New technology optimizes capabilities for Middle East travel agents

Dubai, United Arab Emirates September 11, 2011: Travelport, the business services provider to the global travel industry, has begun the Middle East roll-out of Smartpoint, a new add-on application for its Galileo Desktop, marking a significant evolution in the way Galileo-connected agents book travel.

A major advancement in Travelport's graphical, point-and-click technology, the innovative application infuses the cryptic environment with a hybrid of native and point-and-click navigation, in addition to graphical user interfaces to speed up the reservation process, reduce call handling time and improve the overall agent user experience. 

The first phase of the roll-out will see the deployment of Smartpoint to selected Galileo users across a total of six countries across the Arab region, including the UAE, KSA, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman and Egypt. Although originally developed to fulfill the needs of Travelport's largest global customers, the innovative application will be available on a wider commercial basis to various types of business and leisure travel agencies from the fourth quarter of 2011.

The Travelport Smartpoint App leverages dynamic and interactive technology to improve travel agent productivity and customer service by combining efficiency of command entries with clarity of graphical overviews and click-through links. Moreover, Travelport Smartpoint App provides intelligent translation capabilities that allow agents to use commands from any GDS within a cryptic environment, dramatically reducing training needs as a result.

"This is innovation at its very best," said Rabih Saab, president and managing director, Middle East and Africa, Travelport. "I foresee Travelport Smartpoint App being quickly adopted by travel agencies in the region, as it is easy to install and supports different GDS languages. By building on how agents already work, Smartpoint will strengthen a travel agency's most valuable assets - their investments in people and technology." 

Substantially minimising keystrokes when shopping and booking itineraries, Smartpoint reduces call handling times and overall keystrokes by 15% and up to 72% when searching for the 'best' fare. Agents can use point-and-click functionality across the board to search low fares, book flights, hotels and car rentals, and manage customer profiles.  An interactive calendar allows the travel agent to combine air and hotel in one search - all just with a simple click.  

For more information, visit: http://www.travelportsmartpointapp.com/

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About Travelport (www.travelport.com)
Travelport is a broad-based business services company and a leading provider of critical transaction processing solutions to companies operating in the global travel industry.

With a presence in 160 countries, approximately 3,500 employees and reported 2010 revenues of $2.3 billion, Travelport is comprised of the global distribution system (GDS) business, which includes the Galileo and Worldspan brands and its Airline IT Solutions business, which hosts mission critical applications and provides business and data analysis solutions for major airlines.

Travelport also owns approximately 48% of Orbitz Worldwide (NYSE: OWW), a leading global online travel company. Travelport is a private company owned by The Blackstone Group, One Equity Partners, Technology Crossover Ventures, and Travelport management.

Follow Travelport on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Travelport.

 

© Press Release 2011