CRS GOOGLE

Computer Reservation SystemsAuditing Headaches in the Airline IndustryCase Study : 

Computer Reservation SystemsAuditing Headaches in the Airline IndustryCase Study The Real problem Can we really help?! ByEvon Abu-TaiehComputer Information Systems Department Amman-JordanPhone:-962-6-5858822, Fax: 962-6-552-7233Email:Evon2k@yahoo.com, Kindly hold your questions till the end of presentation

Slide 2: 

"If small businesses wish to increase their profitability and gross sales then they are well advised to consider not only putting into place good strategic measures but to computerize accounting and recording systems as these are also related to sound preparation of operating budgets which contribute to financial effectiveness." Dr. Monir Zaman , Central Queensland University http://www.bus.cqu.edu.au/Faculty/News/november2001/serzamangadenne.htm

What is GDS & CRS? : 

What is GDS & CRS? CRS: a Computer Reservation System for an individual airline containing information on that airline only and used by that airlines’ employees. GDS: Global Distribution System - a computer reservation and information system that is often operated by multiple airlines, used by travel agents & other travel professionals and contains information on all types of travel products. It is also used for hotel, car rental, etc..

Airline Reservations Before CRS’s : 

Airline Reservations Before CRS’s Manual processing of calls from agents Costly call centers to handle growing air travel volume

History Of CRS : 

History Of CRS Prior to 1960-: availability boards and “Lazy Susan” & desk sets for travel agents. 1953-64: IBM and American Airlines created SABRE new operating system (Transaction Processing Facility) fast response time (< 3seconds) international network - no down time. 1965-1976: other similar systems were developed e.g. APOLLO, PARS.

Beginning Of GDS concept : 

Beginning Of GDS concept 1974: Joint Industry Computerized Reservation System (JICRS) was initiated. 1976: Retail automation: terminals in travel agents offices. 1978: Co-host program 1980’s: many airlines merge partially due to CRS needs 1986: GDS operations split off from airline.

Global Connectivity : 

Global Connectivity 1981/2: SystemOne and DATAS 1987: Galileo and Amadeus in Europe and Abacus in Asia. 1990: PARS & DATAS merge to form WORLDSPAN 1993: Galileo and Apollo merge. 1995: SystemOne and Amadeus merge.

Slide 8: 

Major Airline Affiliations with GDS SABRE Tavelocity On line GALILEO AMADEUS WORLDSPAN American Airlines UAL, BA, Swiss, KLM, USAir,Alitalia, Air Canada, Austrian, Aer Lingus Lufthansa, Air France, Iberia, Continental Delta, NW, TransWorld, Abacus

Slide 9: 

The competition will be determined in the following value added services where GDSs seems to build a strong position. Res System Yield management Collect, store and analyze data on customers, changes in the markets for seats. (as co-hoster or res system provider) gather competitive data on seat allocations, most attractive routes, and direct marketing campaigns according to the data. (as res system provider) Co-hosting Offer co-hosting services to other airlines which can display their seats on the res system. This allows res system providers to participate in other airlines’ growth. Integrated services Offer a product portfolio of integrated booking services for airline tickets, hotel and car reservations. Building a partner network will create a competitive advantage.

GDS Accessibility : 

GDS Accessibility GDS INTERNET Travel Agency Consumer Booking Engine Interface GDS data network

GDS Hardware software : 

GDS Hardware software Sabre Oracle sun java Galileo/Apollo Oracle sun Amadeus Oracle sun Worldspan Oracle database usesCompaq Web servers

Slide 12: 

Market Shares of the GDS Air Segments Booked Sabre 32.8% Galileo 30.7% Amadeus 24.4% Worldspan 12.1%

Market Share of Travel AgenciesNumber of Terminals : 

Market Share of Travel AgenciesNumber of Terminals Sabre 59,000 15% Galileo 160,000 41% Amadeus 155,000 39.5% Worldspan 18,000 4.6%

TRAVEL AGENT USE of GDS : 

TRAVEL AGENT USE of GDS 98% of all agencies in US are connected to GDS some have multiple systems they use GDS to book: 95% domestic air 86% international air 74% car rentals 55% hotel bookings 60% rail 7% cruise

Slide 15: 

travel agent CRS Airlines and other suppliers travel agent Systems and infrastructure public / private network public / private network Customers GDS CRS CRS

