Travel Technology, Digital Transformation
The COVID-19 situation has put the spotlight on contactless travel. Furthermore, contactless payments are slated to become one of the standard modes of payment, as time progresses. What does this mean for travel? Imagine that the air traveller can go through the entire travel process from the check-in at the airport to check-in at the hotel, using just their mobile, voice interface, and/or hand gestures. This would be possible because all the systems are able to carry out the travel functions without requiring any physical contact.
The are several other ways in which contactless technologies have digitally transformed the travel experience, including the travel passport (for safety), check-in at the airport using mobile/hand gestures at the kiosk, to face recognition during boarding. This not only helps boost traveller confidence, but it also increases the traveller’s sense of safety and security.
Tech Intervention in Travel Industry
All travel systems are high-availability systems. Any disruption in the availability of booking/scheduling systems, or payment processing services impact customer satisfaction, and could potentially result in loss of revenue and goodwill (not to mention the penalties).
An incident management system encompasses monitoring, an alert system, alert processing, classification and dispatching to the correct responders, and a rapid tech response team. It requires us to have real-time alert systems and response orchestration. The alert systems are both proactive and reactive. These systems can predict (leveraging predictive analytics) developing issues and raising an alert. This then goes through the normal assessment based on its severity and then depending on the requirement the tech teams are engaged to diagnose and triage the problem.
At Sabre, we have the TE&O (Technology Engineering & Operations)- a business unit that runs the entire technology infrastructure of the company, encompassing both customer-facing systems and corporate IT. It has within it the OCC (Operational Command Centre) group that is highly trained in ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) processes and work on a follow-the-sun-model, to monitor all Sabre systems. This group proactively manages developing situations and works to avert them, and in case there are any incidents – diagnoses them and engages the appropriate tech team to bring about a quick and timely resolution.
Technology is constantly evolving. The solutions of today become outdated tomorrow, as the business and technology contexts change, requiring the creation of fresh solutions to address the new situations that arise.
Let’s take the field of optimizations or schedule planning as an example. The solutions that are arrived at, in revenue optimizations, are based on the conditions prevailing for that time window (say 3-6 months), During this time, traveler behaviors change, new cities become centers of commerce, travel patterns shift, airlines’ offerings to customers change, in terms of conveniences and flexibility. So, while one can with some degree of confidence (earned through the school of hard knocks), arrive at the best possible framework to optimize revenue, this is work-in progress. Because the models, assumptions and constraints must be re-examined after the predicted window is over, and the whole optimization model is created anew.
Schedule planning can be tricky too. How does one plan the best possible schedule for an airline for a season given the available aircrafts, the departure-arrival windows, the origin-destination pairs and other parameters? At best, one can come up with a season-specific solution, after which the context changes, the behaviours change, and the schedule has to be reworked.
While this is not similar to the complex Riemann hypothesis in mathematics, in terms of unsolvable challenges, these are more in the nature of coming up with the best fit working solutions that meet the constraints and business contexts, for a particular time period, post which they have to be worked on again!
In travel, the use of Biometrics or face recognition technology is both, a tool for improving the experience of the traveller in areas like boarding, as well as a mechanism that is used by law enforcement for travel safety and security.
The use of CT scanners for baggage screening and the next-gen three-dimensional baggage scanning technologies are another example of new technology being used and experimented with. This ensures the safety of the passengers, while at the same time improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the entire baggage-handling process.
Future of Travel Technology
The future of travel is in the personalized travel experience. For instance, voice search and voice control - from searching for hotels while on the move, to control the lights in the room, the voice interface is going to play an increasing role in the travel experience of the future.
Robotics is another area that I think will transform travel - right from doing housekeeping jobs, luggage handling, etc. to having a robot at the check-in counter, there are myriad possibilities. There are robots being used in manufacturing, food, e-commerce, healthcare, retail, and many other industries already, and it will not be long before we see them in use in the travel and hospitality sectors as well.
The are several other ways in which contactless technologies have digitally transformed the travel experience, including the travel passport (for safety), check-in at the airport using mobile/hand gestures at the kiosk, to face recognition during boarding. This not only helps boost traveller confidence, but it also increases the traveller’s sense of safety and security.
Tech Intervention in Travel Industry
All travel systems are high-availability systems. Any disruption in the availability of booking/scheduling systems, or payment processing services impact customer satisfaction, and could potentially result in loss of revenue and goodwill (not to mention the penalties).
An incident management system encompasses monitoring, an alert system, alert processing, classification and dispatching to the correct responders, and a rapid tech response team. It requires us to have real-time alert systems and response orchestration. The alert systems are both proactive and reactive. These systems can predict (leveraging predictive analytics) developing issues and raising an alert. This then goes through the normal assessment based on its severity and then depending on the requirement the tech teams are engaged to diagnose and triage the problem.
At Sabre, we have the TE&O (Technology Engineering & Operations)- a business unit that runs the entire technology infrastructure of the company, encompassing both customer-facing systems and corporate IT. It has within it the OCC (Operational Command Centre) group that is highly trained in ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) processes and work on a follow-the-sun-model, to monitor all Sabre systems. This group proactively manages developing situations and works to avert them, and in case there are any incidents – diagnoses them and engages the appropriate tech team to bring about a quick and timely resolution.
Technology is constantly evolving. The solutions of today become outdated tomorrow, as the business and technology contexts change, requiring the creation of fresh solutions to address the new situations that arise.
Let’s take the field of optimizations or schedule planning as an example. The solutions that are arrived at, in revenue optimizations, are based on the conditions prevailing for that time window (say 3-6 months), During this time, traveler behaviors change, new cities become centers of commerce, travel patterns shift, airlines’ offerings to customers change, in terms of conveniences and flexibility. So, while one can with some degree of confidence (earned through the school of hard knocks), arrive at the best possible framework to optimize revenue, this is work-in progress. Because the models, assumptions and constraints must be re-examined after the predicted window is over, and the whole optimization model is created anew.
Schedule planning can be tricky too. How does one plan the best possible schedule for an airline for a season given the available aircrafts, the departure-arrival windows, the origin-destination pairs and other parameters? At best, one can come up with a season-specific solution, after which the context changes, the behaviours change, and the schedule has to be reworked.
While this is not similar to the complex Riemann hypothesis in mathematics, in terms of unsolvable challenges, these are more in the nature of coming up with the best fit working solutions that meet the constraints and business contexts, for a particular time period, post which they have to be worked on again!
In travel, the use of Biometrics or face recognition technology is both, a tool for improving the experience of the traveller in areas like boarding, as well as a mechanism that is used by law enforcement for travel safety and security.
The use of CT scanners for baggage screening and the next-gen three-dimensional baggage scanning technologies are another example of new technology being used and experimented with. This ensures the safety of the passengers, while at the same time improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the entire baggage-handling process.
Future of Travel Technology
The future of travel is in the personalized travel experience. For instance, voice search and voice control - from searching for hotels while on the move, to control the lights in the room, the voice interface is going to play an increasing role in the travel experience of the future.
Robotics is another area that I think will transform travel - right from doing housekeeping jobs, luggage handling, etc. to having a robot at the check-in counter, there are myriad possibilities. There are robots being used in manufacturing, food, e-commerce, healthcare, retail, and many other industries already, and it will not be long before we see them in use in the travel and hospitality sectors as well.
