OpenJaw selected as Aeroplan’s Technology Partner

Dublin, Ireland, July 2005 – OpenJaw Technologies has won the contract to supply Aeroplan, Canada’s leading Loyalty Program with its industry leading, internet booking engine xRez and XML middleware engine, xDistributor.

Aeroplan sought a partner to help the organisation connect the aeroplan.com website to multiple suppliers of hotel and car inventory as well as merchandise, using XML standards from the OpenTravel Alliance. The project was driven by the need to create a website which offers the Aeroplan member the widest choice of premium travel and merchandise brands to redeem loyalty points against. The Integration of multiple new suppliers and provision of new web front end architecture was entrusted to OpenJaw on the basis of their technology and their expertise in OTA XML standards.

Benoit Chayer, Web Development Manager at Aeroplan, provides some detail “Aeroplan had three main requirements from the prospective partner. Firstly an expertise in OTA XML Standards, secondly, a partner whose technology was proven in the market as reliable and scalable and finally we envisioned a need for an advanced Business Rules engine to enable us to control the relationships with supplier inventory. We discovered that OpenJaw Technologies had all three components. On this basis OpenJaw was handed the responsibility to lead the project which comprised of the Aeroplan Development Team and two other partners”.

John Lambe, CTO of OpenJaw describes the challenge “Throughout the process Aeroplan allowed us to create the vision of how we could best implement our technology to suit not only the requirement but also their member’s expectations from the program. Connecting to multiple suppliers systems using OTA is only part of the solution; we also used our expertise to deliver best practice in the front end.”

Project teams are directed across three locations Montreal, Toronto and Dublin in order to deliver the project.

Both OpenJaw Technologies and Aeroplan view the engagement as a long term strategic partnership between the two organisations.

About Aeroplan

Aeroplan is a wholly owned subsidiary of Air Canada, and is known as one of the most rewarding loyalty programs in the industry with over 6 million members. Aeroplan was voted the world’s Best Frequent Flyer Program for the second consecutive year at the 2003 OAG (Official Airline Guide) Airline of the Year Awards.

About OpenJaw Technologies

OpenJaw Technologies, a travel technology company, develops XML standards based products supporting message specifications from the OpenTravel Alliance (OTA) and Travel Technology Initiative (TTI). OpenJaw’s main products are xRez, a sophisticated Internet Booking Engine and xDistributor, an advanced XML middleware platform with integrated Business Rules Engine. OpenJaw is a private company with headquarters in Dublin, Ireland.