which consists of business and leisure segments, to see if Amadeus should
position their products for these customers. This was initiated with a pilot program evaluating
an extensive set of reports launched in June 2007. The aim was to discover the needs of the
market segment and if to position this product offered by Amadeus Business Intelligence.
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This study focuses on the small and medium sized travel agency markets. Solutions for larger
organization will not be discussed. The pilot phase will be studied and general suggestions will
be made for the continuation of the product. However, specific suggestions such as content in
reports for product development and possible product launch are not within scope of this study.
2
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This chapter discusses the scientific methods behind the study’s information gathering. It also
covers the reasoning for chosen methods, how they have been implemented and how the
implementation may have affected the results. Reliability and validity is also discussed.
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Here is the work process, see figure 1, followed from starting at Amadeus and the study to
presenting the concluded recommendations.
Learned about
Amadeus
Decided on project
within Business
Intelligence
Created Questionnaire,
prepared respondents,
researched market
Conducted interviews,
gathered responses from
second questionnaire
Analyzed responses,
created second
questionnaire
Gathered responses,
conducted competitor
analysis
Analyzed results
Wrote report
Presented
recommendations
Fig. 1 The work process for this study
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This study was based on information from both primary and secondary sources. Primary sources
are sources that do not exist before the study begins but become so during the study. In this
study this included information from interviews, questionnaires and pilot program. Secondary
sources are an interpretation of already existing information and are based on some form of
primary source. (Bell, 2000:125) The secondary information is from a wide range of sources
including books, articles, information templates and internet based material such as competitors’
websites.
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There are two different perspectives that can be taken when gathering information for research
purposes. In quantitative methods researchers gather facts and study relationships between
different sets of facts. Researcher measure and use scientific techniques that can offer quantified
results that sometimes be used to make generalizations. When using a qualitative method or
perspective the researcher is more focused on finding out how people understand and what their
perception of the world is. The result is realization and insight rather than statistical analyzes.
Qualitative methods question the use of scientific methods when researching people. (Bell,
2000:17)
3
Both a quantitative and qualitative approach will be implemented; therefore conclusions from
the study will be based on results from both empirical studies and literature. This increases the
credibility of the result (Sorensen, 2005:5). To obtain the key results in this study focus will be
placed on quantitative measures where the questionnaires are standardized. However because
the target group is small businesses and many circumstances are based on people and
relationships it is important to also take a qualitative perspective. This will be done through
interviews and discussions.
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There are different sorts of interviews, such as structured, semi-structured and open. A
structured interview is based on a set of questions asked to all the respondents which are not to
be deviated from unless necessary. The findings are easy to collect and it is less difficult to get
biased answers. Semi-structured interviews leave more room for questions outside the protocol
and follow ups from an answer. But it is still based on a set of questions to ensure that all
subjects are covered. An open interview is more conversation based where questions are based
on previous statements and discussions. This kind of interview demands more experience and
knowledge for it to be implemented and analyzed effectively. (Cohen, 2000:271)
Interviews can be used to obtain a deeper insight in the problem. They offer more flexibility in
both questioning and interpreting answers. If well prepared and using appropriate questions, it
can result in complete and useful material. However interviews are time consuming and
demanding on the interviewer. The results can be biased by the interviewer interviewee
relationships and interpretation. In a small project time and financial restrictions limit the
number of interviews that can be undertaken, thereby increasing the importance placed on each
interviewee. Therefore participants must be chosen carefully to ensure they are representative of
the phenomenon you wish to investigate. (Bell 2000:159-161)
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When undertaking primary research it must be decided which method to employ to gather the
desired information. Different methods provide different information that can be used to
validate and answer the questions posed at the beginning of the project. A questionnaire can be
useful for collecting survey information, providing structure and often numerical data, being
able to be administered without the presence of the researcher and ready and easy to analyze.
(Cohen, 2000:245) When a decision has been made to use questionnaires it demands great care
to construct a questionnaire that will provide required information. It is often more difficult to
do a questionnaire then expected (Bell 2000:137), as if questions are constructed wrongly the
result will be useless and/or offer misleading information.
The three main types of questionnaires are identified as are structured, semi-structured and
unstructured. The larger the sample the more structured a questionnaire should be, to ease
comparison of results and handle the information load (Cohen, 2000:247). There are several
kinds of questions and response modes in questionnaires. Closed questions or open-ended
questions are well used categories, but with closed questions, the respondents are restricted to
the range of responses possible to give. This makes the questionnaire quick to complete and
easy to analyze but does not offer the respondents the option to add remarks or explanations.
Categories may also be incomplete and biased. When using open-ended questions the
respondents have the ability to write free responses to explain and qualify their responses to
avoid the limitations posed by preset questions. However this makes the responses more
difficult to analyze and compare effectively. (Cohen, 2000: 248) The decision as to which style
of question to employ must be thought through carefully, dependent on the intended purpose of
the question.
4
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These are two concepts that need to be taken into consideration when doing any kind of study.
Reliability means consistency and is a measure that shows to what extent a method gives the
same result at different times when conducted under the exact same circumstances (Bell,
2000:117). When doing questionnaires and interviews, the reliability is dependent on the
questions asked and the experience of the interviewer. To ensure the reliability is as high as
possible every question needs to be tested and corrected if necessary. It should be interpreted in
exactly the same manner by every respondent (Bell, 2000:117) and be answered the same by
every respondent irrespective of their circumstances. To achieve this, questions need to be
tested several times with different people to try to limit misinterpretations. The interviews
should be held under standardized circumstances with standardized questions.
Validity means legitimacy and assesses if a question measures or describes what it is suppose to
measure or describe. Even if the answer is the same every time the question is posed it does not
mean that the answer actually answers what the interviewer or questionnaire intended. (Bell,
2000:118) Validity is more difficult to control than reliability but like testing the reliability a
test of the questions and interviewer is a good precaution. It is easy for an untrained interviewer
to ask leading questions; therefore a protocol is necessary to prevent influence over the
respondent.
Validity also measures if the study results in generalizations (Bell, 2000:118). The information
resulting from a qualitative study cannot be generalized to statistical measures. The resulting
information in this study is a combination of quantitative and qualitative results in order to
increase validity and enable generalizations to be made.
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If the loss of respondents is substantial the results can be distorted (Bell, 2000:151). When
conducting interviews this can be managed as the researcher can regulate how many to
interview and with whom. When submitting questionnaires however this is more difficult to
control and it can result in many losses. It is not possible to force the respondents to answer and
it can not be regulated how many respond from every. To encourage responses an incentive can
be offered (Cohen, 2000:263). With the questionnaires it is common to have a competition for a
prize or offer reward for each submittal. If there are no resources for the study reminders are
often effective, or it can also be distributed personally. It is usually more difficult to refuse or
ignore a request when the respondent has met the researcher in person to whom it is important.
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Both before and during this study, assumptions were made about facts and circumstances that
were not possible to control or keep stable. The first and main assumption that had to be
considered was that the Amadeus Commercial Organizations (ACO) will actively try to sell
reporting to their travel agency accounts. The ACO are free to decide what to sell/market/charge
for but a feasible study presumption has been made that they will sell the product Amadeus
headquarters provides them with.
The segmentation of Travel Agencies within Amadeus places the study’s target companies as
Single site Agencies (17%), Business (13%) and Leisure (24%) companies. Some of these
companies, however, could be much larger organizations than was intended to target.
The market size of the relevant markets is around 120,800 Travel agencies worldwide. The cost
to produce one report is circa 1.5 Euros and makes up Amadeus Business Intelligences main
cost. Additional costs are related to account set up and maintenance by Amadeus support team
which can be offset by an initial installation charge of between 50 and 75 Euros. (Mellor, 2007:
November)
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This chapter includes a brief review of the theory behind this study.
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‘Business Intelligence is business information and business analyses within the context of key
business processes that lead to decisions and actions’ (Williams, 2007:2)
The term Business Intelligence is a buzzword for IT, but the organizational request for business
intelligence is not new and has been demanded from companies since the 1970s. Despite this it
is only recently that business intelligence became something manageable for the majority of
companies. The concept of business intelligence has evolved over decades due to technological
innovation and management experience with IT. (Williams, 2007:5)
Nowadays business intelligence combines products, technology and methods to organize key
information required by management to improve profitability and performance. Business
intelligence is not a single item but all these factors working together; a company can not
purchase a business intelligence product and hope that it will solve all their problems without
further effort. Business intelligence is not only technology that supports the business
intelligence applications such as data warehouse. Neither is it a methodology, which is essential
for success with business intelligence and which is only effective if combined with appropriate
technological solutions and organizational changes. Business intelligence success requires more
than simply possessing the tools, it also needs to be employed in the correct manner, as if done
incorrectly it is a waste of time and resources. (Williams, 2007:2)
Data warehouses are key enablers for business intelligence. A data warehouse makes it
technically possible to gather data from the thousands or millions of daily business transactions
and turn it into useful information. Many companies have realized the benefits powered by an
extensive data warehouse and have discovered the consequential underlying methods and
technologies for delivering value to engaged businesses. The business value of business
intelligence lies in its use within management processes affecting the operational processes that
drive revenue or reduce costs, and/or in its use within those operational processes themselves.
(Williams, 2007:10)
A technical initiative focused solely on data has a tendency to fall short in supporting business
goals and improving performance. Key barriers to business intelligence driven performance
improvement include lack of vision as to how business intelligence can drive performance, and
lack of will to drive the process changes that business intelligence requires. To succeed with
business intelligence, an effective business/IT partnership is critical. For the modern company
of any size, managing IT comes down to making a series of investment decisions about
technologies, productivity improvement, and profit and business performance, meaning an
investment in business intelligence must compete with the other IT investments. To increase the
odds of investment it is crucial to understand the business-IT strategy and budget. However
business intelligence does not only consider financial factors but must be aware of the business
goals to determine whether the company is making a profit or loss from the business
intelligence investment. (Williams, 2007:168)
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Within product development there are several approaches that can be followed. One that is
considered successful and becoming more widely used within IT development is user-focused
6
development with the creation of a prototype driving the development cycle. Prototyping is
usually connected to a physical artifact and so is often neglected when it comes to virtual
products; despite this, a virtual product prototype can be created, the measurements are just
different. A comprehensive prototype implements most of the attributes of a product and is
basically a full-scale, fully operational version of the product. A focused prototype on the other
hand can have a much smaller number of attributes to test. A prototype can be either physical or
analytical but fully comprehensible products usually have to be physical. (Eppinger & Ulrich,
2008:249-250)
Prototypes have four purposes during product development: learning, communication,
integration and milestones. Milestones means set goals for product development tested when the
product reaches a certain milestone. Physical prototypes are usually best for communication
while comprehensive prototypes are best for integration and milestones. A prototype can be
used to answer questions like ‘Does it work?’ and ‘How well does it meet the customer needs?’,
and can help communication between all stakeholders as they can understand the functions and
attributes of the product easier. This also makes user feedback more comprehensible and
increases the likelihood that users influence the future product. Prototypes can also ensure that
different parts of the product and subsystems work together as intended. In the later stages of
product development prototypes are used to demonstrate that the product has achieved the
desired level of functionality. Milestone prototypes provide tangible goals, demonstrate
progress, and serve to enforce the schedule. A prototype reduces the risk of a costly iteration; if
a problem is detected fast the development team can make adjustments early enough before the
actual product is released. (Eppinger & Ulrich, 2008:250-256)
Well structured and enhanced development processes have proved a dramatic difference in the
success of new products. Causes of this stem from aspects of a better process, such as teams
working closer together, more methodical design processes and the impact of better decision
making. A structured process also helps to find the right characteristics for the product. Often
overlooked is the importance and advantage of a short development cycle. Market requirements
are established in the beginning of the cycle and if the project is lengthy the market may have
changed and competitors may have presented a new and better solution, so that when the
product is finally completed, it is out of date or no longer desirable. As a result, a high level of
flexibility in the development cycle is vital in a fast-moving industry. (McGrath, 1996:6-7)
The cancellation of development projects is a frequent occurrence however often this is after
significant resources have already been invested. In most cases these cancellations could have
been made much earlier, as the necessary information was probably available but the right
questions were not asked or the right decisions were not made. It is proven that companies that
make decisions earlier as in development waste significantly less on products that are not
brought to market. Hence companies with more effective decision-making processes can invest
less on product development and achieve comparable output thanks to less investment in dead
products. (McGrath, 1996:9)
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The identification and definition of customer needs is a crucial process in product development.
