As New Distribution Capabilities mature, the expectations shift from possibilities to practicalities
Is it time to disregard the "new" in IATA's New Distribution Capabilities standard? After all NDC has been around for a while, and the technology is maturing. IATA has developed two new levels of NDC certification, and AI and other advancements continue to enhance traveler personalization. For corporate travel programs and policies, that's sure to bring even more change.
Discussions about NDC have shifted from the conceptual (Why NDC?) to pragmatic (How do we make NDC work?), says Lucianne Leighton, managing director of settlement products at ARC. She sees this as important because it allows all parties involved – airlines, travel agencies, aggregators, corporations, settlement and payment systems – to have robust discussions about putting NDC into practice beyond the realm of a theoretical technology perspective.
"Once you're talking about specific implementation scenarios, the downline impacts are better understood and can be resolved," she says. "The NDC standards are ready for prime time, but the ability to 'productionalize' them in a way that supports the volume necessary for mass adoption is critical for success."
Leighton adds that along the same lines, more attention has been paid recently to post-ticketing servicing and changes to policies, processes and systems, which could be barriers to adoption if not handled properly.
Thanks to more dialogue between airlines, GDSs, aggregators and TMCs, there’s now a better understanding of the complexities involved in servicing the corporate traveler, according to Mohit Chandiramani, head of global connectivity and EMEA Air at Egencia.
"However, even though there’s awareness and acknowledgment that both the technology and servicing elements aren’t fully ready, certain airlines continue to go down the path of content withdrawal from current channels, causing corporate travelers to pay more,” he cautions.
Dale Eastlund, senior director, global network and technology partners for CWT, points to the GDSs’ involvement and their work on a complete end-to-end solution with NDC. “By having the GDSs on board, it creates positive momentum toward a scalable solution,” he says.
“While there are providers out in the marketplace that have an NDC solution today, they haven’t created the momentum that the GDSs do.”
Eastlund adds most TMCs and OBTs are looking for the GDSs to build a scalable solution with the same efficiency that’s in place today with traditional GDS bookings.
Evolving Certification The addition of new certification levels is changing the picture in what many consider a positive direction. According to IATA, the changes address several needs.
One is developing criteria to demonstrate that airlines and their IT providers have a minimum set of recognized capabilities to drive volumes of NDC transactions toward 2020. Another is a notably pragmatic shift from certifying and renewing on all schemas to a 24-month cycle of schema version certification.
In addition, Level 4 certification brings full offer and order management, including additional servicing messages. Also included in new updates: Discontinuing “XML-capable” registration and new Level 1 certifications.
“IATA understood that some guidance was needed to move beyond the limited scope and volume of the pilots that have been in place for the past few years,” Leighton says. She notes that creating the NDC@Scale certification provides this guidance for airlines and IT providers so they can manage mass market production volumes.
Given that many travel agencies have been hesitant to pilot without full servicing capability, the ability to support the new Level 4 certification platform promises to help move NDC partnership discussions forward.
In fact the new levels of certification are an absolute must for a widespread and scalable adoption of the NDC standard, according to Chandiramani. Until now, much of the investments and conversations have been focused on the ability to make one booking end-to-end and getting to the “first booking,” he explains. “The real complexity for corporate travel is that the business traveler expects seamless service, exchange and duty of care, in addition to a simple booking flow,” he says.
One weakness of NDC standards heretofore has been the focus on shop, book and buy functionality with little thought or development around how to support the booking after it has been ticketed, Eastlund says. “The new levels of certification are a good starting point for a complete end-to-end solution,” he says. At the same time, it will be important to have the airlines follow the standards, be consistent in applying them and continue to evolve in providing the best experience.
Going beyond booking to address scale and performance is what’s needed if NDC is to become the new and accepted reality across the industry, notes Ilia Kostov, senior vice president, global TMCs and business travel agencies, Americas for Amadeus. “NDC is not very useful to the corporate traveler unless the booking can be serviced and modified post-booking,” he says. “Similarly, if a consumer has to wait 15 or 30 seconds for NDC offers to start appearing on their online booking tool or mobile phone, they will not adopt it easily.”
Going forward, there may be some question as to the overall importance of certification. “I’m not sure certification levels are as important now as they were in the beginning,” says Jim Davidson, CEO of Farelogix.
