BT today announced a three-year deal with Galileo UK to manage its IP network. As a result, Galileo will now be able to provide more travel agents with increased access to its solutions, such as reservations and all-inclusive fares.

Caption: Pat Minogue
General Manager UK - Galileo International

The new technology will also provide greater core network resilience for Galileo`s customers and decrease transaction times by 30 per cent. This in turn will help travel agents improve customer service and drive revenue through increased processing.

Galileo UK
is a leading global distribution services (GDS) company and subsidiary of Cendant Corp. (NYSE:CD), which supplies the travel industry with systems to access and book flights, hotels, car rental and other products from industry suppliers, both directly and via the Web.

 
In addition, BT
is working with Galileo to supply a range of value added services including e mail, internet, web hosting and a Virtual Private Network (VPN) which will carry critical business data and applications from site to site with speed and reliability. The IP VPN will particularly help small and medium sized travel agents that would not be able to afford such a network on their own.

The new Galileo/BT deal includes a European Master agreement for BT to provide similar in country solutions. This will significantly increase the number of travel-agent sites brought onto BT`s networks.

 

 

Commenting on the new contract, Steve Connell, General Manager, Travel Leisure and Business Services, BT said: “The travel industry is an extremely competitive and global environment, making information and communications technology (ICT) crucial in helping companies keep one step ahead of their competitors. The IP network installed for Galileo by BT supports its drive to offer new products and increase revenue. Our global expertise was also key in securing this contract as Galileo wanted to expand this infrastructure across Europe over the coming years.”

Pat Minogue
, General Manager, Galileo UK said: “Upgrading our telecommunications infrastructure will improve both our internal and customer facing communications, increase flexibility to meet future business needs and enable us to deliver our strategy of driving costs out of our customers` business at the same time as adding real value. As the leading GDS in the UK market, and with widespread coverage across Europe, Galileo needed a company with extensive ICT capabilities that could provide a system that was scaleable, that could deliver the benefits our customers want and that could be rolled out across Europe going forward.”

Related stories on ITN:

(17/07/2003) Galileo Merges Momentum and Preferred Fares

(16/07/2003) Galileo Launches Business Builders in Canada

(01/07/2003) Galileo Delivers New Fully-Automated Fare Offering

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