Sabre Travel Network

has announced the roll out of its Sabre Web Services offering. This new offering provides travel agents easier, faster and more flexible access to the Sabre global distribution system (GDS) using industry-accepted OpenTravel(TM) Alliance (OTA) standards.
It enables agencies to reduce development time for new and enhanced offerings, thereby cutting costs, speeding time to market for new sources of revenue, improving customer loyalty and assuring competitive advantage.

In the past, customers gained access to the Sabre
GDS and those of other travel providers in a variety of ways using multiple languages and forms of connectivity. Now Sabre Web Services (making use of leading-edge XML and SOAP technologies) streamlines that process, offering developers a single standards-based access to the GDS. This eliminates the need for agents and Web developers to understand proprietary codes and programming languages to connect their systems to the disparate data sources needed to create bookable Web-based travel offerings.

“When machines talk to each other using Internet technology and full- featured Web services capabilities, agencies can drastically cut time to market for new Web-based booking and search tools,” said John Stow
, president of Sabre Travel Network. “Sabre Web Services drives efficiencies by better integrating all of a customer`s systems and software tools, reducing costs and time spent in hiring developers or training their agents to troubleshoot complex technologies.”

An agency planning to build a Web site with travel booking capabilities can easily access the Sabre GDS via Sabre Web Services and select specific services to meet their individual business needs. For example, one agency may use geographic displays of available hotels, while another may opt for a more streamlined text view of available hotels. By selecting Sabre Web Services, rather than off-the-shelf booking tools, agencies gain maximum control over the creation of their customer-facing booking tools.

Sabre Web Services takes advantage of parent company Sabre Holdings` thrust to offer a services-oriented technology architecture to serve its Sabre Holdings companies and clients alike. This new architecture and its accompanying technology infrastructure will enable Sabre Web Services to become the single access point for Sabre Holdings customers and the primary mechanism for accessing and distributing Sabre Holdings products and services. The result will be more efficient and cost-effective systems and products.

“Other companies talk about Web services,” Stow continued, “but we are the first to offer a comprehensive, OTA-based, fully developed suite of tools ready to begin generating return on investment for agents today. The most important thing we can do for our customers is to provide them with a single, standards-based way to access our system, and Sabre Web Services does just that. Web services is truly the way forward for Sabre Travel Network and our agency customers.”

Related stories on ITN:

(28/07/2003) Sabre Travel Network Rolls out e-ticketing in Ireland

(23/07/2003) Sabre Secures Commitment from Three Major Carriers

(21/07/2003) Sabre Extends Merchant Programme to European Hotels

——-