Face-to-face: Champa Magesh, MD of Amadeus UK & Ireland
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What news are you sharing with delegates at the Business Travel Show this week?
I believe that technology is an enabler of business success, so I’m really excited about what we are launching in the UK at the beginning of 2016. For example, Selling Platform Connect, a really flexible new solution for travel professionals has just arrived. It helps travel agents better serve their customers, whenever and wherever they want. Customers can use it on a laptop in the office and on a tablet at home – to deal with an urgent out of hours customer query. Agencies can customise the platform to ensure it’s tailored to both their business needs and the needs of customers. We’re thrilled to have added yet another solution to our portfolio that underscores efficiency and personalisation.
What recently introduced products are helping business agents and TMCs do their jobs better, and why are they market leading?
Selling Platform Connect is the first fully online GDS booking and fulfilment platform that is web browser and hardware independent. It means agents can use it on any device that is connected to the internet. Amadeus B2B Wallet (Prepaid), also launched in February, is a virtual card solution that is fully integrated with the selling technology, so payments can be made while booking a trip – travel providers receive instant payment and agents and their customers enjoy peace of mind.
For online agencies, last month we announced the launch of ATC Shopper, which allows customers to change their flights themselves at any time – it is the world’s first self-service online rebooking solution. The common theme is increasing automation and agility, freeing agents to spend less time on admin and more time on boosting customer service.
Tell us about Selling Platform Connect – what makes it special and what are the benefits to agents?
As the world’s first fully online GDS booking and fulfilment platform, Selling Platform Connect is designed to free agents from technological constraints. It is the only GDS booking platform currently on the market that is fully accessible anywhere and any time, ensuring unrivalled flexibility and agility — all agents need is a device with internet access.
Agents will experience a number of benefits from Selling Platform Connect, for example it allows real customisation and localisation capabilities to meet each business’ specific needs in the front and back offices. It can also be standardised across an organisation’s entire network.
Unique to Selling Platform Connect is an innovative ‘Cryptic Magic’ tool that allows users to switch seamlessly between cryptic and graphic content during any part of the booking process. Some commands from other GDSs can also be translated, enabling travel agents to use whichever method feels the most natural. Naturally this greatly reduces training time and helps travel consultants become highly productive in next to no time.
What trends do you predict for the business travel sector in 2016 and how is Amadeus responding to these?
We believe “bleisure” – the mix of business with leisure travel – will continue to grow, especially among the up and coming Millennials. Business travellers will be looking to spend some of their downtime engaging in leisure activities, and may look to extend their trips, which is where products such as ATC Shopper come into play, letting them make last minute decisions about when to fly home.
Alongside the rise of bleisure, business travellers will increasingly be looking for personalisation in their journeys and simplified booking processes – whether that’s automatically recommending morning flights based on previous trips, extensive gym facilities, etc. Travel providers will increasingly be using data analytics to optimise their operations to the benefit of the traveller. Amadeus does a lot of work in the business intelligence space in the travel industry, helping travel providers offer personalised journeys and ultimately providing corporations with a 360 degree view of the traveller.
What other new launches, products, intelligence, research or tools can we expect from Amadeus this year?
This year more than ever before, travel professionals and industry providers will clearly see that Amadeus is much more than a GDS; we are the industry’s leading technology provider. Over the next year, we will continue to emphasise the importance of using technology as a business enabler that improves the traveller experience, whether through products directly benefiting travellers or those that help join the dots for an industry that has at times struggled to deliver an optimum traveller experience due to its complex and fragmented nature. Cloud technologies and meeting the needs of an omni channel user environment (the use of offline, online, mobile, tablet and a mix of all these elements) are two areas of growing importance, so expect to see exciting new developments from Amadeus to meet these challenges.
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