Amadeus has once again maintained its sector rankings as one of the leading companies in Europe for investment in Research & Development (R&D) by the European Commission (EC). Amadeus is a leading transaction processor and provider of advanced technology solutions for the global travel and tourism industry.

The 2011 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard, an annual report published by the EC, examines the largest 1,000 European companies investing in R&D during 2010 and ranks them according to the total amount invested.

Amadeus’ investment of €326 million during 2010 to research and develop technologies for use in the travel sector was recognised by the company maintaining the following rankings:

First place in Europe by total R&D investment in the computer services category
Number one in Europe by total R&D investment in the area of travel and tourism

Amadeus also increased its overall ranking by 11 places, rising from number 78 in 2010’s report to number 67 out of the 1,000 companies ranked in 2011 – and up from number 89 in 2005.

Innovation is one of the drivers behind Amadeus’ progress and growth, which has allowed the company’s technology to achieve an outstanding competitive position within the market.  Total investment since 2004 stands at more than €1.6 billion, reflecting a consistent investment every year of around 14.4% of consolidated revenues.

Jean-Paul Hamon, Executive Vice President, Development at Amadeus and head of the company’s software development, says: “Once again we are very excited that our investment in R&D has been highlighted by the well-recognised European Commission study and we are very satisfied with our top ranking in two business areas. We have a proven track record in innovating, with pioneering travel industry products and initiatives. R&D remains central to our progression as a large-scale technology leader.”

Amadeus has fifteen R&D centres around the world (Nice, London, Sydney, Antwerp, Aachen, Frankfurt, Boston, Miami, Toronto, Strasbourg, Tucson, Bangalore, Bogota, Warsaw and Bangkok), which currently house a team of over 4,000 people.

In terms of technology, Amadeus’ R&D efforts have in recent years have been particularly focused on:

-      Extremely high performance transaction processing under stringent system availability and dependability requirements;
-      Information mining from very large data-bases;
-      Super-responsive travel search engines;
-      Multi-channel customer servicing applications (agent desktop, web, kiosk, mobile, tablets).

Examples of the impact this has had on innovation in Amadeus products and services in recent years include:

-      Continued development of the Amadeus Altéa Customer Management Solution (CMS), a community-based airline IT platform that consists of three solutions covering reservation, inventory management and departure control. The Altéa portfolio has marked a technological and functional breakthrough in the airline industry – with 112 airlines already contracted to use both Altéa Reservation and Inventory.

-      Development of the Amadeus Hotel Platform, a solution for hotel chains which combines central reservation, property management and global distribution systems into one fully integrated platform. This recently-launched platform is designed to support hotels in the current age of globalisation and expansion, enabling them to respond to changing traveller demands.

-      Development of sophisticated search engines with new parameters, such as the recent launch of Amadeus Extreme Search for online travel agencies worldwide, following a pilot with the leading Nordic online travel agency European Travel Interactive (eTRAVELi). Extreme Search is an inspirational shopping tool that offers an intuitive search solution that revolutionises the way consumers search for air travel online, allowing them to search by budget, type of activity or geography, rather than searching by traditional criteria such as origin and destination.

-      Development of ancillary services solutions as part of our commitment to helping airlines adapt and evolve their ancillary services strategy so that customers can move their focus from pure revenue to delivering profitability. Amadeus Airline Ancillary Services is an end-to-end solution which enables airlines to distribute (display, book, price and pay) services across all channels in full compliance with industry standards. Amadeus has developed a unique interactive catalogue which clearly displays the range of additional airline services available allowing travel agencies to view, book and up-sell ancillary services quickly and efficiently. Seventeen airlines have already signed up for Amadeus Airline Ancillary Services. The solution has already been implemented both for the online and the travel agency channels in key markets, including France and Scandinavia.