Web Services in the Travel Industry
When the Defense Secretary of the United States, Donald Rumsfeld, made his now famous remark:
There are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.
We also know
There are known unknowns.
That is to say
We know there are some things
We do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns,
The ones we don't know
We don't know.
he wasn't thinking of the travel industry, but his words seem strangely appropriate. As we all know, the travel industry has faced tremendous challenges due to that fateful day in September 2001, the Bali bombing, war in Iraq, SARS and now Avian Flu. These events themselves are the industry's 'known unknowns', and who can predict the effects or what might yet happen - the unknown unknowns?
One of our known unknowns is our response to the internet. Before the internet, we relied almost entirely on expensive private networks to gain access to travel information and booking services. The technology did not make it easy to exchange information with other systems and sources of data, and encouraged users to rely on single sources of information and data - especially the Global Distribution Systems.
Then the internet made it much, much easier for the information providers and travel suppliers to offer their services directly, and more cheaply (and this includes the GDSs). It also made it much easier and cheaper for consumers (although I prefer to call them travellers) and travel agents to access the suppliers directly. The internet is having hard-to-predict effects on the way suppliers, intermediaries and travellers are able to interact and do business. All participants need to re-think and re-invent their roles, or risk not being able to participate at all.
The internet has had this kind of impact, I believe, because it combines the idea of an end-to-end network that doesn't have too many bells and whistles in itself (it just moves any kind of data around as efficiently as possible), with the idea that all the real value is created and determined by what is connected at the ends of the network. So the specific 'GDS network', for example, designed exactly to handle the specific requirements of the travel industry, is fading away. Instead we have the internet, which means I can get information from a GDS, a bank, a hotel or a news site, make a telephone call, watch a video clip - all through the same network. This has given rise to tremendous creativity and potential to do things differently, to the invention of new ways of communicating, interacting and doing business - because accessing the network is simple, and the network is everywhere.
Well OK, it isn't quite that simple. There are some more unknown unknowns. There are a lot of existing systems out there, and we can't just throw them out overnight. Yet we want to be part of this ... well ... revolution - still the best word to describe it. One of the really good responses to this need is Web Services. A simple, non-technical way to describe Web Services is to say it is "the much hyped notion of creating economic activity by enabling companies to easily work together over the internet" [Acohido, USA Today, 30/9/03]. It lets the computer systems in different companies exchange information - regardless of their underlying operating systems, programming languages and hardware platforms - via the web. Web Services allow program-to-program communication, and can be placed in front of existing software systems, sort of "wrapping" them, and providing a standard interface to the network.
Web Services help companies work together over the internet because they provide a way to build applications from a combination of components from different suppliers. This means all kinds of new applications can be invented, services we might not have dreamed of before - applications which are 'unknown unknowns' at this point in time.
I work for a company specialising in technology services for the travel industry. We have traditionally been distributors of travel information and booking services using the old private networks. Our goal was not only to connect travel agents to the GDSs, which we did for many years (there was not really any other way), but also to provide connections to local travel suppliers and wholesalers for on-line access by travel agents. Before the internet, this was difficult and expensive - especially for the smaller operators who could not afford complex systems with special network requirements. Since the internet took off , we've had to turn our approach inside-out in order to take advantage of the potential the internet offers, or risk being completely by-passed.
For the past 24 months, we've been re-engineering our systems so that we can help create those new applications we haven't yet dreamed of. Our new platform is designed for the web, (instaed of special terminal based systems) designed to bring together travel information and services from many different sources and combine them into new applications and work flows for the benefit of both suppliers and agents, an, of course, our company. As a side benefit, it makes even the old applications more efficient and useful. We see Web Services technology as the principal way for suppliers to distribute products over the internet in the future.
I'll give the last word to Mr Rumsfeld:
The Digital Revolution
Oh my goodness gracious,
What you can buy off the Internet
In terms of overhead photography!
A trained ape can know an awful lot
Of what is going on in this world,
Just by punching on his mouse
For a relatively modest cost!
-June 9, 2001, following European trip
Hmmm ...
The Rumsfeld quotes are from http://slate.msn.com/id/2081042
"The Poetry of DH Rumsfeld" by Hart Seely
