Following its announcement late last year that it was ready to expand internationally, peakwork is opening an office in Singapore, to be headed by Tony Marshall.
Marshall, who was APAC head for Orbitz Partner Network, joins the Germany-based software specialist whose Player Hub technology is designed to create a distribution and sales platform for the travel industry by connecting product supply and demand across the globe.
Tony Marshall: Ex-Orbitz, now heading peakwork in APAC
Said Marshall: “I am very excited by the technology peakwork offers. This region stands for a valuable travel offer and enormous power in travel supply. With the Player Hub technology, these suppliers have the chance to connect to global distributors, OTAS and meta searchers such as Google, Kayak, Trivago, just to name a few.”
Ralf Usbeck, CEO of peakwork, has high expectations for the Asian Pacific region. “Last year peakwork started its market activities in Singapore and Asia. Since that time we have met numerous very interesting companies. We are happy to have our representatives now in the market and especially with Tony Marshall, we have won an internationally recognised expert with great experience and best contacts in the travel industry.”
peakwork technology is currently live in 28 markets worldwide.
Usbeck: Asia is a key market opportunity.
In this interview, Ralf Usbeck, who also founded Traveltainment, tells WIT the thinking behind peakwork, his views on travel distribution and the challenges facing traditional travel companies.
Q: Tell us about peakwork and your interests in Asia?
peakwork provides a production and distribution platform that brings together global offers and requests for a wide range of travel products. Across Europe, peakwork works with all the big touristic companies. But our aim is to promote and set new higher standards across the international travel and tourism industry.
This is achieved by improving data quality, quantity and relevance to the production and sale of holidays, as well as providing comprehensive high performance search interfaces.
Asia is key market opportunity for us because of its dynamic, growth rates and demand for travel packages.
Q: Let’s backtrack a bit. You started Traveltainment which was acquired by Amadeus. What lessons did you learn from that experience of starting a travel technology business and then making the exit?
The idea of TravelTainment in the year 2000 was great – we made travel packages comparable within milliseconds. This was totally new.
For Amadeus in Europe, this success in leisure travel created huge value at that time. But the international travel industry is operating more and more globally and demands for a more flexible distributed solution emerged.
I therefore decided to set on a new venture and create a unique technology solution that has the power to revolutionise the business models of the global tourism.
Q: As part of the acquisition, you stayed within Amadeus for two years – was that a good learning experience? How hard was it to work within a huge corporate entity after running your own business?
Of course it’s different working in a huge corporate entity, as well as it is different working in the old and new economy. For me, running an innovative business, together with a smaller dedicated team, is the way I prefer working, and this is what I believe I have achieved at peakwork. We are pleased with the progress so far, and plan much more for future growth.
Q: So after the exit from Amadeus, you were ready for a new adventure – why Peakwork? Tell us the idea behind Peakwork and what you and your team wanted to create.
At peakwork we have an ambitious plans and our vision is to create a worldwide platform for travel production and distribution.
This is founded on our unified data format EDF, which means that all suppliers and distributors “speak the same language”. Travel offers are stored with all necessary details and these can be serviced quickly to meet consumer requests and demands.
Tour Operators give access to their travel product via the peakwork Player. This system is very powerful and works with maximum efficiency. Distribution partners easily connect via their peakwork Hub. Even suppliers like airlines and bed banks connect to these travel offers in order to bundle services and create new dynamic travel packages.
The feedback from customers to our solution is awesome. What we did not expect was that the big players in online business and international tourism have started new exciting business models on the basis of our products: for example Airlines or even OTAs start dynamic packaging and set up their own new tour operator products and services.
Photo credit: peakwork
Q: You seem to be like a GDS – a B2B distribution platform that connects suppliers with retailers. What makes you different? Is your aim to disrupt traditional distribution?
Our Player-Hub technology indeed has the power to disrupt traditional travel distribution. That is absolutely correct. What makes the difference is that we just provide the technological basis and our know-how. Our customers can partner with each other and build their business models.
Tour operators, airlines, bed banks as well as OTAs, metasearchers and many more can contact and have contracts with their business partners across the whole the peakwork network. Our customers can define and steer their offers to meet their own demands. They have full and complete control of their product. We provide the “plug and play” technical basis which enables global exchange – and that works.
We also help and encourage our partners to co-operate and work together. A good example is our Peakwork Partner Connect day where we have over 250 attendees from all the major players across the entire global travel value chain. We plan to extend these sort of events globally.
Q: What in travel distribution needs to be fixed, you think?
Many supplier systems are quite heterogeneous and inflexible in their operation. These days, online and mobile business with its traffic is very challenging for traditional tourism companies. Besides, offer and demand is getting more international. This is where we assist.
Q: What three trends are you watching the most in travel distribution?
Business models change more and more. There is continual ongoing disruption and consolidation occurring and numerous companies are starting to bundle a broader range of services in the entire touristic value chain.
Mobile interface and development is fundamental for success. Applications have to be fast, responsive and powerful especially for mobile use.
Metasearch is replacing the “traditional” OTA that don’t have their own product. Differentiation in quality and service is the way to win customer loyalty.