Please see the following two articles for a recasting of this theme
in light of current events:
INTELLIGENT WORKSTATIONS -- Look for ongoing
developments in this area. The reason is simple: Placing advanced
workstations in travel agencies as "front-ends" to large,
centrally-controlled networks is the most efficient, quickest, and
cost-effective way to expand the range of available functions.
You should give careful thought to what type of
workstations are best for you, what vendor provides the most
appropriate network, and what you want to do with the workstations
once you have them. The 1990s will see even more divergence in
workstation functionality and developments among the various CRS than
the past few years have seen.
Expect more activity in workstation development over
the next several years than any other single technology area that
directly affects your business.
Software available from most CRS will, as in the
past, tend to lag behind the leading edge of technology. The reason
here is that the technological development resources of every CRS are
limited, and they're all busy with various projects (some you care
about; some you don't).
There isn't enough "resource"
(technicians, managers, and money) to build everything it would be
nice to have. In making the trade-offs between what gets built and
what doesn't, nobody is wholly happy with the result.
Some CRS planners get tangled-up with issued like
support for "third-party" software (meaning software they
don't supply), so they limit (or restrict) the number and types of
independent software projects that are available on the networks they
support, rather than develop strategies that would make more
functionality available to you quickly.
That isn't necessarily bad, but it does have a price
-- in this case being delayed functionality and restrictions on
applications many people would find very useful.
VERDICT -- Lots of activity in workstations;
applications won't be everything you want; an area of increasing
interest as developments mature.
WORKSTATION INDEPENDENCE -- Having just said
that expanding workstation technology and applications will probably
be slow, I should also note that it will also be irresistible. Having
once opened the flood-gate that allows agencies to take a measure of
control over building and maintaining their own network application
packages, as most CRS have done, the natural evolution of agencies
workstation networks will be toward more local control, more
independence, and more flexibility.
This is a side-effect of using microcomputer-based
distributed processing networks, which defines most agency intelligent
workstation networks. There's no effective way around it.
Things you will see: Slow, but eventual full control
over non-CRS applications to be run at agency sites; great
independence as to network maintenance and configuration; more
development of non-CRS agency workstation tools (a limited market
that's expensive to reach will keep these few in number).
Things you won't see: Third-party information
vendors with access to the same agency networks the CRS use (no matter
how valuable the applications are, that would be a bitter pill to
swallow); multiple CRS on the same agency networks; CRS displays over
agency networks that aren't at least specified (if not built) by a CRS
(agents aren't going to build their own office networks and plug a CRS
in).
VERDICT -- The process will be slow, but
eventually you'll be able to exercise considerable autonomy over what
happens on your office network -- if you're prepared for it.
FASTER, BIGGER, BETTER PROCESSORS -- 80386,
80286, what does it all mean and where will it end? There will always
be new hardware developments, such as the present
"feeding-frenzy" over the Intel Corporation's 80386 and
80486 microprocessors (the brains of state-of-the-art PS/2s).
It doesn't mean a great deal to you, however --
today. I've talked to several agents who wondered (in sometimes great
pain) whether they should try and install 80386SX processors, or stick
with the older 80286.
This is one illustration of the hardware dilemma
that many agents face today, and will become more acute (as hardware
advances accelerate) in the 1990s. You really need an expert to sort
them out for you -- making certain that the result is appropriate and
cost-effective.
In the absence of an informed source, if you can't
visualize what you'll do with that latest hardware gadget in the next
18 months, you probably won't need it.
VERDICT -- Hardware is on the move; hardware
is easy to promote and hard to understand; don't wait for "the
latest" (whenever that is) if you don't know what you'll do with
it when it arrives.
GLOBAL NETWORKS -- Galileo, Amadeus, Abacus,
Fantasia, Gemini, the list goes on. These are technology ventures,
frequently involving U.S. CRS, that are replacing the antiquated and
inefficient CRS found in most of the developed world.
Most of these projects hope to come life some time
in the 1990s.
They mean little or nothing to you, unless you'll be
working (or have branches) outside the U.S., aside from the obvious
fact that these projects are taking up resources from some U.S. CRS
that would otherwise be available for other (perhaps less lucrative)
projects.
VERDICT -- Investigate thoroughly if you'll
be doing business in an area affected by one of these systems (there
are real and deep differences where overseas systems compete),
otherwise don't worry about it.
CORPORATE RESERVATION (& ETC) TERMINALS
-- Over the next few years, someone's bound to trot this white
elephant out any try to peddle it again. There are CRS and a number of
independent companies that are really excited about developing or
selling technology that your corporate customers can use for making
their own reservations, auditing their own reservations, or sending
you electronic mail.
Problem is, nobody has (yet) bothered to ask people
who really know what the corporation wants. Basically, they want
travel to cease to be a "problem" (however that can be made
to happen); they don't want tools or gadgets to make it more
complicated or "help them manage it".
Because software developers see this as an
unploughed field, look for new approaches to pop-up throughout the
1990s. Also, look for few, if any, to catch on.
VERDICT -- Don't bother about it unless or
until someone can prove to you that your corporate customers are
crying for it.
GRAPHICS -- How about pretty pictures of
hotels, resorts, destinations, and tours on your CRS workstation?
Great for people in the publishing business; a little harder to
understand for people in the hotel, tour, or travel business.
If you can really see yourself using them, then look
for several technology projects to gain speed over the next few years
that will make something like electronic brochures available to you.
VERDICT -- A project that needs more
explanation and definition. Conceivably very attractive, but what will
it look like and at what cost?
