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TravelMole Interview: John Cole, CIO, Pegasus Solutions
Agents in the near future can expect to be paid weekly instead of monthly by the Dallas-based Pegasus Solutions, says its newly appointed chief information officer, John Cole. He told TravelMole: “We want to build and grow our relationship with the travel community and helping people get paid faster makes them happy.” Mr Cole said his goals were to continue to focus on technology while at the same time offer outstanding service. “We intend to stay in the forefront of new technology by offering new products and continually invest in new processes and software development,” he said. An example came late last year when Pegasus acquired Unirez, which Mr Cole said rounds out the Pegasus strategy of multi-tiered representation for independent and small group hotels. In addition to the full service program offered by Pegasus’ Utell service, Unirez offers HotelFactory, which provides a lower-cost distribution channel, according to Mr Cole. With Unirez, Pegasus now represents more than 7,000 hotel properties around the world, with 3,000 of them in North America. The technology of Unirez matches Pegasus, Mr Cole said, because HotelFactory supports current strategic initiatives of Pegasus including enhanced data management. Mr Cole said he also plans to emphasize the quick release of new products in the future. “The design cycle time was critical in the financial services industry in the 1990s, and it’s going to be critical in the first part of the 21st century in the travel industry, where cycle time and technology is really being applied to bring major changes,” he said. Another emphasis will be on building relationships with tour operators, he added. Founded in 1989, Pegasus’ customers include a majority of the world’s travel agencies and more than 50,000 hotel properties around the world. The company is the hotel industry’s largest third-party marketing and reservations provider, according to Mr Cole. “Pegasus already has relationships with all the key players, and now we’re mixing that with a new leadership team,” he said. Report by David Wilkening
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