The result influences the product specifications, generates product concepts and can select a
product concept for further development. One process for identifying customer needs involves
five stages. First gather raw data from target customers, to get to know the segment. This is then
analyzed and interpreted in terms of needs. The needs uncovered are organized into a hierarchy
according to relative importance. Finally there must be reflection back on process and its
results. The product should be focused on the user needs and include but hidden or latent needs
as well as explicit needs. A fact base should be found to justify the product specifications and
make sure that no critical customer need is neglected or forgotten. This will improve common
understanding of customer needs between members of the development team. (Eppinger &
Ulrich, 2008:54-68)
7
Needs should be identified without prior assumptions or expectations as to how these needs will
be addressed in the future. Specifications however are more dependent on the concept chosen
after investigating the needs and analyzing. The specifications will take into consideration what
is economically and technologically feasible to develop and what the competition offer in the
marketplace alongside customer needs.
8
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This chapter gives a brief description of Amadeus as a company see figure 2. It also describes
where and how Business Intelligence team works and functions in this complex organization.
Amadeus is a global giant within the market of IT solutions for the travel industry. They cater to
three different subgroups, Travel Providers, Travel Sellers and Travel Buyers.
When looking for new business areas within the Amadeus business scope there are several
things to consider. Amadeus offers hundreds of products and services and the strategy for
expanding this range are based on two factors. First is the knowledge of customers’ needs in the
travel and tourism industry. Second is Amadeus experience in developing and running
applications on behalf of customers. When developing new products Amadeus’ focus is on
trying to reduce customers costs and/or increase customer revenue using service differentiation
or production gains.
Amadeus Mission - To be the leading provider of IT solutions that enable success in the
travel and tourism industry (Opera, December 2007)
145
95%
16%
hosted
airlines
of world’s
scheduled
network airline
seats
online
bookings
500
million
bookings
processed
88,800
364,500+
Travel agency
locations
terminals
worldwide
Fig 2. Amadeus is a big actor in the travel industry
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Our mission - To help you make the best business decisions through the use of the latest
Business Intelligence technologies and the highest quality information. (Business
Intelligence website, December 2007)
Within Amadeus there is a small team dedicated to Business Intelligence. There is a constant
flow of information through the Amadeus systems that can be gathered and kept in databases, a
data warehouse, which is a key enabler for business intelligence (Williams, 2007:10). This
wealth of information can be of great use to different actors across the travel industry, and
Amadeus Business Intelligence team is devoted to facilitating the use of and provides access to
this information. Business Intelligence services and products are offered to all different
Amadeus subgroups across a varied range of travel industry players.
Amadeus Business Intelligence is available for their customers through an online decision
support system (DSS), called ‘Amadeus Online Business Intelligence’. This website gives
access to a variety of Business Intelligence services and information such as reports and on-line
analytical facility.
9
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This chapter covers the existing competition faced by Amadeus when launching this product. It
also provides a brief comparison between the different products that currently exist in the
market.
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The main GDSs, such as Amadeus, Galileo and Sabre, all offer similar business intelligence
products for travel agency account activity. There are also other competitors such as IATA,
Abacus that offer similar products. Most products are very basic and free of charge. The secrecy
around or lack of information on these products is extensive. They are usually bundled together
with other products and used as incentives to buy a more expensive and higher margin product
from the GDS. They are offered directly to the customer and often customized with no official
offer but rather individually negotiated deals with each customer. Also in the market are
specialized companies who purchase the data themselves and then create reports themselves to
sell or use to assist travel agencies with full business intelligence solutions.
According to SITA existing data on overall travel agent activity is owned by various
organizations, with much of it considered confidential. Some data is sold but at a high price.
The only really reliable data is for air travel on scheduled airlines that use traditional settlement
methods, such as Billing and Settlement Plans. As a result, it will not include bookings on many
Low Cost Carrier's and ground arrangements such as hotel and car bookings. Hotel and car hire
revenue is particularly problematic because actual agency revenue is often commission based
and so the amount depends on whether the customer realizes the booking and the duration of
booking made.
‘This is all reasons why most successful agents run a very efficient back office system!’ (Jim
Callaghan, Solutions Director, SITA, Email 071026)
Competition results are based on online research, mail correspondence and research conducted
by the Amadeus Competitive Marketing Intelligence department. Difficulties were faced when
researching existing Business Intelligence offerings since companies target different markets
and a lot of information is confidential. Different target markets also make it complex to
compare the products since they are not competing for the same customers.
One overall strategic step being taken over the upcoming future by the big GDSs is online
applications. They are offering an increasing number of services online while customer an
incentive to becomes more active in creating their solutions.
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When establishing a new product in a market, it is important to know how the customer views
the Amadeus brand compared to the brand image of competitors. According to a market study,
(CMI, May 2006), there are particular attributes associated to each brand as shown below.
“The value for money feature” is essentially linked to Galileo and especially Worldspan.
Galileo is also seen as “Most suitable for agencies focused on leisure travel”.
Amadeus is perceived as most suitable for business travel agencies, offering the most complete
product portfolio and as being the most adapted to travel agency needs.
10
Sabre’s image is primarily driven by the perception of technological GDS: “Technological
solutions which help your business grow”, “Best prepared for the new challenges facing the
travel industry”.
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Here is a presentation of Amadeus main competitors, see table1. There will be a short
description of each.
Company
Price
Sabre
Free for Sabre Agencies + add-ons
IATA
Cost
Abacus
Cost
Travelport (Galileo +
Cost
Worldspan + THOR)
Table 1 Amadeus main competitors
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Connection
Web-based
Web-based or Mailed
Demands a software
Web-based
&:G3?*
Agency eServices is available free of charge to all Sabre Connected travel agents, see figures 3
and 4 below. Some optional fee-based services are available on top. This service also includes
training and other support facilities useful for an agency. (Sabre Website, 2008) Sabre reports
are not as detailed as Amadeus, but they also offer 3rd party reporting tools where the customer
preferred choice is iBank by Cornerstone. (Ibarra, 2007)
Furthermore Sabre also feature SabreTravel Tracker similar to a feature called ‘Who is Where’
which existed in the Amadeus Report that is not marketed anymore. They also have Sabre
Magnify Reporting which has an Amadeus equivalent in the e-reporter online tool. (Ibarra,
2007)
Sabre Travel Tracker is an interactive web-based application that provides secure access to
travel data and can deliver detailed reports to help agents and travel managers take action in an
emergency. Users can drill down from a world map to a list of travelers with detail, or use
specific criteria to target a traveler. (Ibarra, 2007)
Sabre has the biggest market share in North, Central and Latin America.
11
Fig. 3 Log in page for Sabre Agency eServices
Fig. 4 Data viewed by the agency
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IATA offers Business Intelligence for travel agencies. They have a portfolio of products that
can give the Travel Agent an insight into the airline industry, ranging from aggregated views on
the state of airlines, Passenger forecasts from 2007-2011 as well as fare reports. IATA can also
provide customized reports on IATA accredited travel agencies: how much revenue they are
generating, how many tickets they are selling, for which airlines, the fares, etc. (Clavijo, 2007)
12
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Abacus Tracker is a product that allows Abacus tracker agents to see their productivity. It is a
transparent system where the agents can log on anytime and check the number of segments
booked, see figures 5 and 6 below. Abacus Tracker is also a problem monitoring system that
enables the Abacus support staff on duty to resolve any problems reported within designated
time. Their market is Asia-Pacific and with a competitive edge in transparency and real-time
statistics.
Fig. 5 Log in page for Abacus Tracker
Fig. 6 Examples of the Abacus Tracker website
Software needs to be installed and a secure site with log in is necessary. Using a GUI interface,
the agency can keep track of segments for the month. An agency name can also be chosen to
breakdown the statistics day-by-day between international and domestic segments.
13
It should be noted that Amadeus have discovered a discrepancy between the MIDT data and the
BIDT data suggesting that the Abacus product might under-report the real productivity of the
agency.
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Galileo and Abacus produce similar levels of detail in their reports but Galileo also offer more
detailed and sophisticated reporting at a cost. A Galileo user needs to purchase several products
to get equivalent functionality of the Amadeus offer. It is less expensive than any other GDS
product but it has a cost even for existing system users. Flexible options allow the user to
produce customized reports, and both pre and post ticketing information are offered. (CMI,
2006)
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Back office systems facilitate the customer by storing statistical information. Examples of BO
systems are Amadeus Reporter, PCCMS, +Zoom. A back office system can also be
performance management and business intelligence products working in partnership such as
Hyperion and Cognos Powerplay. These solutions are all fairly expensive and require
installation and training.
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For the ACO, statistics offered by GDSs can be self managed and used as leverage for other
products and to increase customer relationship. This entails a cost for the ACO but is an
investment in both potential and loyal agencies. For example, ACO Italy generates their reports
from SAP and gives them to the customers for free. (Hellwig, 2007)
ACO Caribbean and Central America wish to create an offering before informing the customers
about the product, and so they have not launched the product before or announced the Pilot
program to their market. They see earning potential from this product, however it will be
launched in the near future but not through the Business Intelligence team in Amadeus.
In many countries, for example India, labor is cheap and they want to employ as many people as
possible. To create reporting solutions themselves means more work and employees. They do
not want a solution that decreases the work quantity for the ACO.
14
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This chapter covers the target market segment for Amadeus’s business intelligence product. It
also explains the reason behind this chosen target market.
Most large Travel Agency organizations have their own back office systems allowing them to
record and report on their activity and productivity, therefore a product like this is not necessary
for that market segment. This leaves medium to small agencies that have much less automated
reporting. (Mellor, November 2007) One major concern faced with these segments is they are
not prepared to pay, or are not able to pay very much for services and products. As pricing must
be low Amadeus are reliant on subscriber quantity to make sure a revenue source remains.
75,000 travel agency locations worldwide.
The total travel agency potential market is over 1000 billion air bookings
(Opera, 080123)
A travel agency is usually connected to one or several GDSs, however smaller non GDS
agencies may chose instead to make most of their bookings through direct websites or other
agencies. Single site agencies make over 50 % of bookings through direct sites. Consolidators
can also provide bookings for small agencies that can not afford to be connected on their own to
a GDS. (Pluim, 080206)
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These are the market segments within Amadeus that are targeted for this study.
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84% of
19% of
75%
60-70%
Worlds
global
are non
TAs
bookings
IATA
are members
of/affiliated to
consortia
Amadeus has
more STA
customers than
any other GDS
Fig. 7 The largest target segment in Amadeus
Definition of segment (Opera, 080125)
Single Site travel agencies (aka micro or small travel agencies) are small national travel
agencies. They can be generalized (leisure and unmanaged business) but are often
specialists/niche. A single site agency has typically 1-10 employees in a single location and also
includes home-based agencies. They make less than 10, 000 bookings per year, depending on
the market.
