Amadeus Unveils ‘Anytime, Anywhere’ Booking Solution
by Michèle McDonald and Dori SaltzmanAmadeus unveiled Travena, a fully web-based booking solution that will enable travel agents to run their businesses remotely from PCs, laptops or tablets.
Deployment in the U.S. and Canada will begin later this year and will continue globally throughout 2012. New functionality also is scheduled for delivery next year.
Travena will be available to agencies of any size and scope.
For smaller agencies, initially
Amadeus said the first release of Travena will offer productivity-enhancing features for making reservations and managing customer information that will appeal to small and mid-size leisure agencies.
In the coming months, as Travena evolves, it will be ideal for all leisure agencies, a spokeswoman said.
“We have developed Amadeus Travena as the next-generation sales and fulfillment platform for travel agents in response to what travel agents will need moving forward,” she said.
Eventually, Amadeus Travena will grow in functionality to become the replacement solution for Amadeus Selling Platform.
Soft transition
“There is no planned hard transition,” Carolyn Cauceglia, vice president of strategic sales and account management for Amadeus North America, said.
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No one is being forced to go onto this right away, said Cauceglia, who demonstrated Travena at ASTA’s Travel Retailing & Destination Expo in Las Vegas this week.
Cryptic Magic
Nor will agents be forced to abandon cryptic commands to use Travena.
It uses Cryptic Magic, a patent-pending solution developed for Amadeus One, a corporate travel desktop. The feature converts cryptic commands from any GDS into a graphical interface.
This will enable agents to use Amadeus Travena based on their GDS expertise and overall work preferences, while minimizing training time and increasing booking speed and productivity.
Agents can log on securely to Travena without certificates and have instant access to Amadeus content, Cauceglia said.
Web-based advantage
Because it is web-based, agents will be able to connect to customers via their smartphones, iPads or laptops. “We live in a virtual world, so the ability to connect to their traveler wherever they are, at any time, and to customize travel offerings is where it’s at,” Cauceglia said.
“Amadeus has invested a billion dollars over the years enhancing our systems to be ready for emerging web technologies. We’re no longer in the days of having to do massive upgrades on old systems,” Cauceglia said.
“It’s all brand-new technology, so we can take on enhancements quicker, faster, easier. And the agency doesn’t have to do software uploads.”
Highly customizable, eventually
With further development, Amadeus Travena will be highly customizable.
Agencies will be able to tailor the workflow to their business objectives. They will be able to set preferences and rules to access Amadeus Travena the way they want and optimize content, features, and interactions to maximize their productivity.
Content can be integrated from wide variety of third-party booking applications, allowing agents to use the same interface for all booking and itinerary tasks.
Amadeus said it will work with travel agencies that want to use both the Amadeus Selling Platform and Amadeus Travena to help them adapt the concept to their particular businesses.
