Farelogix introduced a proprietary travel agency desktop application, FLX Commando, which uses a legacy command-line interface to access air inventory from multiple sources and also features graphical displays, including airline seat maps.
Separately, Farelogix made available for public download its previously announced open-source, point-of-sale application, Project Hawkeye. Farelogix is offering the Web-based travel-management software with the source code and supporting documentation in the hope that a community of users and developers will collaborate and spur desktop innovations.
Farelogix said it decided to offer an open-source solution because the closed, proprietary travel agency desktops prevalent in the industry can't address the widening gap "between the way suppliers want to sell and the technology needed to execute."
Norm Rose, president of Travel Tech Consulting in Belmont, Calif., agrees with that analysis. "Open source has been a major technology trend for the last four years, but the travel industry is still trapped in using primarily proprietary technology," Rose said. "Open source benefits from the wisdom of multiple developers who take the basic source code and create specific applications to meet market-segment needs."
That doesn't mean, however, that one size fits all.
While Hawkeye is open source, Commando is proprietary. The two products meet different needs.
Although several companies have developed desktops with graphical user interface, or GUI, for agencies in recent years, the introduction of Commando is an acknowledgement that many agents still prefer legacy GDS commands in the old "green-screen" mode, at least for air.
The Commando desktop supports Amadeus, Sabre and Galileo commands for air shopping, booking and servicing.
Farelogix stated that it will build hotel and car capabilities for Commando if there is a demand for them.
Some 300 agencies in Germany have deployed Commando and use Amadeus commands to access Amadeus air inventory, as well as Lufthansa inventory through a Farelogix direct connection.
They can also access air inventory from other Farelogix inventory sources, including supplier sites, consolidators and other GDSs, if the agencies have relationships with them.
Although these agents still are using green-screen commands, they can view content, including airline seat maps, in graphical displays, and other content in traditional, textual displays.
Jim Davidson, CEO of Farelogix, said that almost 90% of agents in Germany still use green-screen commands. Commando, he added, is a hybrid because it serves as "the ultimate bridge between the legacy green screen and the best of new, multisource technology."
He quipped that Commando is "Hawkeye without steroids."
The push for multisource content gained traction when the GDSs were deregulated several years ago, giving airlines the option of striking varied deals -- or not making agreements -- with particular GDSs.
Unlike Commando, the Hawkeye application is free to download and uses GUI commands and displays. Farelogix hopes that software developers will take the source code and create numerous Hawkeye applications, which would be shared "for rapid, community-driven innovation," Farelogix stated.
Companies downloading Hawkeye, which was built with the Web-based .NET application and C# programming language, can use it as is or tailor it to their own businesses, using it with the Farelogix FLX distribution platform or independent of it.
Farelogix is offering integration and support services for Hawkeye, but they are optional. Regardless of whether outside companies use these services, Farelogix intends to publish new releases of Hawkeye quarterly, and these updates would include "the best of breed" development from the Hawkeye community of code-writers.
In addition to supporting Amadeus, Galileo and Sabre commands for Commando, Farelogix is introducing a proprietary set of commands to support airline merchandising.
Davidson said virtually all of the Farelogix direct-connect airlines, which include American, United, Lufthansa, Singapore, Emirates, Virgin America, Northwest, Continental, AirTran, Air Canada and a couple of other carriers, do some merchandising, from checked-bag fees to meal vouchers, through the Farelogix FLX distribution platform.
Davidson added that Commando not only supports agents' scripts but offers "an entirely new scripting engine to create new scripts that support functions that are not even supported by a particular GDS."
Rose of Travel Tech Consulting applauded Farelogix's open-source approach with Hawkeye and said the challenge will be to see "whether there exists an open-source community within travel IT or whether the general open-source community would want to build applications on the Hawkeye foundation."
Davidson said travel agencies, "a few GDSs" and airlines, with the latter interested in call-center applications, have expressed interest in Project Hawkeye.