WTM Pegasus Sessions: RezView Next Gen to kill the need for a rates cache – but Pegasus needed to buy to make it happen

I had a chance at WTM in London last week to meet up with Michael O’Connell of Pegasus (Senior Director – Global Partnership Development) and briefly Mike Kistner (EVP and COO). O’Connell was keen to tell me about the plans that Pegasus have with their rewrite of RezView, called RezView NG (for next generation). I was keen to talk to him about a few trends in online hotel distribution. In this post will cover our discussion of RezView NG. Will cover our conversation over a series of posts.

The rewirte of RezView came from the acquisition by Pegasus in May 2007 of GuestClick. The aim with the relaunch was to update the platform, consolidate the two older version of RezView into one product and allow for improved functionality in areas of pricing, distribution and real time connectivity. One integrated platform based on more modern web technology (ie the magic ajax). All good aims. It seemed strange to me at first that Pegasus needed to buy a company to relaunch its core product – as opposed to build in house. Kistner made two points in response – first that the technology was not completed when they bought GuestClick. It was “about 70% ready”. This gave Pegasus enough of a product to get a jump in development without being too far advanced that Pegasus could not make the changes it needed to have the product meet their aims. Secondly, they were aware that they needed a big jump in the product. They needed a product that was unencumbered by any legacy issues in the current product. As Kistner put it the GuestClick product was “not perverted by commercial realities. It [GuestClick product] was a technically pure implementation of a CRS not changed to meet the needs of any one customer”. In other words – a fresh start.

Migration will start in Q1 in 2008 and take about a year. The main upside for distributors (ie online hotel retailers using Pegasus) is that the NG product will have an pushed based version for pricing distribution trough UltraDirect. This means less of a need for a cache and I am assured will meet the aim of dramatically increases the accuracy of rates in the first search for all players. I am sure you will join me in a round of “finallys”.