Slide 16: 

aMaDUES Customer Customer Agent Airline Auditor

CRS and Internet : 

CRS and Internet The Travelocity site has more than 300,000 Web pages which can be searched instantaneously. their servers are powerful and fast, and can churn out 30 to 40 Web pages per second database handler being able to process 5,000 requests per second * From www.networkmagazine.com/case_studies/working.html

Agent & CRS : 

Agent & CRS Interface (see next slides) Speed (GemStone's Facets 2.0 & SynXis)

Interface & GDS/CRS : 

Interface & GDS/CRS

: 

SynXis: a leading provider of reservation management and distribution systems for the hospitality industry, with real-time critical business data availability helping their customers consolidate and control hotel inventory across all distribution channels. Used : JBoss application server and GemStone Facets 2.0 object database caching technology over other leading providers. Now they are able to : to easily process an average of over 400,000 reservation related messages per day. The GemStone technology allows us to respond to each of these inquiries within 1-2 seconds and has enabled SynXis to increase customer base from 500 to over 2500 hotels in the last 12 months. These benefits will in turn help customers access reservation details faster and with more accuracy while allowing SynXis to develop the solution within our existing infrastructure." * from sunjava Speed and CRS/GDS Case : GemStone's Facets 2.0 & SynXis

The Auditing Problem : 

The Auditing Problem

Why Audit? : 

Why Audit? To cut distribution costs, you must reduce computer reservation fees, such as passive and duplicate bookings in other words After what is all said and done, the problem boils down to MONEY Duplicate reservation= loss $$$ Booking and canceling= loss $$$ .20$ for each False names= $$$ Over booking Waite list Issuing tickets and canceling them Open flight # False dates :- transaction and flight date False class

Why Audit? : 

Why Audit? In one BIDT the difference between the audited and not audit bill was $25,000 With 2698 bad names i.e test, AAA

Auditing: How? : 

Auditing: How? GDS/CRS send to Airline BIDT with BILL every month. Airline must check and audit the data. Auditor Rejects & bills audited Airline GDS Travel Agents GDS .DBA .txt .Dat .RAW

What is BIDT? : 

What is BIDT? BIDT: Monthly reports that capture detailed information on every booking a CRS subscriber makes on a participating airline’s behalf Benefits Assists accountants in monthly reconciliation for more accurate billing records Enhances understanding of GDS billing activities, including fees Combines with Marketing Information Data transfer (MIDT) for improved trend analysis and targeted business planning Attributes Includes detailed, transaction-level information for each subscriber, including IATA number, flight date/number, city pairs, transaction date, and booking class Electronically sorts information to produce a variety of valuable reports Is deliverable electronically, on hard-copy tape, or CD-ROM

BIDT Segments : 

BIDT Segments BIDT includes PNR: Passenger Record Number Flight # Flight date, dept time, arrival time Reservation date Name of passenger From ,To Territory Line type Billing category See Example

Example of BIDT Raw data : 

