“Expectations are high, because the lack of an integrated payment system has slowed down the development of e-commerce throughout the travel industry. The greatest growth expectations relate to online sales of leisure-time travel,” reports Ari Lavonen, Director at Amadeus Finland. 

Solution benefits

• Strengthened sales process
• The seller receives confirmation of the payment transaction in real time
• Payment transactions performed with various payment methods are visible in real time
• Sales information is entered automatically in the company’s ERP system
• You can purchase travel online at the last moment
  
  

From manual to automatic

E-commerce travel services are facing a challenge in the form of the range of solutions service providers use. Booking engines developed on different sides of the world include different technologies and local payment systems.

In fact, real-time commerce, which may seem electronic to the customer, has so far been handled manually. The person buying the ticket has given his or her credit card number online and the payment has been handled by an employee, who has also written out the ticket.

The Amadeus e-Payment service, developed by Digia together with Amadeus Finland, turns the sales transaction, including the payment transaction, truly automatic. With the help of e-Payment, booking the journey is transformed into buying it. If so desired, the system can also add automated fulfilment to the travel booking.

“We have hidden a range of payment solutions behind one interface. Companies operating in the travel industry do not have to match their own systems with all others. The service provider only needs to match the systems once with the Amadeus e-Payment service,” says Mika Rosslyn, Director at Digia.

A single view and access to all payment transactions in real time

Amadeus e-Payment is implemented according to service-based SOA architecture. Using this solution, a range of payment systems are connected to booking engines through a common standard interface. Travel agencies, airlines, ferry companies and other travel service providers and vendors have a single view and access to all payment transactions and their states in real time regardless of the payment method. The information is transferred to the vendor’s ERP system without delay.

This centralised solution covers both card payments and banks’ online payments, including all Finnish banks. With regard to card payments, the international Verified by Visa and MasterCard Secure Code verification services are utilised. In the travel industry in particular, the use of Visa and MasterCard in Finnish e-commerce has been increasing strongly for several years.

For the travel buyer, the new system is more reliable than the traditional ones if, for example, the online connection is disconnected during booking process. Because Amadeus e-Payment operates in real time, the payment transaction can be monitored in a malfunction situation and the payment’s completion is automatically checked.

In addition, e-Payment eases the purchase of last-minute tickets. The previous 72 hour time limit is history when the payment is handled automatically and a booking made on Friday does not have to wait until Monday morning for a travel agency employee to arrive at work.

Years of cooperation

Digia and Amadeus Finland have already cooperated closely for years in developing IT solutions for the travel industry. The e-Payment solution was developed over a period of two years.

“Implementing the system was a larger venture than we thought in the beginning. Now, expectations are high, because the lack of an integrated payment system has slowed down the development of e-commerce throughout the travel industry. The greatest growth expectations relate to online sales of leisure-time travel,” reports Ari Lavonen, Director at Amadeus Finland.

Director Mika Rosslyn from Digia is satisfied with the innovative partnership: “In addition to technical expertise, our strengths include knowledge of the travel industry and a strong foothold in other processes related to the travel value chain, such as monetary transactions, ERP and mobile integration.”

Amadeus e-Payment is ideally suited to the Finnish market, where online payment is advanced compared to many other European countries. Online payment, familiar from the banking world, has now been built into the operating environment of travel agencies. The next challenge is the use of different currencies.

Applied technology

• SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) 
• ESB (Enterprise Service Bus)
• Open Source solutions
• Linux operating system
• Verified by Visa ja MasterCard Secure Code-verifying services