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130 million
3600
14 % of
7%
bookings per
year
accounts
global travel
agency volume
estimated
growth per year
15
Fig. 8 An important segment for revenues
Business travel agencies are defined as national or regional agencies with over 10 000 bookings
per year, primarily serving business customers.
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279 million
7800
26 % of
bookings per
year
accounts
global travel
agency volume
The largest of
all Travel
agency
segments
Fig. 9 The most frequent travellers segment
These agencies are national or regional travel agencies making between 10,000 – 100, 000
bookings per year, varying by market. They primarily serve leisure customers but include some
business travel which is mainly unmanaged. This segment can be subdivided into large and
medium sized agencies.
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74>GA;?5\*
34 %
36 %
30 %
Amadeus
global market
share
Travelport
global market
share
Sabre +
Abacus global
market share
Amadeus
overall market
share in WE*
50 % and
CESE* 68%
* WE – Western Europe, CESE – Central, Eastern, Southern Europe
Fig. 10The Business and Leisure segment put together and compared to the biggest competitors.
16
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This chapter covers what product and service it is that Amadeus wants to establish in the
market; this includes general features and functions.
The mission of the solution package is to be able to help their customers answer the
following questions:
What are your current daily booking figures?
How have our Amadeus bookings evolved over the past year/month?
Which distribution channels are growing in my market?
Where are our areas of strength – as well as our competitors?
Amadeus is the largest global distribution system (GDS) provider in the world, with the most
extensive international distribution network. As a result, Amadeus has access to a vast range of
data generated by all players in the global travel industry. All this data is stored in a data
warehouse where it is turned into information using associations and analysis. This information
can be analyzed and applied to specific organizational problems thereby becoming intelligence
for a company and its strategic business decisions. This can be crucial for a travel agency today
working in such a highly competitive business.
The Amadeus Business Intelligence for Travel Agencies product consists of two parts. The first
is a website, the other is a set of statistical reports, and together they provide the travel agencies
with a full business intelligence solution. Amadeus Online Business Intelligence for Travel
Agencies provides a web-based package on www.businessintelligence.amadeus.com with access
to a variety of services and information from several sources. The information can be accessed
through the website and using other media such as ftps and email. This solution also supplies
ready-made reports such as concise summarized management files and daily detailed activity
reports.
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Amadeus Online Business Intelligence is a web portal where users can log in and reach the
information they have requested, see figures 11 and 12 below. This is the customer’s main
resource for support, for subscribing to reports, asking about existing subscriptions and
requesting changes. The ACO has more access than the Travel Agency and so can do the
shopping and changes on the web site while the Travel Agency only can log on, receive help
and download reports. These features are all active today and there are new features being
developed to be added soon.
Access to the web-site is supplied by the Amadeus Business Intelligence Team.
17
Fig. 11 Front page of Amadeus Online Business Intelligence
Fig. 12 First page after log in
18
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The reports - which are specially designed for travel agencies - provide information on air, car,
hotel and insurance booking activity done through the system detailing, among other things, the
sign-in code, PNR record locator, provider code and number of bookings, see figures 13 and 14
below. The reports allow customers to analyze and compare data, and obtain up-to-date
information on a daily, weekly and / or monthly basis.
Reports available:
•
The Amadeus Agency Air Detailed Sales Reports
•
The Amadeus Agency Car Detailed Sales Reports
•
The Amadeus Agency Hotel Detailed Sales Reports
•
The Amadeus Agency Insurance Detailed Sales Reports
•
The Amadeus Agency Cumulative Detailed Sales Reports
Fig. 13 the Agency Air; Car; Hotel and Insurance Sales Reports are similar in layout and
structure. The main difference between the four reports is the provider type for the bookings
and also in the insurance report the data captured is the premium amount instead of number of
bookings.
Fig. 14 the Amadeus Agency Cumulative Sales Reports differs from the other packages in its
design and variables
19
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These reports provide customers with the most recent information on booking activity done
through the system and give a base to statistically monitor the number of bookings, using the
information as a reference guide. They can give information specifically on one office as well as
for an entire travel agency account. This solution enables travel agents to check both active and
cancelled bookings on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. It also enables comparison of report
data with information received from different providers. The data features encryption, SSL
(secure socket layers) and data compartmentalization so the customer can access data securely
and with confidence.
20
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This chapter covers the normal routines and Amadeus procedure for product development and
enhancement. It also gives an overview of the team focused environment at Amadeus.
Product development in Amadeus is a constant flow. There is a Product Development cycle
(Appendix A) to be followed but often the development team does not do what is expected of
them. (Dordio, 071212) There are many reasons for this, but communication is a key issue. The
cycle is set up by the Business Intelligence team which does not necessarily give the
development team an incentive to follow it.
Amadeus is a large organization with many different products and target markets. The
organization is divided into different departments and teams and each team has their own
responsibility. But within the organization a team can never function on its own; teams rely on
each other and a lot of time is spent on coordinating activities and actions with other teams. The
team developing a product rarely has customer contact, so to get the information needed is time
consuming. Often with Amadeus, product developers they try to collect as much information as
possible in a short period of time and then make the most out of it, with a big risk of failing.
A common procedure is to receive one customers request and develop from that. The reasoning
for this is that it does not take that much time to produce a report from a request and for every
report developed the team can make revenue. However the amount of requests is increasing fast
and when adding up the hours spent on different requests costs increase quickly.
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Amadeus customers are scattered all over the world with different time zones, cultures, needs
and business procedures, thereby complicating all communication and information gathering.
Customer research is too extensive and complicated for a team to handle together with their
normal tasks so Amadeus has a designated team for this task. They do all kind of competitive
marketing analyses but not necessarily the one that a team is looking for. The focus is often on
the bigger market segments and the most profitable customers. When aiming for a smaller
market segment or a product not well known to the market it is difficult to find the appropriate
information to help development and product decisions. The product for Travel Agencies targets
a market which is difficult to attain information on and it is questioned to be a profitable
segment. Therefore there is not a lot of research on them.
The ACO is the owner of the customer which adds another difficulty in customer
communication. They are looking out for the customer’s best interest but can sometimes be
presumptuous about their customer’s needs and interest. It has been revealed several times that
the ACO think they know their client and answer for them without asking first.
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Amadeus has a tendency to guess what the customer wants, making product development a
gamble. The development team and product managers have worked within the business for a
long time and they know the customers very well. When new segments are approached
Amadeus benchmark former market segments, but since the segments are different in many
21
aspects this is not always proven useful. With this as a background the Business Intelligence
team decided to try a new approach before launching a product. An improved and more
structured development process has proven to make a dramatic difference with new products,
providing a better platform for good decision making. (McGrath, 1996:6) Amadeus wanted to
test the actual product and receive feedback before putting a price and constraints on it. The aim
was to focus on target needs and wants and then develop using that as a starting point;
consequently a pilot program was started and this is the reason why this study was conducted.
22
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This chapter covers the pilot program that was initiated to test the product on the customers.
The questionnaire was designed to receive feedback from potential customers and uncover their
needs.
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The main objective of the pilot program was to test the product and obtain the maximum
feedback from customers and the Amadeus Commercial Organizations (ACOs). It was decided
to use a comprehensive physical prototype. This was needed to make an informed and valid
business decision for Amadeus whether to invest in the product and if so how to improve and
maximize the benefits. Focus was on learning about the product and communicating its features
to all stakeholders. (Eppinger & Ulrich, 2008:249)
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Amadeus CPM-RES-BUS
The Business Intelligence Team works with business intelligence solutions within Amadeus. It
is a team with six members and one trainee with different responsibilities. Their main purpose is
product management and to provide a bridge between marketing and development.
Amadeus development
A very large department at Amadeus is dedicated to development. They gather requirements
and produce and adapt the products accordingly. Within development there are different teams
dedicated to different products.
ACOs
The ACO is the Amadeus Commercial Organization; they have direct contact with the
customer. Which ever team you work with in Amadeus you have to go through the product
marketing managers to reach the end-user. The ACO entails the business units, regional offices
and local marketing companies.
Travel agencies
Travel agencies are the targeted customers in this study. They are end-users and the ones that
determine the future of the product. In this study the target market is small travel agencies
working with leisure travelers, business travelers or both. They are spread worldwide and sell
travel and tours going anywhere.
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ACOs were contacted directly to add travel agencies to the pilot program. However participants
were added frequently since this study has made stakeholders aware of the product and resulted
in a word-of-mouth effect. Consequently some travel agencies have contacted the Business
Intelligence Team directly to know more. Since the product is free, setting them up included
adding them as a user and give them the necessary information before they could start as a Pilot
user. Orders are then made on the webpage by the ACO. The following numbers, see figure 15,
were active participants of the pilot program on the 18th of January, 2008.
23
Pilot program in numbers
Travel Agency Accounts
255
Orders
722
Table 2. Every travel agency account can have several orders for different reports
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A questionnaire was composed to follow the pilot and collect the knowledge and responses it
has generated with the target market.
Questionnaire in numbers
Questionnaires
3 (1 for ACO, 2 for TA)
ACO Respondents
27
Finished questionnaires
9
TA Respondents
96
Finished questionnaires
43
Sent out questionnaires
Unknown
Time to response (in weeks)
3
Table 3. This is the number of respondents the result is based on
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To discover the value of the product and future market needs, the research method had to be
carefully considered. To receive many respondents across the world a questionnaire was
deemed the best method to get the information that was sought. To implement questionnaire
based research, distribution and data collection issues were evaluated, as was budget restrictions
and time limitations faced by the writer. In response an internet survey tool was used that helps
to create and analyze a questionnaire. The questions that were chosen was mostly closed
questions to simplify analyze and minimize misunderstandings (Cohen, 2000:248).
Main questions: What does the target market segment want? How do they want it? And what
do they think about the prototype Amadeus offer in the pilot? (see Appendix B)
The questionnaire was also to find out if the positioning of the product need to be changed, a
different target market segment need to be found or architecture of the product need to be
redesigned.
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The target market is spread across many parts of the world and speaks different mother tongues.
The business language in this industry is English but that does not mean that everyone is
comfortable using it. The language barrier complicates communication but the effects can be
lessened when using communication. Written communication helps by giving the respondent
more time to read and understand the questions. However it can also make the communication
more difficult since both participant and researcher cannot ask for further clarifications if they
do not understand. To minimize the risk of receiving answers that were difficult to understand
the questions were architected with as few open-ended questions as possible. However this was
impossible to avoid in some cases since the aim was to get true opinions from the stakeholders
which can be difficult to express in a closed question.
24
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Choosing questions and composing was a thorough process: First a brainstorming session was
held to find every possible question that could obtain a useful result. A draft was made to be
tested and discussed with members of the Business Intelligence team and then revised. Further
testing was done with the assistance of another Amadeus department that works closely with
Travel Agencies and with an ACO who reviewed the questions before the survey was sent out
to respondents. This was done to check for possible misinterpretations of the questions and to
increase the validity and reliability of the results (Bell, 2000:149). The questionnaire was
composed in Survey Monkey, with whom Amadeus has a subscription. It is freestyle or using a
template - a web tool that helps through each stage of the process, from composition and
collection of data to analysis (www.surveymonkey.com, 071108). The Product Management
Communication team at Amadeus uses Survey Monkey regularly for different questionnaires
and it has proven itself as a useful data collection tool. Two different questionnaires were
created from scratch, one directed to travel agencies (Appendix B) and one for ACOs
(Appendix C) since the two stakeholders were requested to provide different kinds of
information.
