TravelMole Interview: Bill Kanarick, VP Travel, Sapient

Sapient has just completed an online distribution project with Hilton International, and is hoping to be involved in what it says could be the largest IT investment in the travel sector.

Sapient has been working with Hilton for two years to simplify its online content management. “One of the challenges that Hilton and others struggle with is content distribution in this heightened environment of online technology”, says Bill Kanarick, vice president Travel & Transportation at Sapient.

The result of the two-year project is a content management system that allows Hilton to create and update content for each website from a single point of data entry. The system also enables customers to book international and local hotels in their own language.

The system is being rolled out in the UK at the moment, and Hilton intends to roll out the German website in July, and the Japanese and Scandinavian websites in October.

According to Mr Kanarick, the Hilton system has used “multiple mechanisms to facilitate multiple channel distribution”. For example, an Oracle system is used for the database and BAE for the middle ware. Mr Kanarick describes it as “a team effort”.

He added: “Accuracy and content richness is an important strategic development for hotels and significantly increases the ‘look to book’ ratio.”

Mr Kanarick says Hilton is likely to apply the system to areas outside distribution. He said: “Hilton should look to leverage their investment from one area to benefit another.”

Sapient’s work is distribution-centric, which Mr Kanarick says is why the company started working with the travel industry. The primary projects being undertaken at the moment are aimed at reducing distribution costs by moving online.

Sapient’s European travel business is fairly new – it started in early 2000. The company claims to have delivered nine out of ten projects on time since its conception in 1991, compared to an industry average of four out of ten.One of its first clients was Opodo, which it still works with, alongside Avis Europe, and Star Alliance.

Mr Kanarick claims that if the proposed Star Alliance project goes ahead it could be the largest IT investment in the travel sector.

Sapient is helping Star Alliance to come up with a common IT platform to leverage shared infrastructure. An example would be a single Star Alliance check-in desk at airports, which would require a new technology platform. He says that the project has yet to manifest itself because in the current business climate airlines are investing cautiously.