Example of BIDT Raw data 200301RJ 512 HUSD000000001000000000 200301RJ 512 645DN3ZP01501840000134872SPRINGDALE TRAVEL MOBILE ALUS1 0000000020030129AMS AMM 010420030219M NNSSN53ELWSG0010452000000045200000USDNJULINOT/HELMUT N06+00000 200301RJ 512 645DN3ZP01501840000134872SPRINGDALE TRAVEL MOBILE ALUS1 0000000020030129AMM AMS 010320030226M NNSSN53ELWSG0010452000000045200000USDNJULINOT/HELMUT N06+00000 200301RJ 512 645DN44G01575180000500533WRIGHT TRAVEL HUNTSVILLE ALUS1 0000000020030112AMM BEY 040120030112M TKTKN57WUYZ60010452000000045200000USDNELARO/GEORGE N06+00000 200301RJ 512 645DN44G01575180000500533WRIGHT TRAVEL HUNTSVILLE ALUS1 0000000020030117AMM JFK 026120030118M HKHXC57WUYZ60010452000000045200000USDNELARO/GEORGE N06+00000 200301RJ 512 645DN44G01575180000500533WRIGHT TRAVEL HUNTSVILLE ALUS1 0000000020030117AMM JFK 026120030118M UCUCC17WUYZ60010404000000040400000USDNELARO/GEORGE N06+00000 200301RJ 512 645DN44G01575180000500533WRIGHT TRAVEL HUNTSVILLE ALUS1 0000000020030117BEY AMM 040220030118M HKHXC57WUYZ60010452000000045200000USDNELARO/GEORGE N06+00000 200301RJ 512 645DN44G01575180000500533WRIGHT TRAVEL HUNTSVILLE ALUS1 0000000020030117AMM JFK 026120030118N NNSSN57WUYZ60010452000000045200000USDNELARO/GEORGE N06+00000 200301RJ 512 645DN44G01575180000500533WRIGHT TRAVEL HUNTSVILLE ALUS1 0000000020030117BEY AMM 040220030118M NNSSN57WUYZ60010452000000045200000USDNELARO/GEORGE N06+00000 200301RJ 512 645DNAPS01591670000507243NN AETC/MAXWELL AFB MAXWELL AIR FORALUS1 0000000020030108FRA AMM 012620030114Y NNHKC57XRJNI0040414000000165600000USDNMURRAY/ERNEST N05+00000 200301RJ 512 645DNAPS01591670000507243NN AETC/MAXWELL AFB MAXWELL AIR FORALUS1 0000000020030108FRA AMM 012620030114Y NNHKC5LXU8RX0040414000000165600000USDNBOGGS/CLINTON N05+00000 200301RJ 512 645DNAPS01591670000507243NN AETC/MAXWELL AFB MAXWELL AIR FORALUS1 0000000020030108FRA AMM 012620030114Y NNHKC57XYPFB0030414000000124200000USDNHENRY/NATHAN N05+00000 200301RJ 512 645DNAPS01591670000507243NN AETC/MAXWELL AFB MAXWELL AIR FORALUS1 0000000020030108FRA AMM 012620030114Y NNHKC5MN7N890010414000000041400000USDNMINGGIA/TRAMEL N05+00000 200301RJ 512 645DNAPS01591670000507243NN AETC/MAXWELL AFB MAXWELL AIR FORALUS1 0000000020030108FRA AMM 012620030114Y NNHKC5MN2GJN0010414000000041400000USDNRYBACKI/JAMES N05+00000 200301RJ 512 645DNAPS01591670000507243NN AETC/MAXWELL AFB MAXWELL AIR FORALUS1 0000000020030108FRA AMM 012620030114Y NNSSN57XRJNI0040414000000165600000USDNMURRAY/ERNEST N05+00000

Why Audit is so hard? : 

Why Audit is so hard? Too much data (more than 100,000-300,000 per month per CRS/GDS) Different CRS/GDS has different BIDT Format. Tedious and Time-consuming Each CRS/GDS has its own way of billing base and rules and lookups – business rules Business rules change almost every year Need for intersect data from different GDS/CRS. Scattered data (segment).

Example of hardshipHow to calculate a bill : 

Example of hardshipHow to calculate a bill Each segment has Five important field: Link type(A,B,C,D) Territory(1,2,3,4,5,6) Bill category( 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9) Transaction Type (B,C,T): Booked canceled ticketed Availability (I/_) CHARGE = EACH COBINATION HAS A PRICE AND THEY INTERSECT when booked and canceled ALL This for one GDS/CRS See Excel example

Example of hardship - intersection : 

Example of hardship - intersection Data intersect not only cross GDS/CRS But Also on months (45 days claims) BIDT Galileo month#1 BIDT Sabre month#1 BIDT Amadeus month#1 BIDT Worldspan month#1 BIDT Galileo month#2 BIDT Sabre month#2 BIDT Amadeus month#2 BIDT Worldspan month#2

Is there any Audit Software available? : 

Is there any Audit Software available? YES…. Zeus Cornerstone www.ciswired.com BUT….. Produces too many reports (as if s/he needs more) Reports very hard to follow Most software are not WYSIWYG Expensive

Examples of reports : 

Examples of reports Duplicate PAX By agency By GDS Top Ten Travel Agents Invoice Match By Status Code By country code By booking class Cost by Booking class By agency Link type Billing detail Remember that each GDS/CRS provide the Auditor of the airline 100s of 1000s of segments (Records)

Is the Auditor expected to be an SQL statement, selecting from different data bases?How can we Help?? : 

Is the Auditor expected to be an SQL statement, selecting from different data bases?How can we Help??

Proposed Solution : 

Proposed Solution Computer system that provides the following: GUI WYSIWYG Easy to handle Accurate Flexible: because rules are changing. MUST be Distributed in nature and on line