Two weeks before the questionnaire was distributed a notification email was sent to respondents
informing them that they would receive an electronic Questionnaire in 14 days, and included
further information about the purpose of the questionnaire (Appendix D). The notification email
to the ACOs also asked them whether the questionnaire could be sent directly to the travel
agencies in their market or if they wanted to receive the questionnaire to forward on. The ACO
has direct contact with travel agencies and it is therefore normal procedure for Amadeus to
direct all communication with travel agencies through their ACO. For the questionnaire it would
be more efficient to contact the travel agency directly, thereby bypassing the ACO in order to
shorten and improve the chain of contact however this is not in accordance with the wishes of
the ACO. Sadly, this extended line of contact complicates communication between parties and
decreases the likelihood of the questionnaire reaching travel agency in due time. As Amadeus
cannot be sure of how the ACO presents the questionnaire to participating travel agencies there
is a risk of the pilot scheme being misunderstood or misrepresented, however as mentioned
before, many steps were taken to keep respondent confusion to a minimum.
The questionnaire was distributed directly to 19 Travel Agencies and around 40 ACOs. (The
questionnaire was forwarded to ACO colleagues in different areas to ensure the survey was
answered by, according to them, the most suitable employee, therefore the exact amount of
ACOs who received the questionnaire is unknown). There were also questionnaires sent to
travel agencies via the ACO. It was impossible to keep track of these questionnaires and
therefore once again, it was unknown how many travel agencies it reached.
27 respondents answered from the ACO of whom 9 completed the questionnaire. Most
questions were answered by 14 respondents. The travel agency questionnaire had 12
respondents but none of them completed the survey.
BKLK5K
'?: 4; *=43*8<?*B44*3? -4; ?*3:8?*=34>*83:D?B*:C?;7A? *
The delivery of the questionnaire to the travel agencies was controlled by the ACO and
therefore the number of actual recipients is unknown. The chain of communication was
complicated so as a result, if travel agencies had questions regarding the questionnaire that the
ACO could not answer and did not forward to the business intelligence team, the travel agency
might not have bothered to answer at all. Furthermore, the narrow scope of the travel agency
and lack of business intelligence knowledge could have made travel agencies unconfident about
answering certain questions. The questionnaire could have appeared confusing and irrelevant
and so reduce the motivation for travel agencies to respond, but because of thorough testing
before this should not be an issue. There were also some negative comments about the length of
the questions.
25
BKNK 36? 8A4;;:A3?*;6>G?3*844*
With the poor response from travel agencies no final conclusions could be drawn and more
information and responses was needed, to make a valid business decision for the future of the
product. However a questionnaire was still deemed the method of choice due to aforementioned
circumstances and for easy comparison with ACO results. A modified questionnaire was
compiled; it was compressed and aligned with the result from the ACOs. (Appendix C)
Along with the new questionnaire, a new plan on how to reach as many travel agencies as
possible was formulated. The questionnaire was distributed to ACOs worldwide, ensuring every
market was covered when sending out the email. The ACO received instructions to forward the
questionnaire to appropriate travel agencies, which were considered single-site or medium sized
agencies. With this method it was impossible to effectively record how many received the
questionnaire and how many received it but chose not to answer. The ACO was supposed to
copy the business intelligence team in emails to agencies but since more replies were received
by the business intelligence team than copied emails, the conclusion was that this procedure was
not followed by all. Even though this method meant lack of control over how many agencies
were contacted, this was considered easiest way to reach as many agencies as possible. The end
result was more successful than the first questionnaire attempt.
The loss of respondents is a source of error in the result of the questionnaire, however
sometimes the people that choose to view the questionnaire yet not reply is more significant
then the people that answered (Bell, 2000:151). Since the distribution method was limited it
resulted in no possibility to keep track of the number of declines and therefore it cannot be taken
into account even though it might be an important factor. We must bear in mind however that
many people replied to the questionnaire but did not complete all questions. This needs to be
taken into account when considering the reliability and validity of the results (Bell, 2000:117).
26
JDK '? 6B8 *:;5*#;:B( A *
This chapter includes a summary of the results from the questionnaires sent to travel agencies
and ACOs. It also covers interviews with colleagues at Amadeus and some ACOs. At the end of
the chapter there is analysis of the results.
The result will include the ACO questionnaire which gave some useful results, however it will
be taken into consideration that the response rate was low. The result will also include results
from ACO Scandinavia who carried out more extensive evaluation of the product with guidance
from the questions from the questionnaire. Due to low response rate the first travel agency
questionnaire will not be considered in the result.
JDKJK '? 6B8*=34>*#.O*36? 8A4;;:A3?*
Here is a summary of the most significant results from the questionnaire. A complete review of
responses can be seen in Appendix B.
JDKJKJK
-?8:AB *4=*8<?*'?-438 *
When asked about the details and the data in current reports, all were found interesting by the
ACO with Air preferred mot and car least. All ACOs preferred reports by account or agency and
not corporate code. The data in the Air and Cumulative reports were awarded the highest
interest rating while data in Car rated low. According to the respondents no data or information
was missing from reports, hence the data offered was satisfactory.
There is a strong interest in receiving new data not yet offered by Amadeus. The most soughtafter data concerns ticketing, Passenger itineraries, Competitive market shares and booking
trends. While billing data seems to be of little interest.
Reports can be distributed with different features, such as level of detailed data, frequency and
format. 75% of the respondents preferred a combination of both detailed and summarized data;
however a ‘summary only’ format is not desired. When asked about frequency, weekly data was
prioritized with monthly as second choice, whereas quarterly and yearly reports were of no
interest at all. When considering formatting, excel is by far the most preferred, with 83 %
choosing it for themselves and their customers. Also PDF was chosen repeatedly.
JDKJKLK
-A 83AG68A4;*
Usually reports are distributed directly to the customer, however 85% of ACOs answered that
they wanted to receive the data before sending it to the travel agencies. When asked why,
several different reasons were given with a recurring comment that they want to check the data
for accuracy.
In a surprise contradiction, 70% of ACOs would like to see an automated process where the
travel agencies sign up for reports and receive them without any interference from the ACO.
This entails that the ACO have to submit full definitions of accounts every month.
JDKJKNK
$?5A:*:;5*.4>>6;A7:8A4;*
General opinion was that changes that should be made to the product, concerning easier access
to the reports and more understandable data. The reports are currently accessed through a
website and existing functions are valued. Suggestions for more flexibility when it comes to
data and reports were not frequently mentioned when asked what you would like to be able to
do on the website; however 83 % of the respondents desired a level of customization of the
27
product on the website. The ACOs feel that there is a lack of communication and information
around the product and website.
Training on user set up is sought-after where all ACOs agree that this would be useful as only
half thought it was easy to use the online tool. However 40 % have not used the online tool and
so could only answer that they do not know.
Although different suggestions were made as to what material is needed by the ACO to promote
the product to the customer, they all feel that they need some kind of material be it electronic or
physical, to help them sell the product. The ACOs believe that selling the product to customers
is a result of factors like knowledge, training, awareness, availability and communication. They
all have a confidence in the accuracy of the data so that is not considered an issue when
discussing the product with customers.
A majority of ACOs do not think they can charge for the product, and that a comment was made
that then the fee has to be very low. Should it be necessary to affix a price, it should be very low
in order for the product to appeal to as many travel agencies as possible.
JDKLK '? 6B8*=34>*)3:D?B*#C?;7(*36? 8A4;;:A3?*
Summarized below are the most significant results from the questionnaire. A complete review
of responses can be seen in Appendix C.
JDKLKJK
-?8:AB *4=*8<?*'?-438 *
The travel agencies are interested in different set of reports. When asked to select a report of
particular interest to them, featuring a specific set of data, there appears no majority. In addition
to the reports already offered travel agencies are interested in Cumulative reports (82.2%) and
Comparative competitive market share both by month (73.3%). When asked what they would
like to receive a strong interest was shown in all suggested types of data, especially in Air, Hotel
and Ticketing while reports concerning insurance, ferry and cruise are not overly sought-after.
When analyzing data, Excel is the most commonly used tool, however other tools mentioned
included several Amadeus tools, Reports, Almos, Air Tools and Agency Manager. Others
mentioned were Cognos Powerplay, Soft Tours, Hyperion and Back office system. Excel is the
primary choice of format, with PDF as second just like the ACOs.
69 % of travel agencies prefer a combination of detailed and summarized data and think
monthly reports are of most use to their business. Daily, weekly, quarterly and yearly were
equally preferred (~30%).
There is interest in having graphs or charts on the website instead of just providing data in table
format. Other suggested features were customer access, booking activity, marketing research,
revenue figures, Excel and Word documents. These were all suggested by individual
respondents and there were no agreed suggestions.
JDKLKLK
-A 83AG68A4;*:;5*$?5A:*
Around 50 % travel agency respondents would like to receive the reports via either email or
online. Approximately 18 % like to access the reports via file transfer while the rest like to
access the reports in all possible formats. There was no convincing answer to the question about
having the data analyzed before receiving it, with only 53.5 % of the respondents replying yes.
About three quarters would like to receive reports based on business targets and goals that are
only run when this is reached or not.
There is little awareness about the website, with only 30 % aware that the reports are available
online. Despite this there were many opinions of what they would like to be able to do on the
website. Travel agencies would like to be able to compare data, see activity and revenue figures,
28
contact support and have a ‘My favorites’ function, with the option to download data a firm
favorite. Also more than 80% of the respondents would like to be able to customize the product
on the website.
JDKLKNK
(6 A;? *+:B6?**
Travel agencies use the data for many different purposes, with the most frequent uses being
negotiations with airlines and suppliers, fares information, budgeting, consolidation and
marketing. These were the areas Amadeus intended the reports for when producing the
prototype.
JDKLK5K
'?BA:GABA8(*, 6? *
When compiling results for the question asking, ‘What are the criteria for us to analyze the data
for you?’ there is an indicator that they misinterpreted the question since answers are not in line
with what was looked for. It appears that they have answered two different questions and that it
can have been interpreted in two different ways by the respondents. This should be kept in mind
when handling the data to justify future business decisions.
JDKNK '? 6B8 *=34>*#.O*&7:;5A;:DA:*
To achieve further insight into the situation of the ACO, interviews were undertaken while
setting up the pilot in different markets, alongside the questionnaire. ACO Scandinavia in
particular made a longer evaluation of the product and concept. Here is a summary of their
thoughts and judgment about the potential market and product. (Amundsen, November 2007)
JDKNKJK
):3C?8*&?C>?;8*]*-345678*A *;48*A;*<AC<*5?>:;5*
ACO Scandinavia is skeptical as to whether or not their customers in the target segment have
any need for this product. Most of these customers already use Amadeus Interface Record
(A.I.R.) and therefore already have this data in their back office systems. Their conclusion is
that this product is a few years too late in Scandinavia.
They also raise the question about similarity in data. Data is currently provided, based on
B.I.D.T. which is net segments billed to the customer, while this product is based on End of
Transaction data. Therefore the product would be a supplement to what the ACO already offers
through A.I.R, rather than something unique.
JDKNKLK
234DA5?3 *]*-48?;8A:B*8:3C?8* ?C>?;8*
Scandinavia identified a different segment to which our product might be of interest. Local
provider offices, especially car companies and hotel chains, have already contacted the ACO for
statistics, who have not been able to provide them with anything material without using inhouse resources to create an ad hoc file. They have not as yet created reporting products for
providers. The providers are referred to their own head offices, who receive B.I.D.T. data from
Amadeus central, however the ACO is concerned that they do not get issued with the
information they need. Nevertheless, the reports offered do not suffice for providers needs, so
re-evaluation and enhancement would be necessary.
JDKNKNK
2345678*A *D?3(*6 ?=6B*=43*8<?*#.O*
Amadeus Scandinavia sees a need within the ACO for this product because much of the
information in these reports is of interest to the Key Account Managers, Product Managers and
Market Segment Managers within the ACO. This is not Business Intelligence can focus on since
it will not generate any revenue.
