June 27, 2012 , Terrapinn

Exclusive Interview with InterGlobe Technologies

A few weeks ago, I spoke with Mr Vipul Doshi, CEO from InterGlobe Technologies and he shared with me some insights on how IGT is capitalising on this growing China market.

Terrapinn: What are the global trends in terms of airlines using technology? Contrasting this with China, what is unique about this market?

Vipul: According to the Airline IT Trends Survey 2011’ issued jointly by SITA and Airline Business, there is an increase in airline investment across technologies (mobility, social and self-service). 83% of airlines expect IT budgets to increase or remain the same in 2012. One of the key findings from the survey highlights 91% of airlines are planning to make investments in passenger mobile services, with check-in, flight status updates and electronic boarding passes. By 2014, it is anticipated that 15% of passengers will use mobile phones for check-in, a five-fold increase from this year’s figures.

From the above data we can clearly see airline spending on information technology and telecommunications remains broadly stable with a majority of the forecasting budgets increasing next year. Further evidence of business confidence can be seen in the large numbers of airlines investing in technology projects such as offering mobile services to passengers and increasing involvement with strategic partners.

In 2011, IGT has invested significantly in new services across IT in mobility, social media integration, integrated travel analytics and architectural services. The modern business traveller is mobile in more than one sense. We see mobile technology gaining great importance in the travel business. The booking of holidays on mobile phones and other new technologies will be the biggest consumer trend to impact the travel and tourism industry.

Terrapinn: With the growing fleet among airlines, do you have any plans or innovation that you think can cope with the challenges and opportunities in the China market?

Vipul: IGT offers innovative integrated solutions and services across the entire spectrum of the travel, transportation and hospitality domain. IGT’s solutions, spanning mainframe and open systems technologies, are robust and scalable to accommodate growth and change in today’s dynamic business environment. This is demonstrated by the full range of complex mission critical projects that IGT has implemented across functions like travel reservations/bookings, departure control management, GDS integration, revenue management, API interfaces, internet booking engines, zTPF migration, CRM and e-ticketing systems.

We have been working with a number of leading American and European companies for on demand customer support services, centralized rebooking and notification desks. We plan to offer these new age solutions to our customers in China to meet the dynamic nature of the Chinese market. IGT sees this as a big opportunity and will continue to deliver innovation and business excellence in the China market also.

Terrapinn: What is your best pitch to airlines to position InterGlobe Technologies?

Vipul: Today companies are looking at simplifying multi-outsourcing vendor associations to achieve maximum benefits by consolidating outsourcing relationships. IGT’s Integrated IT-BPO solutions operate across the entire value chain of travel, right from calculation of complex fares to migration and management of mainframe solutions, from managing dynamic multi–contact channels to building ecommerce and mobile commerce platforms. These solutions help travel companies reduce total cost of outsourcing while benefiting from unified governance, enhanced knowledge management, standardized operation, thus achieving faster time to market and staying ahead in this competitive and dynamic travel landscape. In 2012 we will continue to offer Integrated Application Development and Maintenance‚ Contact Center, Back Office Services and Solution Frameworks to the travel industry worldwide.

InterGlobe Technologies will be present at the 5th annual Aviation Outlook China on 10th and 11th of July.