The South African travel industry is getting access to new Internet-based facilities on the Galileo air travel reservation system ahead of most of the world - thanks to the industry-leading expertise of an SA company.
Prism Transactive, a leading South African e-commerce solutions provider, is one of only three companies in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region chosen to spearhead the implementation of new developments on Galileo, which is one of the world`s largest air travel reservation and booking computing system.
The company, a wholly owned subsidiary of JSE-listed Prism Holdings, an operation focused on system integration and strategic application development for e-business initiatives, is an early adopter of new middleware (interface software) that makes the mainframe-based Galileo system more user-friendly for Internet use and expands its capabilities and functionality.
"Being invited to take part as an early adopter of this new software interface ahead of leading companies from the UK and Germany underscores Prism`s global status and the depth of our experience in virtual world solutions," says David Blyth, MD Prism Transactive.
"You need special skills to work in this interface space and Prism, together with companies from Spain and Denmark and only 16 others from around the world, has those skills on board. It`s what has helped us become one of the leading e-commerce providers in South Africa over the past two years."
Prism has already started to roll out new applications using the new XML Select application programme interface (API), which enables flight, car and hotel travel information to be accessed more easily over the Internet because it is based on the XML standard interface.
The previous API - OLE-Select - was never designed for Web-based queries. It delivers search results in `coded` format as a long string of data, which only trained travel agents can decipher.
Leading SA travel web-sites, such as Rennies and eTravel, are already accessing Galileo using XML Select, which is written using Windows 2000 and SQL.
"So far, we`re only using out about 20% of its new capabilities, but once everything is implemented, it will open up Galileo to a much wider range of users in the travel industry. It is streamlining the whole reservations process as the travellers themselves are able to query the system and buy tickets via the agent`s Web site," he says.
Travellers are not only able to search for flight, car and hotel availability, by date, route and carrier, but also find the best prices on offer. They are also able to do their booking on-line.
"It`s going to make a big difference to the level of service travel agents are able to provide, and I`m proud that Prism is playing such a big role in spearheading this new era in the travel industry," concludes Blyth.
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