Online travel booking and expense management company Serko and Orbit World Travel have signed a deal to offer a new artificial intelligence travel system to corporate travellers. The agreement is multi-year and will see Orbit World Travel offer the Zeno chatbot platform to its customers in New Zealand.

Zeno has been developed by Serko and uses intelligent technology, predictive workflows and a global travel marketplace and the company says it will transform business travel across the entire journey.

Serko chief executive Darrin Grafton said Zeno would deliver Orbit’s customers more efficient corporate travel programmes through online adoption, travel saving optimisation and an amazing traveller experience.

“This agreement means that Serko has now established agreements as a preferred online booking tool across all major corporate travel management companies in Australia and New Zealand.”

The voice-controlled Zeno app has officially re-launched to investors in Auckland and will soon in Britain and the United States. Developed with support from Microsoft, the Zeno booking platform uses artificial intelligence to allow customers to book travel through voice recognition.

Through AI, Zeno can learn customers’ preferred hotels, predict whether they’ll be travelling from home or work depending on the time of day and generate customised itineraries in the same way a trusted agent might have done in the past. Serko says Zeno’s intuitive interface eliminates the need for user training, to maximise adoption and decentralise travel management.

Zeno helps organisations reduce the cost of travel programs by as much as 20% through intelligent itinerary recommendations, best fare supplier access and seamless policy application. It is a fully-integrated Travel and Expense Management solution, so users can book and manage their travel, as well as capture and process expenses wherever they are, whenever they want. Plus, Zeno takes the complexity out of corporate online bookings to enhance usability and adoption.

Orbit World Travel’s strategy and corporate director Niall White said that Orbit was committed to providing customers with the best travel management tools and resources.
Orbit will begin implementation of the Zeno platform, which will be known as Orbit Online, later this year.

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Australia’s national carrier Qantas has launched a new technology platform, Qantas Distribution Platform (QDP), to enable its trade partners to interact with its customers on a more personal level through enhancing the airline’s retailing, booking and servicing capabilities.

The QDP improves functionality of indirect agent channels by aligning them more closely with the capabilities currently available via qantas.com, making it easier for trade partners to sell the airline’s products and provide more seamless customer service.

The platform was developed in partnership with Farelogix Inc. and utilises IATA’s New Distribution Capability (NDC), the new industry standard. It has been certified to NDC Level 3, IATA’s highest certification.

Image source: PhocusWire

According to Qantas, its trade partners will now have access to richer content including images of cabins and meals and ability to book extras such as extra legroom seating. It will also provide Qantas Frequent Flyer information and tier status at the point of sale.

Vanessa Hudson, Qantas chief customer officer, said the platform was a key part of a broader digital evolution of the airline’s booking channels. “There have never been more ways for a customer to research and book their travel. We want to make the booking experience as seamless and enjoyable as possible, no matter their booking channel preference.”

Qantas’ trade partners can access the QDP either via approved partner connections, or directly by developing a connection to the airline’s NDC XML Application Program Interface (API).

Travelport, Serko and CTM are the early adopters of the platform. The airline is working closely with its other GDS and agency partners to adopt the new technology.

In a separate statement by Travelport, the company said the agreement with Qantas also includes distribution of the airline’ content via the Rich Content and Branding merchandising solution. Over 65,000 of Travelport-connected travel agencies globally now have access to Qantas’ booking and ancillary services.

Travelport is the first operator of a global distribution system to be granted the highest certification by IATA for its NDC airline distribution technology. The company said it is well-positioned to support the QDP and improve the flexibility of content distribution as the airline becomes one of the first to deploy NDC content later this year.

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Serko, an NZX listed travel technology company has launched Serko.travel for desktop and mobile.

The app would help save Australian and New Zealand businesses more than 80 million hours a year by streamlining business travel bookings. The app would incorporate companies like Helloworld, Flight Centre, Corporate Traveller, Expedia and Booking.com to sell through it and was developed in partnership with Xero.

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) typically book through an agent or an aggregator website. The app would primarily cater companies with the strength of 150 employees and work for domestic and international travels.

“This type of technology has only been available to big businesses in the past,” Darrin said. Serko chief emphasises that this technology would give smaller businesses the same level of access to technology, travel deals, and customer services that larger firm have.

The app claims to have 1500 SMEs already on board. Research by TNS shows that there are roughly 46% SMEs that travel regularly for work and book an average of 30 trips a year.

The time consumed on booking and planning an itinerary added up to 6 hours for an individual employee and up to 40 percent of business trips change plans at least once. About 33 percent of SMEs book via a travel agent and 66 percent book on aggregator sites.

Source: Stuff

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