15 October 2008

HRG calls for common technology standards

Hogg Robinson Group (HRG) has issued an urgent plea to the corporate travel industry to develop a robust set of technology standards.

The groupÃ¢â¬â¢s business technology and distribution director Bill Brindle said a common set of technology standards would benefit the whole industry.

Ã¢â¬ÅâœTo date, all those involved in solutions development have tended to work independently, often creating connectivity and integration issues," he said.

Ã¢â¬ÅâœExisting industry guidelines are extremely broad and lead to different interpretations, with the risk that systems developed by one company are often not compatible with those developed by partners or clients.

Ã¢â¬ÅâœRobust, common standards will eliminate this risk and enable companies to work more effectively together. This should help to prevent large scale fragmentation, strip out unnecessary development costs and pave the way for a new generation of integrated systems that add real value for the corporate travel industry."

The call came as HRG held its inaugural Ã¢â¬ËœNew OpportunitiesÃ¢â¬â¢ technology seminar last week.

The event was attended by over 100 people representing suppliers from across the industry, including air, hotel, car, rail and GDS.

HRG has launched an online technology forum accessible to all those who attended the day in a bid to continue the discussions.

By Bev Fearis

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Your Comments (5)

What is preventing providers from using standards if they exist?

The issue is that there are no standards which are being used by different technology providers to the industry. If the standards exist, they are not being adopted. Why do all airlines / hotel chains use proprietary API's - is it because of standards being difficult to adopt OR lack of knowledge? We have worked with multiple customers helping them towards and the issue highlighted by Bill does exist in the market today.

By Vineet Gupta, Friday, October 17, 2008
OpenTravel presence "over here"

It depends, Leanne, on what you mean by "presence". OpenTravel's Vice-Chair is John Lambe of OpenJaw Technologies based in Dublin, and TTI's Tony Williams is co-Chair of the Travel Integration Work Group. I cannot see any reason for an "office" here since emails and the phone (for conference calls) are more than adequate. I would caution against an informal project basis for developing standards. The development may be easy, but publication, distribution and on-going support and enhancement are difficult and costly to provide. This is exactly why the travel industry established TTI some 20 years ago.

By Mick Mott, Friday, October 17, 2008
Opentravel.org

Have they got a presence in the UK - their website is American?

By Leanne Flack Flack, Thursday, October 16, 2008
Standards already exist

Travel Technology Initiative (www.tti.org) and OpenTravel (www.opentravel.org) have been working together for 10 years now to develop, enhance, publish and support these standards. They are available for public download from the OpenTravel site. TTI is always willing to consider funding projects which will enhance or add to these standards where they are not fully appropriate to requirements. It will also provide any necessary ongoing support. TTI can be contacted through me at mick.mott@tti.org.

By Mick Mott, Thursday, October 16, 2008
OTA?

http://www.opentravel.org/ seem to believe that they are already doing that.

By Graham Harrison, Thursday, October 16, 2008