Discover How Accelya And Temoji Are Shaping Airline Retailing With Their New NDC Group

Accelya, a leading provider of technology solutions to the airline industry, has joined hands with Temoji, a UK-based corporate travel consultancy, to set up a new forum focused on driving the adoption of New Distribution Capability (NDC) in the corporate travel space. The Business Travel Innovation Group, known by the acronym BIG, comprises 20 corporate buyers of travel represented through leaders at both large enterprise and mid-market organizations to tackle challenges associated with airline retailing and distribution. The new partnership is designed to ensure the voice of the global corporate buyer is heard and to outline how NDC will look in the future.

The announcement, made on Wednesday, 16th July 2015, follows talks between Accelya’s Chief Customer Success Officer, Tye Radcliffe, and Founder of Temoji, Paul Tilstone. The forum is designed to remove the barriers that have previously created a speed bump for NDC and to provide a means by which to bring together corporate buyers and airlines.

A mix of strong Corporate Travel Buyers

The Business Travel Innovation Group is made up of 20 travel buyers from corporations and mAAs with headquarters in North America and Europe. The purchasing pool has a significant combined annual travel spend, a minimum of US$40 million for the lowest spending company in the group. This forum’s participants are mostly from North America; about two-thirds of the community members are from the region.

All participating buyers have introduced or have tried to introduce their own NDC, even though many have experienced difficulty in doing so. Like the NDC itself, while around 80% of Group members have to some degree successfully implemented NDC in their business, the other 20% have faced accessibility problems, acting as an important learning curve for the Group. These pain points, whether technical or functional, will provide invaluable learning on how to expand NDC adoption more efficiently.

The average difficulty level of these buyers’ experiences was 7.1 out of 10, with 39% stating they found it difficult to coordinate rather than use the technology. Tilstone said conversations within the forum will not only be about how to overcome these barriers but also about encouraging greater industry collaboration to expedite the transition process.

The Goal of the Business Travel Innovation Group

The concept of the BIG group was formed after industry participants grew impatient that NDC adoption wasn’t advancing quickly enough to keep up with what corporate travel buyers need. Tilstone said he and Radcliffe had talked about the obstacles to adoption and realised that lots of the corporate buyers felt unable to square their needs with airline capabilities. The collaboration is focused on speeding the implementation of the NDC in response to buyer needs and constraints.

The BIG forum differs from other NDC models such as those of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC), as it is intended to work alongside these initiatives and already established existing industry standards. Instead of supplanting industry groups, the goal is for Accelya and Temoji to take the buyer’s voice straight to the table – in a more pragmatic real-world environment as capabilities are being constructed and future strategies are drawn out.

“We want to create a safe space for corporate buyers to give anonymised feedback,” said Radcliffe. “That feedback can be brought back to our airline customers” as they decide on their roadmaps and strategies, he said.

Outcomes of the NDC Forum: Highlights from the forum

In conjunction with the launch of the NDC Corporate Buyers Group, Accelya and Temoji also released a white paper that delves into insights from industry experts at Accenture, Salesforce, and ZS Associates. This publication describes seven critical “must-haves” for corporate purchasers as necessary for the successful acceptance of NDC in corporate travel. These include:

Omni-Channel Experience: Experience consistency across all your booking channels.

Verified Savings and Simply Priced: Trustworthy and transparent cost-saving explanation.

Seamless Servicing from All Parties: Quality service from every stakeholder.

Buyer-Dominated Economics: Cost and benefit dominion for buyers.

Frictionless Payments & Settlement: Payments in an integrated system.

Personalization, Not Bundling: Products that are Attuned to You, Not Products Bundled with Services.

Support for the Goal of Sustainability: Corn as an Aligner of Corporate Sustainability Targets.

It’s a maxim that the findings from the BIG group will also stoke a new industrywide initiative that will be rolled out at the Global Business Travel Association’s annual convention in Denver next week. The programme will work towards bridging the NDC application support gap, enhancing stakeholder coordination, and instilling confidence in the scaling of NDC use in the airline and corporate travel segments.

NDC: The Future of Airline Retailing?

NDC and its potential to reshape the way airlines and corporate buyers relate, providing improved personalization, increased transparency, and operational efficiency along the way. For corporate customers, NDC promises the ability to deliver more customized fare and product offerings which will result in tens of thousands of dollars of savings over annual spend and more satisfied travelers. But the road to large-scale adoption has been fraught, especially over how to coordinate among airlines, travel agents and corporate buyers.

The BIG Group is facilitated by Accelya and Temoji and is focused on creating an open and collaborative space for all parties in the corporate travel ecosystem. The feedback collected in this forum will be instrumental in determining the future development and deployment of NDC, resulting in a more effective and efficient future for airline distribution.

Looking Ahead

The formation of the Business Travel Innovation Group is a significant development in the evolution of NDC and corporate travel. Accelya and Temoji are working to facilitate smoother, more efficient NDC implementation by bringing key buyers and airline industry leaders together. The combined work of these experts promises to further electrify corporate travel and significantly influence where the skies can lead us next. The group will surely be giving the industry much food for thought as it develops.

(Source: Accelya, Temoji, Accenture, Salesforce, ZS Associates)