Trivandrum, March 06, 2007: IBS Software Services, a leading provider of IT solutions to thetravel, transportation and logistics industries, is now a member of the OpenTravel Alliance (OTA).With this association, IBS will be an active participant in developing travel industry e-businessspecifications to support information exchange among all segments of the travel industry.The OTA is a not-for-profit trade association, founded in 1999 by travel companies, with aprimary focus on the creation of electronic message structures to facilitate communicationbetween the disparate systems in the global travel industry. OTA members actually do the workof identifying what messages are needed, prioritizing and creating the messages. This helpsmember companies meet interoperability requirements for themselves, their partners and theirclients, thus reducing time-to-market for new products and services, decreasing IT costs, betterservicing partners and customers, and increasing credibility in the marketplace.
Membership in the OTA will give IBS the opportunity to share information, network with businessand technology leaders across the travel industry, and participate in the OTA workgroups andsubcommittees dedicated to the Airline, Cruise, Rail, Travel Integration and Hospitality industries.According to VK Mathews, Chairman and Managing Director, IBS Group, “OTA is a forumcomprising members with a common goal of developing a part of a specification that may spansome or all travel industry segments and their representative OTA Work Group. We are aligned totheir mission of creating, expanding and adopting open universal data specifications, for theelectronic exchange of business information among all sectors of the travel industry.”
“We are pleased to have IBS as a member,” said Valyn Perini, Executive Director, OTA. “Asa leading solutions provider in the travel industry, we know OTA will benefit from their activeparticipation, and IBS in turn will be able to take advantage of the valuable benefits of being amember of the travel industry’s leading specification development organization.”
IBS has been providing travel technology solutions to leading organizations which includes someof the world’s biggest names among travel portals, hospitality and tour technology companies. Asearly adopters of OTA standards, IBS will certainly leverage even more from its association withOpen Travel Alliance while offering more value to its customers.
About OTA
The OpenTravel Alliance is passionate about solving the problems inherent with connectingmultiple systems within the complex travel distribution arena.
The OTA's mission is to engineer specifications that make data transmission flow smoothlythroughout travel, tourism and hospitality. The OTA creates, expands and drives adoption ofopen universal data specifications, including but not limited to the use of XML, for the electronicexchange of business information among all sectors of the travel industry.
With a diversified membership representing influential names in all sectors of the travel industry,OTA is comprised of representatives from airlines, car rental firms, hotels, cruise lines, leisuresuppliers, service providers, tour operators, travel agencies, and trade associations. Thousands ofOTA message structures are in use around the world and in every travel vertical, carrying tens ofmillions of messages between trading partners every day.
