Travel Distribution Summit SpecialThrough a pair of acquisitions in 2007, Pegasus Solutions was tipped to change the hotel reservations landscape by updating the aging central reservation systems and consolidating the hotel distribution switch services.

Published: 22 Sep 2008

Travel Distribution Summit Special

Through a pair of acquisitions in 2007, Pegasus Solutions was tipped to change the hotel reservations landscape by updating the aging central reservation systems and consolidating the hotel distribution switch services.

Providing an insight into the current status, Tore Wick, VP - Business Development, Distribution Services, Pegasus Solutions addressed the progress made with the acquisition of both WizCom and Guestclick in an interview with EyeforTravel.com's Ritesh Gupta.

Wick, who is scheduled to speak during EyeforTravel's Travel Distribution Executive Conference 2008, to be held in Las Vegas on 1-2 October 2008, spoke about the current status and what's on the company's agenda. Here is what he had to say:

On the acquisition of WizCom and Guestclick:

WizCom - As of late August 2008, we have essentially completed the migration of all WizCom hotel chain customers to the Pegasus UltraSwitch platform, and we are proceeding with our original plan to sunset the WizCom switch platform.

One of the first benefits to be enjoyed by former WizCom customers after they have migrated to the Pegasus Switch is the tremendous improvement in uptime operational performance. For example, WizCom customers had been experiencing monthly outages as high as 20+ hours, while customers on the Pegasus switch average less than 45 minutes per month consistent with our standard SLA of 99.8 percent.

Our original Pegasus switch customers will also benefit from the acquisition as they will receive additional GDS functionality that was part of the WizCom switch platform that needed to be ported to the Pegasus switch platform for former WizCom customers to use.

Guestclick - After acquiring Guestclick in 2007, we set a detailed plan to eventually migrate our current customers off of two legacy CRS platforms, (RezView and Hotel Factory) on to a new, next-generation platform (Guestclick), which is now called "RezView NG" or RVNG.

As of late August 2008, we have successfully migrated approximately 3,000 hotels to RVNG. Although there are inevitable teething issues coming out of a migration of this magnitude, so far the migrations have proceeded well and as a result, the migration effort is starting to accelerate.

Our plan is to first migrate hotels that are on the Hotel Factory platform (mostly Unirez hotels) to RVNG, then to migrate hotels/chains using the current RezView CRS platform, (now called RezView classic).

We expect to have as many as 12,000 hotels on the new RVNG platform in 2009. The Hotel Factory platform will be sunset in 2008.

Short-term distribution and reservation services goals in the short-term:

· Making sure all recently migrated WizCom chain customers are satisfied and have optimised their use of the Pegasus switch moving forward.

· To close any identified GDS and ADS functionality gaps required by the company's supply and demand customers by the end of 2008.

· To support the ongoing migration of hotels from the Hotel Factory, and RezView Classic CRS platforms to the new RezView NG Platform through 2008 and into 2009.

· To establish the Pegasus ODD database as the industry standard for descriptive content management. We are on track to migrate 80 percent or more of the 86,000 hotels in the current Pegasus ODD data base over to the newly redesigned ODD data base (with OTA defined, structured fields) by the end of October 2008, and 100 percent by early 2009.

Our ADS demand affiliates can begin accessing this new OTA structured ODD data in Q4 2008 with the majority of our demand customers being migrated by Q2 2009.

· Throughout 2008 and into 2009, we are adding new tour/wholesale, meeting and group related functionalities (i.e. static/allocation functionality), which can be used by our existing UltraSwitch Supply and UltraDirect Demand (ADS) customers to trade between each other using an ADS distribution channel they are already connected to.

This will allow them to use the automated ADS channel for a number of transactions that are today being processed via a manual fax/e-mail/voice process.

· To maintain and operate a switch platform and infrastructure that is able to efficiently process exponential growth in the number of hotel transactions, but does not over-burden our down-line supply side CRS customers, yet allows us to deliver accurate rate, availability and rules requests made by GDS or ADS demand partners in a timely and consistent manner.

The full version of this interview with Tore Wick, VP - Business Development, Distribution Services, Pegasus Solutions will be posted on our site during the Travel Distribution Executive Conference 2008.

EyeforTravel's Travel Distribution Executive Conference 2008 is scheduled to take place in Las Vegas on 1-2 October 2008. The conference is part of Travel Distribution Summit, North America.

For more information visit: www.eyefortravel.com/tdsusa/conference

Contact:
Helen Raff
VP North America
EyeforTravel
helen@eyefortravel.com
+44 (0) 207 375 7582