29
JDKNK5K
23A7A;C*4=*8<?*2345678*
ACO Scandinavia did not make a recommendation for pricing the product, but they think it
should be based on the value of the product for the customer rather than the number of agencies
included in the report. The pricing should be a monthly fee, based on the number of reports per
month (daily or monthly) and not on the number of offices included, as the value of the report is
not linked to the number of offices. They think reports ordered by ACOs for internal use on the
other hand should be free of charge.
Regarding implementation and administration, they suggest that the only charge for this be for
setting up the group, with a fee per hour.
JDKNK6K
.4;7?3; *
Amadeus Scandinavia has concerns regarding practical procedures when handling the orders
and grouping, and also the maintenance of the groups. It can be difficult to include new offices
in existing groups, also the removal of offices that have been closed or that no longer belong in
the group. Resources are limited and who should undertake each task needs to be clarified. They
believe that more staff should have access to open up the system more.
JDK5K '? 6B8 *=34>*,;8?3DA?4 *
This is the result from the formal and informal interviews done with colleagues and experts at
Amadeus and its commercial organization.
JDK5KJK
$?8<45*
The interviews were made using a guide approach with a set of questions and topics asked to all
respondents. There were additional questions added during the interview based on responses to
probe further. Respondents were free to make their own reflections and provide any input they
considered appropriate. (Cohen, 2000:271) The respondents each had their expert area and so
questions were adjusted to capitalize on their specific knowledge to that. This made it difficult
to compare the answers but gave deeper insight into Amadeus, target segment and industry
(Cohen, 2000:272). An agenda was sent out before the interview to allow for preparation by
respondents, since some of the questions might otherwise be difficult to answer.
JDK5KLK
):3C?8*&?C>?;8*E*=476 ?5*:;5* >:BB*
A large proportion of the target segment is home based agencies with a small business, few
employees, making it difficult for them to negotiate with airlines. They have managed to
overcome this by networking and forming consortia to gain negotiation power which enable
them to mandate airlines. (Pluim, 080206)
The single site agencies are not only the most growing market segment, however volume of
bookings are declining and generic agencies/bookings who are flights only are closing down.
(Pluim, 080206) Specialization and resulting service and expertise may be a key reason for
segment success, especially in the case of higher margin bookings such as honeymoons, where
exceptional service and support is required from the agency, giving them a competitive edge
over cheaper, web-based agencies.
Conclusions drawn from an interview with a member of the travel agency department in
Amadeus suggest that single site agencies are of lesser importance to Amadeus due to low
profitability and high time consumption. A ‘quick-sell’ online solution would be preferred, with
post-sale follow-up. This is a project that will be underway in the near future, but has yet to be
implemented.
30
Single site agencies face different challenges due to their size, resources and clientele, and this
should be kept in mind when deciding to make them a target of a new product. They work with
very tight margins and have cash flow problems. Sales forecasts are often unreliable, and with a
lack of specific business direction, strategy and future business decisions are difficult. They are
very isolated from the rest of the industry and therefore require a lot of support, attention and
information.
JDK5KNK
-?7BA;A;C*G44%A;C *:;5*846C<?3*G6 A;? *7BA>:8?*
Different incentives are offered by GDS or airlines to encourage agencies to book using their
system. Often an organization will try to sign an agency with a ‘Unique User contract’ to be the
sole system that the agency uses. (Mellor, 080227) Single site agencies make over 50 % of
bookings through direct sites, (Pluim, 080206) giving the agency no incentive to purchase
reports that only show activity in the GDS as they would provide only limited help with future
business decisions.
Due to increased visibility in the airline business commission fees are no longer paid to
agencies, and they have no incentive to voluntarily offer agencies commission for bookings.
Also, customer awareness has increased with improvements in technology, making it easier to
compare prices independently. Today, single site agencies earn revenue through three main
areas; service fees or value adding service offers, high commissioned content (Content is key,
and providers like cruise and hotel still offer commission) and specialization (preferably within
the areas where commission is still active). Differentiation, therefore, and finding a unique place
in the market is vital for their survival, to retain a competitive edge and remain profitable. The
future of travel agencies and consequent solutions, are very market dependent. When talking to
agencies, some appear to have a clear strategy for the future while others work more ad hoc
with fewer predictions and preparations made and are therefore less likely to survive in such a
dynamic industry. (Pluim, 080227)
JDK5K5K
(6;5B?*&4B68A4;*#--34:7<*
The single site agencies are not tech knowledgeable, and so value simple and straight forward
solutions that are fairly inexpensive. They want Amadeus to take care of the technology so that
they can take care of their business and customers. Right now Amadeus offers several packages,
called ‘solutions’, with different levels of complexity and add-ons depending on booking
volume by the agencies. The more complex packages also have some management help.
Amadeus sells the ‘solution-selling program’ to the ACO who then have to market and sell it to
the customers. Because the markets vary widely so do prices set by the ACO. (Pluim, 080227)
Packaging is key here, as Amadeus is very complicated with a long list of products. Since these
customers do not know a lot about the technology being offered it is difficult for them to know
what to choose. The packaged solution would offer them the simplest most necessary products
to help them get the best from their agency; with the option of further additional products
should they be desired.
JDK5K6K
2345678*<: *7;7?38:A;*:6863?*A;*):3C?8*&?C>?;8*
Activity reports for car and hotel are not in high demand from this segment, as when dealing
with cars and hotels it is very common that the single site agencies bypass their GDS as
mentioned before. With these industries agencies usually have a close relationship with a few
select providers who they prefer to do business with.
75% of single site agencies are non-IATA connected and use consolidators when booking
airline tickets. This can make it difficult for Amadeus to reach these agencies, but in response
Amadeus try to direct them to consolidators who they know use Amadeus a lot. For small
agencies with limited financial resources using multi-GDS is not desirable due to price and
therefore a solution with consolidators offers them a possibility to find more bookings.
31
JDK6K #;:B( A *:;5*.4;7B6 A4; *=34>*8<?*'? 6B8*
4=*8<?*36? 8A4;;:A3?*:;5*,;8?3DA?4 *
The objective was to investigate the travel agency market to see whether to position the product
for them and find out the needs of the segment. After receiving the feedback the material was
analyzed to find patterns between the respondents and their needs. Here are the results.
JDK6KJK
1A <*=43*.4;834B*
The ACO is Amadeus’ front; they deal with travel agencies and handle external sales and
activities. It is therefore important for them to have control and full visibility of the
communication between Amadeus Central and Travel Agency. They want to check the data
before it is sent to the travel agencies, as not only do they want to make sure the data is accurate
so their customers will not get defective information, but also because they want to keep track
of business performance. This implies that they doubt the accuracy of the data, yet when
questioned about it, they contradicted themselves. Problems with selling the product are not due
to the accuracy of the data but other circumstances like knowledge and training. They trust the
correctness of the reports we supply but they still want control.
The ACOs use the data for two different purposes. One is to keep a record of travel agency
activity for marketing and strategy purposes, while the other is to customize special reports for
certain customers. This is very time consuming but is used within the ACO to occupy
employees. In countries like e.g. India where labor is cheap, customized reports are created to
improve customer satisfaction and relationship and also to warrant the employment of more
people - since the cost is low, it can be of value for the business.
There is substantial interest in an automated process which would result in a loss of ACO
control; however it would minimize their workload and leave more responsibility to the travel
agencies. There seem to be a different optimal balance between amount of control and workload
for each ACO. The conclusion is that there are two different standing points, one who wants to
have an automated process, minimizing cost and labor and another who does not want this to
maintain high levels of staff.
JDK6KLK
.6 84>A^:8A4;*:;5*,;5ADA56:BA >*
The target segment is small and medium agencies with individual goals and office procedures,
working with different routines and especially different tools. Although many are connected to
Amadeus tools, there are many other systems used for back office solutions. To supply nonAmadeus users with comparable services Amadeus must either develop a product that merges
all the current tools in operation within travel agencies, or develop something new that is
adaptable and very easy to use.
The diverse needs of single site agencies result in demands for different sets of data and to
satisfy them all would require innumerable reports. Another explanation for such diverse
answers given by travel agencies is that they may not have the knowledge or awareness of how
business intelligence can be of use to their organization. Many times this is something that is
neglected or overlooked due to budget reasons, as cost benefits are not fully realized.
Travel agencies showed little interest in getting the data analyzed for them; showing again they
have individual and specific needs that are difficult to satisfy by standardized analysis. They
would also welcome the ability to customize the product on the website for this reason. They are
protective about their business and any changes recommended since small changes can make a
big difference.
In general the small agencies do not have a deep knowledge in technology and applications and
want things to be kept simple.
32
JDK6KNK
.4>>6;A7:8A4;*:;5*#4:3?;? *
Communication about the product has been irregular and unclear according to the pilot users
and stakeholders. The pilot was not officially introduced to the public and users were added
along the way, explaining why many of the respondents replied that they never heard about the
product. However this is also because of ineffective (Business Intelligence – ACO – Travel
Agencies) communication. This suggests that the ACOs have not communicated product
information forward as requested. The ACOs have many diverse products to market with
different incentives, so Business Intelligence team’s product may have been disregarded or
overlooked in favor of products that are more beneficial for the ACO.
But even now, when the product is recognized and the pilot is running, documents are obsolete
and there is no real profile for the product. This results in unclear communication and the
process of establishing new customers or users complicated and time consuming. Functioning in
an international environment and industry with different cultures and languages verbal and
apparent deficiencies in the industry language of English, written, verbal and visual
communication becomes more important. This was particularly noticeable in the questionnaire
and answers.
The ACO desires promotional material to be able to sell the product properly; they are also
interested in training for usage of the tool and product. Although this is positive news for the
product since they are showing interest it can also show their lack of enough information to feel
confident about informing the customer.
Awareness of the website was very low, which is partly due to communication between
Business Intelligence and Amadeus. Increased awareness of the service is crucial for the growth
and success of the product.
JDK6K5K
+:3A:8A4;*:;5*#37<A8?7863?*
The existing reports offered are agreed useful and sought-after, however more variety is
requested. They wish to have more choice and several reports were suggested. Variation does
not simply impact the data collected and reports generated but also creates an issue with the
tools that are used to analyze and make use of the statistics received. For wider and more
complex analysis to create a range of reports, different tools may need to be employed to be
able to correctly manage the data.
The current reports have a satisfactory and valued architecture, there are no obvious or direct
changes to be done or requested, with either positive comments received or none at all. The data
is used as Amadeus intended and the business areas that Business Intelligence developed the
report for are the ones where the figures are applied.
The ACO and travel agencies have different preferences for format and frequencies which
implies disparity between what the customers wants and what the ACO thinks they want.
Meanwhile the ACO will use the data themselves, so their preferences might reflect their own
needs rather than the travel agencies.
JDK6K6K
7 :GABA8(*
To increase usage of the product, usability is an important factor. The report itself appeared to
have no faults but easier access or more accessible data is always desirable. With each
additional step requested to reach the information, it loses attractiveness. Therefore these steps
need to be easy and flexible when a market demands specific data and a high level of
customization.
To increase usability, communication and training is imperative. It is necessary to develop a
method that works internationally and that can be used through several media since such diverse
countries and agencies work in different manners.
33
The users have made various suggestions for how to increase usability. Thus it is important to
continue to involve users when developing the product and website further and when adding
features. Visual aid is particularly successful since it is not dependant on language and was also
emphasized by the stakeholders. Charts and graphs help people visualize data and make it more
understandable, while the website and training should be intuitive.
