In the Administration configuration section, each time a criteria can be selected to apply a particular function to a section of the distributor’s catalogue, it is now no longer necessary to scroll through the sometimes long tree diagrams of criteria.
A search box is displayed so that the user can very quickly find the desired criteria.
The system has been optimised allowing catalogue prices to be updated in real time based on responses from providers.
It is now possible to automatically send an email to the customer for a payment on account by default via the configuration.
Depending on use, it must be possible to activate or deactivate this function by default.
When creating a pre-package structure it was previously necessary to know the code for the service or transfer to link it to the pre-package. This is no longer necessary because there is now a system to auto-complete the code by searching for the title of the item to link.
The preprocessing script for connectivity to Koedia and H-Résa hotel sources has been migrated to a new and better performing architecture.
The purpose of this development is to allow the management of more and more hotels in distributors’ flows (sometimes more than 1 million), to accelerate their import into distributors’ systems and also to add monitoring to enable proactive maintenance of this connectivity.
The schemes for login links for the producers’ different professional points of access was previously replicated in each distributor system.
This centralisation allows simplified and accelerated management in case of modification of a Tour Operator’s system while maintaining the flexibility of this type of link which means travel agents just need to know the Orchestra login and password instead of reproducing the login information for each system.
This system also handles the security for all of the systems.
In the Back Office there is a function that automatically links incoming emails to the bookings concerned using a recognised code in the email from customers and providers, and thus simplifies the processing.
However, it sometimes happens that customers delete this code which will identify which booking the email concerns. These emails were then lost.
It is now possible to configure a generic address per distributor that groups all of these orphan emails together in order to reallocate them to the right booking and not lose the information they may contain.
There is now a new type of product on Orchestra: combined packages.
These products were sometimes categorised as stays, sometimes as trips, but they are a completely separate category and are often searched for as such by customers and travel agents. A system has been implemented to recognise key words and automatically categorise products where the title or summary contains variations of the word “combined”.
A cache file exchange has been implemented by the BSP Auto and Orchestra teams to calculate availability of pre-packages with car rental.
Work on the substantial technology migration to better performing systems is continuing behind the scenes of visible developments. More and more of the platform’s modules are gradually being migrated to these new systems.
During this version 17.0, the team has worked on the Administration module.
When it comes to connectivity with the meta engine Kayak, a development of their product displays flights contained in the packages.
In order to meet this need while increasing the frequency and precision of updates sent, a specific web service has been set up centrally and is ready to be deployed in distributors’ catalogues.
The transport team is continuing work on integrating airlines’ new APIs through direct connectivity (or adding new functions allowing management of luggage, meals and other ancillary products).
Similarly, we are currently integrating the Resaneo source which will be available with version 17.1
