Cendant TDS and IBS to jointly promote iRes

Author: Anonymous
Source: free-articles

Trivandrum March 26, 2004 – IBS Software Services Pvt. Ltd. (IBS), a software solutions and services provider for the global travel, transportation and logistics domains, has entered into an agreement with Cendant Travel Distribution Services (TDS), an established world leader in travel distribution services, to form a strategic relationship to promote iRes – IBS’s innovative new Passenger Services System (PSS) designed to replace legacy systems in the airline industry.

iRes is the new-generation PSS technology IBS has developed, which comprehensively addresses the passenger reservations, inventory control, fares, ticketing and departure control needs of commercial airlines, while providing opportunities to improve airlines’ revenues, profitability and service quality, compared to legacy applications. Scheduled for completion in 2006, iRes is being developed and released in stages through three major product releases and nine sub-releases – with the first major release already available.

During the course of the relationship, IBS will have primary responsibility for product development and support, i.e., developing the iRes application suite and providing software maintenance and support services to iRes customers; while Cendant will have primary responsibility for product management, sales and marketing – i.e., for managing the world wide rollout and promotion of iRes, and providing iRes hosting services in an ASP (Application Service Provider) environment.

In announcing the agreement, Mr. V. K. Mathews, Chairman and Managing Director of IBS, said the alliance will be a realisation of the clear role IBS had visualised for a strategic partner that could fulfil its global vision for iRes: “Our vision is to make iRes the industry system of the future for passenger carriers. To do that, we needed a big player in the industry to promote iRes as the future PSS. We believe Cendant TDS fills this role exceptionally well. The domain know-how, technological competence and resource strength of IBS, coupled with the global presence, customer base and credibility of Cendant TDS, will make our alliance a success.”

Mr. Mathews pointed out that through this agreement, IBS will emerge on the world stage as a true PSS provider to the global airline industry – a field currently dominated only by a handful of large corporations. In his view iRes is “the single largest and most technologically challenging application to be built for the airline industry”.

Speaking at the conference, Mr. P. K. Kunhalikutty, Honorable Minister for Industries commended IBS on the alliance, saying, “This is a significant milestone in the development of IT in the State of Kerala, and the Government is pleased to announce its full support for the venture. IBS has been a promoter and supporter of the IT industry in the State, and with this new strategic partnership with Cendant TDS, the company has once again demonstrated its continued leadership in IT”.

Ms. Flo Lugli, Senior Vice President, Airline Solutions, for Cendant’s Travel Distribution Services division, praised the development of iRes, saying, “The global air travel industry has been badly in need of a new-generation system to support the rapidly changing business processes and evolving business models, and iRes meets this need superbly”.

The industry currently depends on two core technological systems to manage its business – Passenger Services Systems and Cargo Services Systems. Both of these core systems are legacy applications that have been developed over the last 40 years. As legacy applications, they have become very expensive to maintain and operate, and the support resources needed for them have become harder to find. In addition, it is very difficult and time consuming for airlines to implement changes to these legacy applications in response to changing business needs. It was precisely to redress this situation that IBS embarked on a strategic initiative in 2001 to develop iRes.

Ms. Lugli said, “We are very pleased to partner with IBS on this exciting new technology. With more than 500 airline relationships across TDS and a large portfolio of our own industry-leading products and services, Cendant TDS is firmly committed to providing best-in-class solutions to the air travel industry – and iRes is clearly a world-class product. iRes supplements and complements our existing products and services, and will be one of our major, differentiating offerings to the industry”.

According to Mr. Mathews, the functional coverage and packaging provided by iRes serves the demanding, real-time needs of all passenger airlines, from low cost carriers to full-service carriers – and its technology and application architecture addresses both functional and non-functional requirements (e.g., performance, uptime and availability). The system is scalable and can be customized to suit the needs of an individual airline. It can be operated on standard Unix boxes (Sun/IBM) and does not require proprietary hardware or software. Its multi-hosting capabilities make it an attractive option for hosting service providers.

The press conference at which the alliance was announced was also attended by Mr. Kevin Haskins, Director Hosting Services (Cendant), Mr. Peter Krebs, Chief Operating Officer IBS Americas, Mr. Basil Mathew, General Manager Delivery Services (IBS), Mr. Suresh Verghese, Vice President Global Business Services (IBS) and other senior officials from IBS.

About Cendant TDS

Cendant’s Travel Distribution Services Division is one of the world’s largest travel companies and works directly with travel suppliers, travel distributors, travel agencies, corporations and consumers around the globe. Its brands include CheapTickets.com and Lodging.com, two of the leading online travel services for consumers; Travelport, a leader in providing corporate travel management to small, mid-sized and multinational companies; Galileo, a leading global distribution service serving more than 43,000 travel agencies and 60,000 hotels worldwide; the Neat Group, a well-known industry innovator in travel-packaging technologies; Shepherd Systems, an airline market-intelligence company; and a suite of other respected travel-distribution businesses, including Trust, THOR and WizCom. More information about Cendant can be found on the web at http://www.cendant.com.

About IBS Software Services

IBS Software Services is a world-class provider of software solutions fine-tuned to the needs of the global Travel, Transportation and Logistics business domains, in the air transportation, shipping, and oil & gas sectors. IBS manages a network of business operations world wide through group companies in Atlanta, London, Zurich, Dubai, Sydney, Singapore and Trivandrum. IBS’ portfolio of services includes business consulting, technology consulting, application products, turnkey projects, offshore software development, application maintenance and business process outsourcing. IBS operates an SEI CMM Level-5 assessed offshore development centre in India, certified against ISO 9001:2000 and TickIT standards. The global clientele of IBS includes major corporations like British Airports Authority, Air Canada, Emirates, Dubai Airport, Swiss, Qantas, SITA, EDS, Shell, GulfShare, and Qatar Airways. More information about IBS can be found on the web at http://www.ibsplc.com.

For More Information Contact:

IBS Software Services

Kanupriya Dhoot

(91) 471 – 2700080

kanupriya@ibsplc.com

website : www.ibsplc.com