At the time of writing the functions and features on the website are few and basic, however
Amadeus does intend to increase the number of activities and options available on the website
in the future, but in doing so, they must maintain basic usability so as not to overcomplicate the
product and put off potential customers.
34
JJK -A 76 A4;*:;5*
.4;7B6 A4;*
This chapter includes recommendations on what Amadeus should do with the product now and
in the near future for the target segment. The recommendations are based on the results in this
study; they are presented without order and are three feasible scenarios for the future of the
product.
JJKJK '?74>>?;5:8A4;*JF*2345678*9:6;7<*
After developing a product, tested and evaluated it the next step is a product launch. A
prototype, like the one in this study, reduces the risk of costly iteration; if there is a problem it
can be detected quickly and adjusted before a launch. (Eppinger & Ulrich, 2008:250) Amadeus
has a product ready to launch and they have customers interested in it with data proven to be
useful for the target segment. For a travel agency to succeed with business intelligence, it is
necessary to have an effective business/IT partnership which Amadeus can deliver. (Williams,
2007:168) To be able to market this solution to a segment never before targeted by the Business
Intelligence team provides a lot of potential value for Amadeus. In addition to this it provides
added value to Amadeus as a world leading GDS, since many of Amadeus competitors offer a
similar service.
When launching a product there are different approaches to take. With a full product launch
Amadeus can earn a return on product research and development investment. It has taken about
two man months to develop and set-up the product, so with just a few paying agencies the cost
involved would be recapped reasonably fast. (Mellor, 080227) This could also be done with a
minor product launch while simultaneously contacting individually interested agencies,
meaning less cost for a launch and reduced risk for the Business Intelligence team. As
discovered during the pilot the word-of-mouth effect is efficient and so Amadeus could instead
rely on this to reach the customers who are really interested in the product without making
further marketing or financial effort into launching.
JJKJKJK
-?D?B4-*:638<?3*4A8<*#684>:8A7*&?86-*
If a full product launch is chosen a few changes should be made to improve the product and user
settings as there were comments and suggestions made about the usability of the user set-up and
website, two features very important to the business intelligence offer.
The ideal situation for many of the ACOs and Business Intelligence team would be automatic
ordering and administration through the Amadeus Online Business Intelligence website. Today
the team in Amadeus and the ACO handle all administration and set-up. An automatic solution
would entail more responsibility for the travel agencies who would have to log in and order the
requested reports themselves. The interface and usability of the website should be improved so
that the travel agencies can log in, choose the reports they want and arrange billing on the
website. Then the order will generate itself when the payment is completed. This means that
they also have to register their office ids and groupings on their own, which is currently done by
either Business Intelligence team or the ACO.
A set-up where every agency can handle the ordering and administration themselves is highly
attractive for most of the stakeholders as it would lower the ongoing costs and administration
work for Amadeus, and consequently the price for the reports. It will also lower the cost for the
ACO who does not necessarily want to investigate in this target segment. For the ACO an
automatic Amadeus Online Business Intelligence solution would entail less administrative work
35
saving them man hours and generate more revenue. The ACO who generate the reports
themselves will have decreased workload and generate more revenue as the customer can be
charged for the Business Intelligence product. Business Intelligence team will charge the ACO
who will then decide whether to charge the end customers or not.
JJKJKLK
.<:;C?*):3C?8*&?C>?;8*
Before launching the product a recommendation is to investigate other target segments as
experts on the Amadeus segments had concerns about the targeting single site agencies. Since
the segment is low on cash flow and wants simple solutions, it is not necessarily ideal for this
product. When investing in Business Intelligence, agencies do not only need to invest in
products but also the technology and methods needed to make the most of the information.
(Williams, 2007:5) When looking at potential segments to target there are segments that can be
disregarded but also ones with actual potential. Bigger travel agencies might have other existing
solutions for Business Intelligence like their own back-office system and therefore have no need
for this product. The mid segment is growing and evolving so there is a possibility that they
have not established a full office solution yet. (McShea, 080306) Here the product could be
interesting; furthermore if they already have a similar solution they can afford to pay for an
additional one if it could help their business.
Another target segment undiscovered yet is the one stressed by ACO Scandinavia. Local
provider offices, especially car companies and hotel chains, are in need of statistics and this
product could be very helpful to them .They are now creating ad hoc files using in-house
sources. One downside however is that the reports offered does not suffice for the providers
needs so enhancement would be necessary.
JJKLK '?74>>?;5:8A4;*LF*(6;5B?*#--34:7<*
To offer the product to as many customers as possible a good approach would be to bundle it
with other existing products offered by Amadeus. Amadeus have different solutions for travel
agencies with many of them complementing Business Intelligence. For single site agencies,
Amadeus already provide bundled approach where the agencies are offered a standard package
and can then choose add-ons if they want to upgrade their package. This bundle approach gives
Amadeus a competitive edge over other GDSs who only offer single products with complicated
descriptions - hard to understand for a small travel agent if they are not familiar with the
technical solutions existing in the industry (Pluim, 080206). Most GDSs offer single products
listed on their website and then the agency have to pick the products to create a full solution. A
suggestion is to add the Business Intelligence package to this bundle approach and offer it as
one of the add-ons. This will add value to the package since it increases the options Amadeus
can offer their customers. It would also help the Business Intelligence reach the customers that
are now difficult to contact due to the organization of communication. When bundling the
product Amadeus can emphasis that business intelligence is not only measured in financial
factors since connection with IT strategy and business goals increases its value further.
(Williams, 2007:168)
The bundle approach has been discussed with other parts of Amadeus and met some resistance.
The teams in Amadeus work independently and with their own budget. Accordingly if Business
Intelligence team gives their product to other teams to offer their customers, Business
Intelligence needs to receive part of the profit. This would entail more work for the travel
agency teams with more products to handle and who would need to be convinced that this
product actually would add value to the packages they are responsible for. An observation while
working in Amadeus is resistance when helping other teams - they do not work for the good of
Amadeus rather for themselves, which is considered necessary to survive in such a big
organization.
36
JJKNK '?74>>?;5:8A4;*NF*0ABB*8<?*2345678*
Many factors remain uncertain and there is limited revenue potential from this product, so one
recommendation would be to stop distribution and not launch the product at all. At the moment,
it is a cost factor for the Business Intelligence team that does not generate any revenue. Set-up
and maintenance takes a lot of time and everything is done for free. After the product launch,
this would hopefully change but the findings during this study shows that even then, revenue
might be slow and limited due to minor interest.
The target market segment book less than half of their flights through a GDS. Instead single site
agencies book over 50 % of business through direct websites with a large proportion also made
through direct relationships with travel providers or consolidators. The need for a statistical
report showing the activity through a GDS is therefore limited yet there is a risk of not receiving
any customers for the product. Another concern about the target segment is that they are low on
cash flow and is unlikely to be able to subscribe to a long term contract. If the reports were
available as one offs on a website this would give them a possibility to log on and buy a report
when they and when cash flow permits. But when considering how the set-up is today, and how
the future offer would look, the expenses really are too high for many agencies.
The segment includes small actors who all have very specific needs making it difficult to
produce products that satisfy all these needs simultaneously. The content in the existing reports
are appreciated but there are requests for customized reports and distribution methods to fit the
specific actors. This kind of customization means extra costs for every produced report and is
not feasible within the budget because of the small revenue. This would be feasible if there was
an automatic function on the website where agencies could generate their own reports, but at the
moment this is not available while a standardized product might not be enough to fill enough
agencies needs.
‘BI is about turning information into action and action into improved performance’ (S. & N.
Williams, 2000:10) Small travel agencies can receive information but it is not guaranteed that
they would be able to handle the information properly and turn it into useful business
information, decisions and action. This can be a deal breaker for them when it comes to
spending money on information that for them in the long run is useless (McShea, 080306). Also
a business intelligence solution is often part of the IT strategy and budget of a longer, more
established company, but for a small agency something they would commonly be able to invest
in.
It is common to cancel development projects, but this is usually made too late after significant
resources have been invested. Amadeus has invested in this product but by not cancelling the
product as soon as it is likely failure is realized would entail more investment and bigger risk of
losing money. Therefore, in this case, it might make better business sense to abort the project
now, before further time and money is invested in a product that may not turn out to be
profitable.
37
JLK '?=?3?;7? *
JLKJKJK
(44% *
Bell, J. (2000). Introduktion till forskningsmetodik. Lund: Studentlitteratur
Cohen, L. (2000). Research Methods in Education. Kapitel 14: Questionnaires and 15:
Interviews (London: RoutledgeFalmer).
Eppinger, S. D. & Ulrich, K. T. (2008). Product Design and Development, 4th edition.
Singapore: McGraw-Hill International Edition.
Johansson, L-G. (1999). Introduktion till vetenskapsteorin. pp. 52-67. Stockholm: Thales
McGrath, M. E. (1996). Setting the PACE in product development. United States of America:
Butterworth-Heinemann.
Williams, S. & Williams, N. (2007). The Profit Impact of Business Intelligence. San Francisco:
Morgan Kaufmann Publishers.
JLKJKLK
#38A7B? *
CMI Corporate Marketing Intelligence, (2006). Competitive Analysis Cendant – Galileo May
2006,
https://opera.amadeus.com/corpweb/CMIHolderV1.nsf/Opera/04D827EAB1AE74AFC1256E40
004361AF/$File/CMICompetitiveAnalysisCENDANTGALILEO+May06.pdf 080401
CMI Corporate Marketing Intelligence, (2004). We do better: A Competitive Overview of
Abacus – November 2004,
https://opera.amadeus.com/corpweb/CMIHolderV1.nsf/Opera/992D99D02D26553CC1256F580
04239FC/$File/WDB+abacus+2004.pdf (2008-04-05)
CMI Corporate Marketing Intelligence, (2006) We do better – Abacus.
https://opera.amadeus.com/internal/html/new/3060/search_detail.jsp?doc_url=http://operasuppo
rt.amadeus.com/corpweb/CMIHolderV1.nsf/Opera/992D99D02D26553CC1256F58004239FC?
OpenDocument 2008-02-25
Dhann, S. (2001) Referencing - The Harvard System [Online] Available:
http://www.ex.ac.uk/dll/studyskills/harvard_referencing.htm (2004-08-24).
Hansson, S-O, (2003). Konsten att vara vetenskaplig. Filosofienheten KTH, Stockholm.
http://www.infra.kth.se/~soh/downloads.htm
Sorensen, C. (2005). This is Not an Article – Just Some Thoughts on How to Write One.
http://mobility.lse.ac.uk/download/Sorensen2005b.pdf (2008-04-28)
JLKJKNK
143B5*1A5?*1?G*-:C?*
OPERA. Amadeus intranet.
https://opera.amadeus.com Last visit May 2008
SABRE. Global Distribution System.
http://www.sabretravelnetwork.com/ Last visit February 2008
SURVEY MONKEY. Web tool for surveys.
www.surveymonkey.com Last visit March 2008
38
JLKJK5K
!>:AB*.433? -4;5?;7?*
Clavijo, A. Manager, Statistics, Aviation Intelligence Portfolio IATA. Email 071026
Ibarra, O. Product Consultant, ACO. Email 080303
JLKJK6K
,;8?3DA?4 *
Amundsen, M. ACO Scandinavia. Evaluation November 2007.
Dordio Vilela, P-A. Segment Manager, Amadeus. Interview December 2007.
Hellwig, A. ACO Italy, Amadeus. Conference Call September 2007.
McShea, P. Segment Manager, Amadeus. Interview March 2008.
Mellor, A. Product Manager, Amadeus. Interview November 2007 and February 2008.
Pluim, M. Segment Manager, Amadeus. Interview February 2008.
