July 26th, 2004

The OpenTravel™ Alliance (OTA), representing over 130 travel and technology leaders involved in creating and implementing industry-wide open e-business specifications using XML, and Hotel Technology Next Generation (HTNG) today announced OTA's participation with industry partners in an HTNG workgroup. The Property/Distribution Solution workgroup, initiated by Cendant Travel Distribution Services, Wyndham International, IDeaS Revenue Optimization and Maxim Revenue Management Solutions (MaximRMS), was chartered by the HTNG Board of Directors in July. The workgroup will be charged with bringing solution sets that bridge processes and systems across properties, central reservations systems, and distribution channels.

This agreement to participate in the HTNG workgroup process marks a new stage of joint activity for OTA and the HTNG members, and addresses industry questions about the purposes and overlap of the two non-profits. In announcing OTA’s participation, Alan Young, Chair of the OTA Adoption Committee, said “This workgroup will be addressing pragmatic solution issues involved in the implementation of OpenTravel™ Alliance standards and related technologies. Direct participation by OTA will help the HTNG workgroup make effective use of OTA’s XML messaging schemas, and give the OTA a view into the practical challenges faced by vendors and hoteliers in putting those schemas into business production.”

Hotels and travel distribution companies rely on many separate information systems to manage sales, marketing, distribution, and finances. The Property/Distribution Solution workgroup is chartered to bring products to market which meet the business needs of this value chain using newer architectures for system interoperability, including XML and Web Services. In working in the open forum of HTNG’s workgroup process, system vendors, hoteliers, and standards organizations like the OpenTravel™ Alliance bring their common interests to the table to produce compatible solution components. This workgroup group will focus on defining solution specifics in the following order:

- between the central reservation systems (CRSs) and property management systems (PMSs);
- between CRSs and revenue management systems (RMSs);
- between PMSs and RMSs;
- between CRSs and request for proposal (RFP) systems; and
- between CRSs and customer relationship management (CRM) systems.

Dr. Matthew Dunn, Executive Director of HTNG, noted “OTA and HTNG started discussing reciprocal membership in 2003. We have a clear joint understanding where the solution-set mission of HTNG ends, and the standards-bearer mission of OTA takes over. This workgroup will give us a chance to put that relationship into action.” He added “Hospitality is starting to catch up to other major industries in evolving away from expensive and brittle one-off integration designs.”

The OpenTravel™ Alliance, founded in 1999, is a self-funded, non-profit organization comprising major airlines, hoteliers, car rental companies, leisure suppliers, travel agencies, global distribution systems (GDS), technology providers and other interested parties, working to create and implement industry-wide, open e-business specifications. OTA will celebrate its 5th Anniversary at its annual conference, The Advisory Forum, September 20 & 21, 2004, in Chicago, Illinois, USA. For more information on OTA, please contact Graham Hauck, OTA Executive Director (www.opentravel.org).

Hotel Technology Next Generation, founded in 2002, is a self-funded non-profit organization with members from hotel and hospitality companies, technology vendors to hospitality, and other industry members including consultants and academic experts. HTNG’s members participate in focused workgroups to bring open solution-sets addressing specific business problems to the hospitality market.

Membership in the “Property Distribution Solution” workgroup is open to all dues-paying HTNG members who represent hotel companies, and to vendors who provide CRSs, PMSs, RMSs, RFP systems and CRMs. The workgroup charter document will be made available to HTNG members on August 1 and posted on the public HTNG web site (www.htng.org) on August 8th. , Details on the application process to participate can also be found on the web site.

The workgroup size will be limited to approximately 15 companies, with representation in each of the several categories of participants. Some of the categories are expected to be oversubscribed, and preference, as well as early notification, will be given to companies who are HTNG members on the date that the workgroup charter is first published. Membership applications for HTNG are processed through the web site at www.htng.org/JoinHTNG.htm. The full policy for selection of workgroup membership is posted at www.htng.org/workgroup_policies.htm

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CONTACT INFORMATION:

Matthew Dunn

Hotel Technology Next Generation

P 360-715-8741

F 360-543-7904

http://www.htng.org/


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