New HTNG Working Group To Establish Industry Solutions For Interfacing Between Hospitality Distribution Systems
Cendant Travel Distribution Services Joins Industry Partners in Launching Major New Initiative for the Industry
PARSIPPANY, NJ | Cendant Travel Distribution Services, a division of Cendant Corp. (NYSE: CD), today announced its participation alongside leading industry partners in a working group established by Hotel Technology Next Generation (HTNG) tasked with developing industry-wide solutions for interfaces between hotels’ information and distribution systems by year-end 2005.
PARSIPPANY, NJ | Cendant Travel Distribution Services, a division of Cendant Corp. (NYSE: CD), today announced its participation alongside leading industry partners in a working group established by Hotel Technology Next Generation (HTNG) tasked with developing industry-wide solutions for interfaces between hotels’ information and distribution systems by year-end 2005. The working group, which will consist of as many as 15 representatives of leading hotel chains and vendors, will develop solutions for several key interfaces needed within the industry. In addition to Cendant, participating companies in the launch of the workgroup include Wyndham International, IDeaS Revenue Optimization and Maxim Revenue Management Solutions (MaximRMS).
In announcing the appointment, Matthew Dunn, executive director of HTNG, said, “The leadership of Cendant and their partners in using the HTNG forum to address part of the distribution puzzle is an encouraging sign of industry momentum and maturation. They've clearly recognized the business opportunities created by meeting the industry needs articulated by our hotel members and workgroup participants. This pragmatic solution-to-product direction is exactly what HTNG aims to facilitate.”
Most hotels currently rely on many separate information systems to manage their finances, operations, marketing, sales and distribution functions. The efficient integration of these systems has become an industry-wide imperative in order for hotels to remain competitive, productive and profitable in an increasingly competitive travel industry. The problem is, the systems hotels rely on to perform these functions presently constitute a wide variety of technologies, ranging from legacy systems to new, Internet-based technologies, most of which require special interfaces to be able talk to one another. The industry’s current lack of interoperable solutions for these interfaces means that when they are developed, they often only work for one specific hotel in one specific installation – necessitating a costly redevelopment effort each time a new component is brought in.
According to Dunn, the goal of the working group is to define solutions for interface protocols and coordinate the development of five specific interface products. Many such solutions have been developed before, but on a specific, point-to-point basis, highly customized for each installation. The goal of the HTNG workgroup is to produce a set of solutions that can be converted to products quickly. With the broad support of the hotels and vendors in this influential group, these solutions can be driven to become industry standards, eliminating the need to reinvent specifications for each new system. HTNG expects to leverage existing standards, such as web services and the OTA data model, to the extent possible. The group will focus on developing hotel interfaces in the following order:
- interfaces between the central reservation systems (CRSs) and property management systems (PMSs);
- interfaces between CRSs and revenue management systems (RMSs);
- interfaces between PMSs and RMSs;
- interfaces between CRSs and request for proposal (RFP) systems; and
- interfaces between CRSs and customer relationship management (CRM) systems.
Membership in the “Distribution Software Interoperability Standards” working group is open to all HTNG members who are representatives of hotel chains, CRS providers, PMS providers, RMS providers, RFP system providers and CRM providers.
Cendant TDS has assumed an industry leadership position in the area of interfaces in the past several years, having introduced and enhanced a number of technologies that have improved the efficiency, profitability, productivity and competitiveness of its hotel clients. Recent developments include the introduction of Next Generation Seamless technology through its WizCom Switch, Hotel Cache 2.0, a ‘buffering’ solution to protect CRS performance levels from ‘spikes’ in shopping requests; EasyAccess RateManager and HOD, advanced tools that increase the speed and accuracy of loading and distributing hotel rate and descriptive data; and, JumpStart, a web based connectivity solution for hotels to link to tour operator and online travel agencies using automated XML interfaces.