39
JNK #--?;5A8*#*
(Dordio, December 2007)
40
J5K #--?;5A8*(*
Questionnaire number one
ACO-Pilot Program for Amadeus Online Business Intelligence for
Travel Agencies
Respondents: 27
Completed questionnaires: 9
5. Please rate the reports according to preference with 1-5,
where 1 is the least preferable and 5 is the highest. 14
respondents.
5
4
3
Average rating
2
1
The
Amadeus
Agency Air
Sales
Reports
The
Amadeus
Agency Car
Sales
Reports
The
Amadeus
Agency
Hotel Sales
Reports
The
Amadeus
Agency
Insurance
Sales
The
Amadeus
Agency
Cumulative
Sales
0
6. Please name three of the main topics of interest in the reports we supply.
Respondents: 14
Most respondents replied AIR, HOTEL, CAR or INSURANCE.
Other answers were: Total amount, All taxes amount, Net Report, There is no break of serial in
documents, Reports are always in accurate details, Refund report is accurate, Sales, Revenue
Earned, Statistics to track internally.
41
7. Are there any reports out of these that are of no
interest. 14 respondents
The Amadeus Agency Air
Sales Reports
7.1%
The Amadeus Agency Car
Sales Reports
35.7%
57.1%
The Amadeus Agency
Hotel Sales Reports
The Amadeus Agency
Insurance Sales Reports
The Amadeus Agency
Cumulative Sales Reports
0%
14.3%
28.6%
None of the above
8. Are there any reports out of these that are of no interest. 14
respondents.
7.1%
7.1%
Agency Detailed Activity
7.1%
0, 0%
Account Detailed Activity
7.1%
Detailed Activity by Corporate Code
Agency Cumulative Booking Activity
14.3%
Account Cumulative Booking Activity
78.6%
Cumulative Booking Activity by
Corporate Code
None of the above
42
9. Do you prefer to receive the data before you
send it to the TAs. 14 respondents.
No
Yes
0
20
40
60
80
100
Percent
If yes, what do you do with the data when you receive it?
11 respondents
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
For office record
To check and add comments
Because I want to check if the data is correct or if extra information I have to add so that I
can add.
Check if there is any additional information we want to add or to see if there is any error.
Recheck.
Check before send it.
Just the purpose is to keep in record.
We analyze internally, and check when there is a deficit in segments for some agent.
Monitor Our Top & Mid Size Customer on daily basis.
For Insurance, I need to do a verification and comparison with the Insurance provider, ACE
Synergy before dissemination.
10. What do your customers use the data for?
8 respondents
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
For update
Maintain accounts
Maintain their own data
For record
To get the information regarding their reservation
Payment to insurance provider
Internal Stats
For more information
Track commissions
Take action on time
Track sales
43
11. What can we change with the reports to make the data more useful for your
customers?
6 respondents
Air
Access should be easy to the customer
Detail of address and accounts of customer
Make it airline wise / give details of non productive segments (hx/no/Uc)
Hotel
Understandable format of the data
Please provide details per chain /city/country also
Car
Data should be in details
Noticeable is that several has answered ‘No change’ for all three categories.
12. If you consider the 'Detailed Air Activity' report please rate how useful the information is for your customers
with 1-6, where 1 means not important and 6 means very important. 12 respondents.
Agent Signature Code
PNR Record Locator
6
Country Code
5.9
Office ID
5.8
IATA Code
5.7
Provider Code
5.6
Departure City
5.5
Arrival City
Departure Date
5.3
Arrival Date
5.2
Transaction Date
5.1
Flight Number
A
ge
nt
S
ig
na
P
N
tu
R
re
R
C
ec
od
or
e
d
Lo
c
C
at
ou
or
nt
ry
C
od
e
O
ff
ic
e
IA
ID
TA
P
C
ro
od
vi
e
de
rC
D
ep
od
ar
e
tu
re
C
ity
A
rr
i
v
D
al
ep
C
ar
ity
tu
re
D
at
A
e
rr
Tr
iv
al
an
D
sa
at
ct
e
io
n
Fl
D
ig
at
ht
e
N
B
um
oo
be
ki
r
ng
A
ct
P
A
re
io
ir
vi
n
ou Bo
o
s
k
in
St
C
g
ur
at
us s
re
nt
C
od
St
at
e
us
C
la
C
od
ss
e
of
P
S
as
e
si
rv
ve
ic
e
In
di
ca
to
r
5.4
Fig. 1 Average rating
44
Booking Action
Air Bookings
Previous Status Code
Current Status Code
Class of Service
Pass ive Indicator
A gent Signature C o de
6
13. If you consider the 'Detailed Car Activity' report please rate how useful the information is for your customers with 1-6,
where 1 means not important and 6 means very important. 12 respondents.
P N R R eco rd Lo cato r
C o untry C o de
Office ID
5.5
IA T A N umber
P ro vider C o de
5
P ick Up C o untry C o de
P ick Up C ity
4.5
D ro p Off C o untry C o de
D ro p Off C ity
4
P ick Up D ate
3.5
N um ber of
D a y s R e n te d
B o o k in g
A c tio n
P a s s iv e
In d ic a t o r
C o n fir m a tio n
N um be r
T r a n s a c tio n
D a te (o n ly
fo r t h e
w e e k ly a n d
D ro p O ff
D a te
P ic k U p D a te
D r o p O ff C ity
D ro p O ff
C o u n tr y
C ode
P ic k U p C ity
P ic k U p
C o u n tr y
C ode
P r o v id e r
C ode
IA T A
N um ber
O f fic e ID
C o u n tr y
C ode
A ge nt
S ig n a tu r e
C ode
3
P N R R e c ord
L o c a to r
D ro p Off D ate
T ransactio n D ate (o nly fo r the weekly and
mo nthly repo rt)C ar B o o kings
C o nfirmatio n N umber
P assive Indicato r
B o o king A ctio n
N umber o f D ays R ented
Agent Signature Code
14. If you consider the 'Detailed Hotel Activity' report please rate how useful the information is for your customers
with 1-6, where 1 means not important and 6 means very important. 12 respondents.
PNR Record Locator
Country Code
6
Office ID
IATA Code
5.8
Country of Hotel
5.6
City of Hotel
5.4
Hotel Name
5.2
Hotel Code
Check In Date
5
Check Out Date
4.8
45
Number of
Days Stayed
Reservation
in the Name
Confirmation
Number
Passive
Indicator
Hotel
Bookings
Booking
Action
Transaction
Date (only
Check Out
Date
Check In
Date
Hotel Code
Hotel Name
City of Hotel
Country of
Hotel
IATA Code
Office ID
Hotel Bookings
Country
Code
4.4
PNR Record
Locator
Transaction Date (only for the
w eekly and m onthly report)
Booking Action
Agent
Signature
4.6
Passive Indicator
Confirmation Num ber
Reservation in the Name of
Number of Days Stayed
15. If you consider the 'Cumulative Booking Activity' report please rate how useful the
information is for your customers with 1-6,
where 1 means not important and 6 means very important. 12 respondents.
6
Date (per day for the daily report and per m onth
for the m onthly report)
Added Air Bookings
Cancelled Air Bookings
Net Air Bookings
Cancel Rate
5
Added Car Bookings
Cancelled Car Bookings
4
Net Car Bookings
3
Cancel Rate
Added Hotel Bookings
2
Cancelled Hotel Bookings
Net Hotel Bookings
1
Cancel Rate
Net
Insurance
Cancel
Rate
Cancel
Rate
Added
Insurance
Cancelled
Insurance
Cancel
Rate
Added
Hotel
Cancelled
Hotel
Net Hotel
Bookings
Added
Car
Cancelled
Car
Net Car
Bookings
Cancelled
Air
Net Air
Bookings
Cancel
Rate
Added Insurance Bookings
Cancelled Insurance Bookings
Net Insurance Bookings
Cancel Rate
On the question ‘What are you missing in the report’ following all the different reports the
answer was nothing from all the respondents.
16. Please tick the box of the data you think
your customers would be interested in
receiving:
12
Responses
10
8
6
4
2
Data
Other: Insurance activity
46
Ticketing
Passenger
itinerary
(e.g. These
Competitive
market
share data
Booking
trend
Billing
Hotel
activity
Car activity
0
Air activity
Date (per
day for
Added Air
Bookings
0
of both
Combination
indicators
graphs and
Summarized
Summarized
table format
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Detailed
Respondents
17. Does your customer prefer
summarized or detailed information?
Respondents
18. Which frequency of data is of most interest for
your customers? (tick one or several alternatives)
12 respondents.
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Daily
Weekly
Monthly
Quarterly
Yearly
19. Which format of data is of most interest for
your customers? (tick one or several alternatives).
12 respondents.
Respondents
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Excel
PDF
Text
47
Html
20. What kind of analysis tool would you like to see on the website? 7 respondents.
• Any suitable tool
• Which would be easier to access
• Nothing
• Seasonal traffic – based on travel date
• The high yield revenue class – namely first/business
21. What would you like to be able to do on the website? (E.g. download data, contact
support)
• Update data
• Download data
• Save the data
• Check all details
• No change
• Download data
• Back up support
• Add data
• Edit data
22. Would you like to be able to customize the
product on the website? 12 respondents
12
Responses
10
8
6
4
2
0
Yes
No
48
23. Do you believe you can charge your
customers for these products and services?
12 respondents.
10
Responses
8
6
4
2
0
Yes
No
Please elaborate (1 answer): Provided it is a minimal fee. Otherwise it would not sell very well
in our market. (Malaysia)
24. How did you become aware of the user setup process and ordering of reports?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
I don’t know
No comments
From the website
By internet
For daily basis use
It is fine
From Amadeus Sales staff
Internal communication
25. What can be improved concerning user setup and ordering of report on the Amadeus
Online Business Intelligence website?
•
•
•
•
•
•
I don’t know,
No comments
Short time
Sales Reports
Customization
I am not interested
26. All respondents feel it would be useful for the ACO to have training on the user setup.
49
27. Do you find it easy to use the online tool? 10
respondents.
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Yes
No
Do not know
Responses
28. Please name three things that would make this tool improved, easier and more
efficient?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Flexibility to customize
Easy to access on website
I don’t know
User free
No change in these tools
User friendly
Detailed reports
Easy to update
Responses
29. An automation of the process would entail less
work for you and more responsibility for the Travel
Agencies. For us to be able to acheive this it
requires a full definition of accounts in your
market. Is this something you would be interested
in?
8
6
4
2
0
Yes
No
Please specify why or why not:
Saves time
It saves time and manpower
I don’t know
30. What systems do you use to facilitate your accounts?
None
50
Local system
Local software
Internal system, name Asia Soft
Excel
Responses
31. Have you used the grouping facility?
10 respondents.
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Yes
No
32. Please rate the usability of the grouping facility
(1 is lowest, 6 is highest). 9 respondents.
Responses
4
3
2
1
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
Level
1 respondent think they would be able to ‘Supply a monthly file to update the grouping facility’.
7 respondents think they would be able to ‘Update the information on the website yourself’.
51
35. How did you find out about the product?
9 respondents.
Marketing
communication from
Amadeus
Word of mouth
Advertisement
Email
Fig. 5 Percentage of total responses. The alternatives Advertisement, Email and Product search
on Opera had no respondents.
36. Was the information you received enough?
9 respondents.
6
Responses
5
4
3
2
1
0
Yes
No
38. What is the percentage of micro agencies and SME (small and medium agencies in your
market?