IATA certifications provided something of a rallying cry for the industry as a way to measure participation and success tied to NDC commitment and progress, Davidson says. Now, the “NDC Badge of Honor” may be measured by commercial implementations and NDC transactions delivered, rather than certification level.
It’s Still Complicated Complexities in how the airlines are packaging their products continue to bring challenges. “The key concerns for travel buyers are understanding what is included in the offer and comparing the value of multiple offers,” Leighton says. “For the buyer, the booking tool or system will need to evolve to make the purchase decision easy.”
Leighton says the ability to compare and contrast multiple offers and easily understand how their corporate policy applies is only going to become more important as airlines take advantage of the key benefits to NDC – personalization, dynamic pricing and the ability to offer ancillary services. She foresees a time when offers become more complex, and technology providers will be happy to step into this space with tools to help travel buyers make their decisions.
Change in this area is constant, Kostov says, but not discriminating. He envisions a large sandbox that has plenty of room for everyone to play. Some will want to build large sandcastles showcasing an abundance of premium features, while others will focus on their foundation as they determine what they want to build with so many choices and possibilities.
“There will be a time of adjustment for all of us to determine what part of the sandbox we are most comfortable playing in, and since NDC is a standard, we all essentially have the same building blocks,” he says. “How we choose to use them will reveal the degree of change each company experiences.”
A key challenge for Amadeus and the travel sellers exploring NDC is the ability to efficiently present to the traveler a coherent display of the available offers in a multi-airline environment, Kostov says. This includes presenting airlines’ key selling points while maintaining the ability for the traveler to easily read and compare results.
Kostov doesn’t envision a world where corporations and even leisure travelers will fly exclusively one airline all the time. He believes that the travel suppliers and travel intermediaries – travel agencies and global distribution companies – who facilitate choice, eliminate friction in both the economics and the content, and are most responsive to the travel buyers’ needs will win in the long term.
A Long and Winding Road Certainly there are challenges to be worked through as new airline content is delivered through existing delivery methodologies, Davidson maintains. But he’s confident they will get addressed quickly, as the NDC focus is centered on increasing adoption.
He foresees a number of significant changes including improved corporate booking tools to better accept, display and transact airline NDC content, as well as GDS acceleration of the number of NDC API implementations. Improved travel agency display, transaction and servicing capabilities can also be expected, along with airlines shifting toward a “portfolio” distribution approach.
At this point, there is no minimal “true” NDC content available in the corporate space, according to Eastlund. He notes that airlines want to ensure their products and services are presented so a traveler can differentiate one airline from another on other factors besides just fares and routes.
The long-term vision is for airlines to offer bundles or customized packages to travelers based on their company affiliation or past buying behavior, Eastlund notes. Unlike the current GDS booking environment where an individual books a static offer based on price and schedule, in the future offers will be dynamic to an individual. An important component to this development will be an agreement among airlines on a format for presentation of content that is easy to understand.
“I believe NDC offers travel executives and travelers, both corporate and leisure, an expanse of new and value-based content,” Davidson says. “We’re just scratching the surface and I see travel buyers playing a far more active role in defining desired airline content and how they would like it efficiently delivered.”
This is actually the year of industrialization for NDC, Kostov says. He reports his company is evolving its travel platform to bring together all relevant content from any source – traditional GDS, NDC, APIs and more – to be distributed via any channel or device. Deployment of a number of enhanced solutions can be expected so airlines and travel sellers can offer and consume NDC content.
“Access to a breadth of rich content means travel sellers will have everything they need to personalize services to every traveler,” Kostov says. “So it’s imperative for travel businesses to have and use the tools and knowledge available to them to determine how that content is managed for their own business.”
Still, from any perspective patience seems to be a key. “It is still evolving, and the various players in the supply chain are working together to figure it all out to ensure a seamless, efficient experience,” Eastlund says. Travel managers will need to be diligent and creative in tracking compliance, which will become more difficult to measure as airlines create more bundled signature offerings.
Thus, travel managers need additional support beyond shop, order and pay. He recommends buyers to examine the entire lifecycle of travel needs and ensure that every stakeholder in the travel value chain fully understands the benefits and limitations of NDC.