Travelport G2 Buy To Retool Agent Desktop

Travelport GDS in April announced the acquisition of some of G2 SwitchWorks' "software assets and intellectual property," which it plans to use to develop a multi-global distribution system point-of-sale agent desktop application to replace the Galileo FocalPoint/ViewPoint and Worldspan Go solutions, beginning in early 2009.

Travelport's point-of-sale solution also will deliver a new airline retailing platform for merchandizing, upselling and unbundling products and services. Travelport GDS CIO Sue Powers said some of these features will be launched with the point-of-sale application in early 2009, with some even sooner in Travelport GDSs.

The deal includes G2's not-yet-released Kestrel point-of-sale application, its corresponding Web services platform, software development tools and automated business rules engine, which will drive the integration of the Apollo, Galileo and Worldspan GDSs. Travelport also acquired both a traveler profile database and a universal records database residing outside of the GDS that will integrate GDS and non-GDS content and online booking tool reservation data. "One of our key strategies is for our customers to be able to access those three GDS cores from a common worldwide desktop," said Powers. "We also plan to bring in access to other GDS systems outside of the three that we own."