Tourism and Hospitality IS
...r rental companies. 2.1.1. The history of GDS The airline industry created the first GDS in the 1960s as a way to keep track of flight schedules, availability, and prices. Although accused of being "dinosaurs" due to their use of legacy system technology, the GDSs were actually among the first e-commerce companies in the world facilitating B-2-B electronic commerce as early as the mid 1970s, when SABRE (owned by American Airline) and Apollo (United) began installing their propriety internal reservations systems in travel agencies. Prior to this, travel agents spent an inordinate amount of time manually entering reservations. The airlines realized that by automating the reservation process for travel agents, they could make the travel agents more productive and essentially turn into an extension of the airline's sales force. It is these original, legacy GDSs that today provide the backbone to the Internet travel distribution system. (http://www.hospitalitynet.org/news/4013406.search?query=gds+industry+leader) 2.1.2. The development of GDS System The significant development of GDS from the history of it can be mentioned by the table below: Year Development 1976 Apollo (United), Sabre(American), and PARS(TWA) offer terminals to their systems to US travel agents. 1981 SystemOne Direct Access (SODA) formed by Eastern Airlines. 1982 DATASII formed by Delta Airlines. 1987 Galileo and Amadeus in Asia and offered to travel agents. 1988 Axess formed by Japan Airlines. 1990 SystemOne purchanged by EDS (a non-airline company). Worldspan formed from merger of PARS & DATAS II. 1993 Galileo and Apollo merge to form Galileo International. 1995 SystemOne merges with Amadeus. Table 1.0 2.2 Advantages and Disadvantages of GDS 2.2.1 Advantages of GDS The advantages of the use of the airline industry’s information system GDS can be listed as point form below: • GDS can search for the schedule database for the requested destinations and dates of flights. • For most airlines, airline companies who check the seat availability for the flights< based on GDS flight status data (remember, the flight inventory database is not part of the GDS system) • Airline companies search for the lowest fares by reading fares loaded in "fast access storage" of the GDS computers, such as memory or cache (not the actual fares database). (http://www.airkiosk.com/ttt_item_1.php?item=1) • GDS has enabled agents to access complete information listings for all airlines through one system. • Nowadays’ GDSs have set up web sites that are linked to their databases, allowing travellers to view their booked reservations and itineraries. • GDS is a system that can collect all airline information into one mass database. 2.2.2 Disadvantages of GDS The disadvantages of the use of the airline industry’s information system GDS can be listed as point form below as well: • Mainframe computers and top technical services are needed to create and sustain the use of GDS System. • High costs for travel agents to use GDS in their companies. • Frequent updates are needed to sustain the GDS. 3. Influence of Global Distribution System 3.1. Organizational changes Travel agents and airline companies who use GDS as their flight ticketing reservation information system will need to focus and face on different organizational changes. These changes can be classified into cultural changes, organization structure changes and technological changes. 3.1.1. Cultural change Organizational culture is the set of fundamental assumptions about what products the organization should produce, how and where it should produce them, and for whom they should be produced. (Laudon K & Laudon J, 2003, pp.76) The culture within the airline industries and travel agents that use the GDS as their information system are changed due to several reasons: 1. The traditional partnership with the travel agents or airline industries will need to change. Because of the fact that the old suppliers of the flights, hotels and reservation details can all be gained from GDS system, the working procedures, common understanding and common practises to the staffs and managers inside the company has to change as well. 2. A new training program is required for the airline/travel agents companies to adopt if they will use the GDS information system. By this, the staffs inside the companies need to understand the new information system and everyone will be settling into a new position from their current working positions. 3. Conflict between staffs may occur if the new GDS information system is applied into travel agents or airline industries, different staffs and managers have different views on the GDS, and their ability to use the GDS, their acceptance and their common knowledge about GDS will affect the successful adoption of the GDS. 3.1.2. Organizational structure and environment change Organizations are open to, and dependent on, the social and physical environment that surrounds them. Information systems play an important role in helping organizations perceive changes in their environments and also in helping organizations act on their environments. ((Laudon K & Laudon J, 2003, pp.77) The organizational structure and environment changes which influence the travel agents and airlines industries are listed in several reasons and points: • Environments within travel agents/airline industries are generally change much faster than organizations. If the applying of this GDS system will be fail, the main reasons are because of the inability to adapt to a rapidly changing environment and lack of resources from the airline industries if they apply the GDS. Because of this, the airline industries will need to consider the structure and environment which are surrounding them. • New staffs who can use and maintain the GDS system will need to invite into the airline industries/travel agents, which means the organization need to restructure the human resources management within themselves. • Airline industries/travel agents may need to restructure themselves from a small firm size into a big firm size when applying GDS. 3.1.3. Technological change Different new computers, internet services and technological products are needed to create and sustain the GDS information system. And these products/services can be listed below which the airline industries/travel agents need to consider about: • Mainframe computers which are used as a mass database storage device. • T1 or T3 internet services which are used as a communication and information networking channel. • Experienced staffs that are used to maintain the mainframe computers and GDS system. • On-line training courses that need internet as a media. • Personal computers that need to install the GDS information system are needed. 4. Future Opportunities for GDS The future opportunities and growth of GDS or other information system to travel agents and airline industries are hard to foresee, however, some assumptions and predicts from the current adopt and use of GDS system by airline industries can be drawn, and they are listed as follows: ...