NEWS TRAVEL WEEKLY BUSINESS CONTINUED FROM THE BACK


director aul urtis said the answer was to marry the best aspects of offtheshelf systems and technology developed inhouse. asyet is rebuilding its tour


operating division from scratch, having previously worked with partners that provided hotel inventory to create packages. urtis said: “Were trying to


take a hybrid approach where we will take the core platforms where we can differentiate ourselves, and have services we can incorporate where we might buy small innovative products that do one thing really well. “r, if it doesnt eist, we build


it ourselves but try to adopt a more serviceoriented way of building our solutions.” urtis added that the one thing


he would wish for is “a technology marketplace that clearly outlines all of the technology products and what they actually do, rather than what they tech companies say they do.” en oss, vicepresident


of research at TR, an independent tech procurement consultancy that partners with clients on reuests for proposals Rs, said: “With larger airline or travel business Rs, youre not going to have one system that ust produces everything they want beautifully. “ut you can have two systems


working together, as long as they can talk. Thats not a commercial agreement situation, its at the technology level.” Attraction Tickets irect head


of trade sales and marketing Annabel ove said the supplier chose to keep tech development inhouse because it considered doing so gave it a competitive advantage. “ur tech was originally


bespokebuilt and based on code that we updated only two years ago,” she said. “That whole process took about twoandahalf years to move across the platform.”


Travolution technology round-table: Travel company executives dis


‘What consumers want must be our starting point’


Travel must move on from out-of-date legacy systems if it is to keep pace with customer demand for better service and product.


ulture Trips Andy Washington


said travel firms should start with what the consumer wants and work back from that when evaluating what they need their technology to do. The online publishers senior


vicepresident of travel, who was recruited last year to develop a travel division, said: “We have an industry of legacy roles, legacy people, legacy tech, legacy models. ou can take technology from third parties and solve your operational business leads, but what businesses tend to forget is what they are trying to solve for the customer. “ost models in travel dont


solve for the customers. A tour operators basic model is: This is what weve got, please book it. TAs say: We put it on the shelf, please book it. What future businesses should say is: What do you want, and ll solve that.”


‘Tech buyers need to be clear about what they want’


Travel firms are often not clear enough about what they want from technology and are seduced by suppliers with the best sales and marketing teams. TRs en oss said


technology buyers are often not entirely sure of what they need and narrow down their search to a few technology developers. He said TR works with 


62travelweekly.co.uk2 May 2019


MOSS: ‘The bigger a company, the more complicated it gets’


of the  travel technologies globally of which he was aware. ut oss claimed most companies tend to look at no more


WASHINGTON: ‘Businesses tend to forget what they are trying to solve for the customer’


“Most models in travel don’t solve for the customer. What future businesses should say is: ‘What do you want and I’ll solve that’”


However, leetway Travel chief


eecutive Stuart ackson said: “any organisations have staff with  to  years of eperience between them, working in a


certain way, and their business is built around those methodologies. “When  was at onarch, we


ripped out the old legacy system and brought in a new system. “The mantra we had was adopt


and adapt. Thats all well and good but in reality, youre asking the individual to do something similar to turkeys voting for hristmas. “They can see it is automating a


role they are currently doing, and they cant see the end point, which is building a more fulfilling role for the individual.”


than  and hire consultancies to assist in narrowing down their search. “eople who go walking around


trade shows might have an inkling of what their aim is, but when it comes to producing and using that technology,  dont think they have much of an idea,” he said. “The bigger a company becomes,


the more complicated it gets, as more people want to be involved. “ou get to a point where the


technology is providing only   of what a company needs because each stakeholder has thrown their hat into the ring.”


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