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I wanted to take an opportunity to clear the air on my opinion of the “future of the GDS”. In various articles I have been quoted as being critical on the pace of innovation of the GDS and their challenges in respect to moving to a new lower cost distribution model. I wanted to state that it is my belief […]

Over the years I have been involved with a number of major procurements. This ranges from selecting a new reservation platform for an escorted tour operator to a major end-to-end acquisition for the U.S. Federal government travel. While at Sun Microsystems in the early 1990s I received my certification in purchasing from the Institute for Supply Management.Over the years I […]

If you are not aware of the new phenomenon of “podcasting” here is an example I’ve created:traveltechnology.com/Podcast_1_06_06_05.mp3 Enjoy!

Recently both Sidestep and Kayak announced capabilities to search multiple sites for packaging comparisons. How do these technologies work with the trend towards dynamic packaging? The Sidestep beta vacation search engine allows the consumer to filter the responses by price ranges and quality of properties (# of stars) and provides an integrated display of vacation package options. The Kayak vacation […]

A lot of focus has recently been given to the meta-search engines such as Sidestep, Farechase, Kayak and Mobissimo. In fact the recent PhoCusWright Travdex conference was heavily focused on the topic of meta-search. Little attention has been given to the application of Web search technology to the business travel market. In fact there was no mention of meta-search at […]

Having spent the last six weeks creating a BI strategy for the federal government I thought it would be an opportune time to vent a bit about the continued slow state of progress on a truly integrated travel BI solution. By definition, business intelligence (BI) is designed to provide insight into data that would normally not be apparent by generating […]