In the next weeks and months a lot of digital ink will be spilled on the new HP-AMR deal for “Jetstream” PSS for the AA group of airlines and in the process dump SABRE as the core system.
What are these implications?
Here is my little list:
*The big nail in the coffin of the TPF based inventory and PSS systems.
*The final separation of SABRE and AA
*The big win for Microsoft and its push to be at the core of the enterprise
*HP’s vindication of its purchase of EDS
*The emergence of HP as (second time around) a contender with Amadeus for PSS
*Amadeus still has some pretty serious issues with its ALTEA roll out, and clearly now some competition.
All of these will be important over time. One thing is sure – the landscape for PSS has been redrawn in a relatively short period of time.
So who are the losers in this - actually a lot of people:
1. ITA software - bravely putting on a face for the product that now has no customer
2. Sabre - losing its anchor PSS tenant and a vote of disfavour for the current generation SabreSonic product
3. Amadeus who thought they would win the contract (what were they thinking!!!!)
4. IBM who have now effectively exited the PSS business
5. IBS who have failed to get a major US or European airline as customer.
6. Travelport who also are a no show in the frame
7. SITA - who had an outside chance at the PSS contract.
Oh yes and me... I can't make any more jokes about Sabre being AA's SEMI-AUTOMATED Res system.
Winners? HP of course. Not sure about anyone else in there. Although the other Shares subscribers are probably very happy that they have a big fish in their midst. At least today. Tomorrow they are going to wake up and see what a big animal AA really is and just how much resource it will be consuming over the next 4 years.
There is one clear winner however. That is the determination that PSS systems are really complex and that the intermediate systems around distribution and merchandising are now more important than the core Inventory system.
So the focus of PSS salesmen is now on the AC/CO group. This will be an interesting battle as there will be a lot riding on the newest best friends decisions on how they link their systems. Amadeus can console themselves with a TAM win. Sabre is still resting on its Jetblue and Westjet recent wins.
Its going to be an interesting period of time.
Cheers
3 comments:
"What (was Amadeus) thinking?"
I don't know, but it probably had to do with them being the undisputed market leader for the past several years of modern airline hosting, with the most state-of-the-art offering. The key change for them is that the Altea suite has not had a competitor in the past several years, and now the proposed development of JetStream will provide that. Not sure if the "problems" you referred to are related to United's implementation ... it doesn't seem to me that those problems lie with Amadeus whatsoever.
It was also clear that HP emphasized their "HP" brand as winning new business, when in reality EDS is an incumbent AA vendor acquired by HP.
Good Luck to HP/EDS, they've got a lot of work to do.
Being a leader in sales doesn't make you a leader in everything.
I think we shall see what happens in the longer term.
EDS junked the Swissair ATRAXIS system it acquired earlier and retained the SHARES system after an internal review.
Amadeus has a very steep hill to climb to deliver the backlog. ALTEA is still pretty new (even though it is comprised of many mature legacy components) it needs to have some independent analysis done on the system. I would welcome anyone who would care to share insight into its use.
Cheers
just a correction...
the Atraxis systems axsRes and axsControl are still up an running. EDS did not junk the system. HP continues to operate both SHARES and axsRes/Control.
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