Micro
SME
30
30
70
30
40
60
40
60
40
60
40
60
50
30
75
25
52
70
50
39. What is the percentage of leisure customers vs. business customer in your market?
Leisure
Business
35
65
10
90
10
90
10
90
10
90
30
70
70
60
20
10
20
80
40. What are the biggest issues regarding selling the product to customers?
• Training
• Knowledge
• Unstability
• Awareness of the product
• Communication gap between the business partners
• They will be able to track more effectively
• Airlines cooperation
• Money
• Availability
All respondents are confident with the accuracy of the data (9 respondents).
42. What kind of aid would you need to promote the product? (E.g. sell sheet, demo)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Telesales
Advertisement material
By email
Demo
Sales material
Brochures
Presentations
See sheets
Awareness
Giveaways
Display materials
No respondents have experienced any problems with the delivery of the reports. (8 respondents)
53
J6K #--?;5A8*.K*
Questionnaire number two
Analysis of Questionnaire from the TAs
Respondents: 96
Completed questionnaires: 43
Q5. If we could send you any specific reports, what would you like to receive? (Please be as
detailed as possible)
Respondents: 15
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The monthly data report of the company sales
Statistics on destination/carrier/class/routing numbers drilled down on customer account
number basis, pre- and post trip reports
Monthly Global Market Share divided by Countries, Booking monthly performance divided
by Booking Value (ex: 30 % International Booking with US$ 5,00, 40 % International
Booking with US$ 6,00, 30 % National Booking with US$ 3,00...)
Would be really helpful to receive the data regarding lowest available fare, fare paid and
reference fare. That would help to show the clients: realized savings or missed savings.
What our agent status with Amadeus up or down, any supported programs which help us to
provide the best to our clients?
The Amadeus Agency Air Detailed Sales Reports, The Amadeus Agency Car Detailed Sales
Reports, The Amadeus Agency Hotel Detailed Sales Reports
The Amadeus Agency Air Detailed Sales Reports
Specification of booked segments for flights with office ID
Our segments
Segments achieved monthly report
Airlines Volume Monthly Reports
Refunds Report
Bookings per destination
Bookings per airline
Bookings forecast
Exceptions reports
Specific corporate client reports
The existing procedure is best i.e. segment reports providing it in a CD
A report of unused tickets
Reservations sales report for each branch every month
54
6. Please grade these reports according to preference with 1-5, where 1 is the lowest grade and 5 is the highest. 43
Respondents.
5
4.5
4
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
Average rating
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>70$'?7;#
7. Please tick the box of the reports of interest
43 Respondents
90.0%
80.0%
70.0%
60.0%
50.0%
40.0%
30.0%
20.0%
10.0%
0.0%
82.2%
35.6%
73.3%
44.4%
44.4%
22.2%
0.0%
A ge nc y
D e t aile d S a le s
C um ulat iv e by
day
A genc y
D et a ile d S a le s
C um ulat iv e by
wee k
A ge nc y
D e t a iled S a le s
C um ula t ive by
m o nt h
C o m pa rat iv e
C o m pe t et iv e
M ark et S ha re
by da y
C o m parat iv e
C o m pet et iv e
M a rk e t S ha re
by m o nt h
C o m para t ive
C o m pet e t ive
M a rk e t Sha re
by ye a r
Fig. 6 Percentage of how many of the respondents would like to receive the report
55
N o ne o f t he
a bo ve
8. Please tick the boxes of the data you are interested in
receiving.
45 Respondents
100.0% 91.1%
90.0%
80.0%
80.0%
68.9%
70.0%
60.0% 62.2% 57.8% 62.2%
57.8%
60.0%
50.0%
40.0%
30.0%
20.0%
10.0%
0.0%
0.0%
Fig. 7 Percentage of how many of the respondents would be interested in the data
9. Are there any reports out of these that you would not consider ordering
39 Respondents
80.0%
70.0%
60.0%
50.0%
40.0%
30.0%
20.0%
10.0%
0.0%
T he A m adeus
A gency A ir
D et ailed S ales
R epo rts
T he A madeus
A gency C ar
D etailed Sales
R epo rt s
T he A m adeus
A gency H o t el
D et ailed Sales
R epo rts
T he A m adeus
A gency
Insurance
D et ailed Sales
R epo rt s
T he A m adeus
A gency
C um ulat ive
D et ailed Sales
R epo rts
T he A madeus
A gency F erry
D et ailed Sales
R epo rt s
T he A madeus
A gency C ruise
D et ailed Sales
R epo rt s
Fig. 8 Percentage of how many of the respondents would not be interested in the reports
10. What tools do you use to analyze data? (If you do not use a tool please state none)
Most common answer was Excel or None.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Amadeus Reports
Amadeus Almos
Amadeus Air Tools
Amadeus Agency Manager
All Stats
MS SQL 2005
PC CMS
MS Dynamics
56
N o ne o f the
abo ve
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Accounting Detail
MIS
BI
One
Excel
Cognos Powerplay
Soft Tours
Farim
RIP
Hyperion
Tool created locally and grow 2.08 (as BDC partner)
High – Way
Quicktravel
Back office system
Car Rental tools
11. Name three business areas for which you would find data useful. (e.g sales, marketing,
airline negotiation)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Sales
Marketing
Account management
Procurement
Airline Negotiations
Security
Reports for corporate clients
Budgeting
Supplier Negotiations
Efficiency of sale staff
Fares negotiation
Consolidation
Operations
12. Do you prefer summarized or detailed
information?
Detailed
2.4%
33.3%
69.0%
26.2%
26.2%
Summarized table format
Summarized graphs and
indicators
Combination of detailed
and summarized
Other (please specify)
Fig. 9 Percentage of what the respondents’ preferred. Others, please specify: Excel exportable
57
13. Which frequency/frequencies of data is of most
interest for your business?
36.4%
0.0% 27.3%
Daily
29.5%
29.5%
Weekly
Monthly
Quarterly
Yearly
86.4%
Fig. 10 Percentage of how many of the respondents wanted which frequency
14. Which format/formats of data is of most
interest for your business?
11.4% 2.3%
2.3%
Excel
PDF
Text
36.4%
79.5%
Html
Fig. 11 Percentage of how many of the respondents wanted a certain format of data
58
15. How would you like to access the reports?
22.7%
2.3%
50.0%
On-line
By email
18.2%
File transfer
All of the Above
52.3%
Fig. 12 Percentage of how the respondents would like to access the reports
16. Would you be interested in us analyzing the
data for you?
43 Respondents
Yes
No
17. What are the criteria for us to analyze the data for you?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Trends
Sales
Sales Level
Best sales
Air
Cars
Hotel
Each branch separately
Our trust in Amadeus analyzes
Accuracy
Time
Cost
Pref partners
Business targets
Market Share
Competition
59
•
•
•
Market comparison
Performance compared to previous months for sales
Most often directions
18. Would you be interested in reports focused on
your business targets and goals, that for example
would run if you did not reach the target for the
month?
44 respondents
27.3%
Yes
No
72.7%
19. Are you aware we make reports available online to agencies? 40 Respondents
30.0%
Yes
No
70.0%
20. What kind of analysis tool would you like to see on a website?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Table to compare with targets and budgets
Business analysis of the company turn over
Marketing
Marketing research
Charts and graphs
Graphs
Graphical reports showing details reports
Revenue figures
Sales activity
Booking activity
Customer access for the customer to see own productions
Application where you can see booking information per month per branch per consultant
Reports
Reporting website
Excel
HTML
60
•
•
•
•
•
Word
Secure link to operational and financial data
Any analyzes which help me as a travel agent
Not given a thought yet
None – we need data and we analyze it ourselves
21. What would you like to be able to do on the website? (E.g. download data, contact support,
see your activity, ad revenue figures, etc.)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
All mentioned in the question
Download data
Figures
Contact support
Revenue figures
See my activity
Download booking information
See basic reports (like ‘my favorites’)
See booking activity per consultant
Trend / annual / monthly comparison
Compare data between months
Noticeable to mention is that the ones that are in the example were mentioned most often and
especially download data.
22. Would you like to be able to customize the
product on the website?
39 Respondents
12.8%
Yes
No
87.2%
Comments or Questions
• It has been difficult to answer many of the questions without seeing the format of reports to
which you refer.
• Thank you for always trying to improve the services you provide. Great work!
• Lets see the result. Thanks
• I hope the sites used for this project will be easy to access and navigate. Will it be possible to
kink the sites?
• We don't have budget for that kind of service from Amadeus
• First many thanks and if there is any misunderstanding answer please clear it to me
61
J9K #--?;5A8*-K*
Pilot program for Travel Agencies
Objectives of the pilot program
The main objective of the pilot program is to try the new product on customers and obtain the
maximum feedback from them and the ACOs. This will result in the possibility to decide on the
continuation of the product and if so how to improve and maximize the benefits for the different
stakeholders.
Background
The Business Solutions Managers and their markets have long been complaining that other
Global Distribution Systems (GDSs) offer a mid-range type of reporting to the Travel Agencies,
free of charge, and that it was necessary that Amadeus offer a similar service. The intention is to
provide a reporting solution that responded to these needs at a relatively low cost.
The concept was tested with detailed insurance booking reports, and certain market seemed to
like the tool and distribution method. The reports were free but basic in structure and require no
complex processing to produce. This prompted the development of other reports to track all the
provider bookings, together with generalized reports based on agency reporting. For more
information about the reports please refer to the corresponding Product Overview.
The reports were finalized in middle of June 2007, and the pilot program started almost
immediately.
Pilot program users
According to Amadeus Travel Agency segmentation single-site travel agencies are small
national travel agencies. The primary target for the pilot program being such single-site
agencies with little revenues to spend on reporting, the cost issue was one of the key criteria.
The reports are an important tool for Travel Agencies and their future business. This pilot
program is set up with emphasis on the customer; it gives Travel Agencies and ACOs a chance
to try the product for free and influence the reports future design, content and distribution. The
pilot program users are set up for a trial session until end of 2007. They will receive the reports
for free and are then able to discover the advantage of Amadeus Online Business Intelligence
for Travel Agencies. They will be requested to supply feedback and are expected to try the
product actively and give feedback on their experience, gained and perceived value of the
product.
Activities we expect from the participating ACOs and Travel Agencies:
Timeline
October 15th
November 1st
December
January 10th
Questionnaires sent out
Collection of feedback
End of pilot program
Conclusion and proposition
Stakeholders
•
•
•
•
Amadeus CPM-RES-BUS
Development
ACOs
Travel Agencies (End - user)
62
Measurements (Users acceptance, market acceptance)
•
Measures
o Technical (e.g. CPU usage)
o Functional
o Logs on site
o Report run time
o Delivery performance
o Value adding
Methodology
•
•
•
Feedback questionnaires to end-users and middle stakeholders
Analysis and improvements
Usability test for ACO’s for Amadeus Online Business Intelligence interface:
! procedure with ordering etcetera
! Easy tool to use?
For questions about this evaluation please contact:
Emma Wiklund
Amadeus Business Intelligence
Amadeus IT Group SA
485, Route du Pin Montard
06902 Sophia Antipolis Cedex
FRANCE
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +33497215504
63
Dear customer,
Our questionnaire is now ready to be launched!
Please take the time and help us create products tailored to your needs. Click on the
following link to enter
The questionnaire. You have two weeks from today to complete it; last day is 4th of
November.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=cQp9BKVYEXgYiLEavO5eHw_3d_3d
Best Regards,
Emma Wiklund
Amadeus Business Intelligence Team
[email protected]
For further information, do not hesitate to contact us.
Best regards,
Amadeus Business Intelligence team
[email protected]
www.businessintelligence.amadeus.com
64
TRITA-CSC-E 2008: 085
ISRN-KTH/CSC/E--08/085--SE
ISSN-1653-5715
www.kth.se

Product Launch for Amadeus Business Intelligence for Travel

Transcription

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