Sabre to Launch B2B Online App Store

Sabre’s travel agency subscribers will soon be able to shop online for apps designed to enhance their business.

Called the Sabre Red App Centre, the store will sell applications developed both by Sabre and by authorized third-party developers. The store opens its virtual doors in November.

It will be accessible through a tab on the Sabre Red Workspace, the agency desktop introduced last year.

“Buyers can tap into the collective creativity of developers around the world,” said Greg Webb, Sabre Travel Network’s president. Webb called Sabre’s business-to-business store the first of its kind.

Wide variety of uses
The apps are being catalogued into a searchable database and will be “all tagged, ready and easy to access.”

They can be downloaded to the Workspace using the plug-in and integration capabilities of the Eclipse Rich Client Platform, the foundation on which Sabre Red is built.

Webb said Red Apps will cover a wide variety of uses and complexity, from simple utilities to more “industrial” applications, and will be priced accordingly.

One example: a restaurant reservations application that would enable an agent to provide an add-on service for VIP clients.

Rifkin: ‘a clever approach’
David Rifkin, chief executive officer of eGlobalfares, an authorized Sabre developer, called the Red Apps Centre “a clever approach.”

Rifkin, a former travel agent, said the store “gives us another avenue to market to travel management companies, and we’ll be looking for a way to participate.”  

Rock Blanco, president of Prime Numbers Technology and a pioneer in travel agency technologies, called the Red Apps store “the right step. “ He’s hoping Sabre can replicate the experience that buyers have in consumer app stores.

Developer challenge
Sabre’s 100-plus developers must go through an authorization process. The apps themselves also will be certified, in much the same way that Apple ensures that the apps in its store actually work and won’t harm the user’s device.

Developers will receive the Sabre Red App Developer Toolkit to create the Red Apps to Sabre’s technical specifications. In the fourth quarter, Sabre will host a “developer challenge,” in which developers around the world will compete to build the most innovative break-through Red Apps.