The largest GDS product & services provider offers flexible solutions for airlines wanting to take advantage of the tremendous growth opportunities of the online direct booking channel. The flexibility of the eCommerce platform enables airlines of any size to configure and utilize the selling features of this powerful tool.
By supporting all currencies, points of sale, and dynamic language capabilities, the eCommerce platform be deployed by airlines worldwide as their online booking source.
The eCommerce platform provides integration opportunities with other key GDS Airline Solutions products — such as the loyalty management system, corporate loyalty management system, and the customer insight system, an option of the GDS product & service provider’s solutions. This integration gives the flexibility to build the airline’s online presence through planning and execution. In addition, integration with the open-systems platform of the GDS product & service provider shop provides a full-service online solution for your customers.
The eCommerce platform’s website manager feature provides an efficient tool to manage your booking engine effectively. The website manager promotes ongoing flexibility to enable changes quickly. The tool lets you add and delete features, as necessary. Also, with this online site administration tool, you can preview changes before the production release, and its highly configurable look-and-feel features help you maintain your airline’s brand.
The client is based on the Java/J2EE architecture/Webservices. iPlanet 6.1 web server is used for deploying the application. The application provides a thin client layer interfacing with many down-line systems. The main interface is with the GDS product and service provider. This uses a proprietary API for all pre-booking, booking, and post-booking services. The programming interface interacts with the GDS in a similar way as the green screen terminal with commands and results being passed as java string objects. The application has an extensive framework built to do screen scraping of the GDS Responses for various scenarios like availability, booking, PNRs, etc. This is accomplished using multiple requests for matter and Response Parser classes which are easy to manage using logically defined control files.
In 6 months, Coforge’s team at the GDS product and service provider ODC were responsible for developing and supporting the following features for the eCommerce platform:
- Corporate Discounts and Coupons - Shop with coupons through the web for discounted fares (CAT 25)
- Mileage Redemption Program - Allows users to book air using miles on the web
- Alternate Dates Fare Matrix - Displays the lowest fares for Alternate Dates for online consumers in a 7x7 matrix allowing the date adjustment by one day or week
- Meetings and Conventions – Schedules meetings and sends out invites.
- Automated Exchanges and Refunds - Facilitates online exchange or refund for the registered consumer
- Trip Protection and Insurance - Integrates SSW with MTS Insurance service to provide travel insurance to the consumer. The consumer is provided an option to shop and buy insurance along with the travel.
This allows the airlines to choose a preferred payment gateway for all payment-related transactions on their portal.
Coforge successfully implemented the project with the help of:
- Agile methodology for project execution with end-customer involvement.
- Round-the-clock support for operational helpdesk issues.
- Creating a development and certification environment for the product.
Technical tools used for the project:
Software: iPlanet web server, J2EE, Java, Java Technologies, XSLT, XML, Webservices
Hardware: Intel-based desktop and servers, Sun Solaris machines
Tools: Eclipse, IntelliJ Idea
OS: MS Windows in the development environment and UNIX in the deployment environment.
Database: Oracle 9i
