SAP Helps Customers Fly to New Heights With Modern Airline Retailing

- SAP® Hybris® Commerce, Travel Accelerator, Receives IATA NDC Level 3 Certification

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Sep 19, 2017, 09:00 ET

WALLDORF, Germany, Sept. 19, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today announced a new release of its SAP® Hybris® Commerce, travel accelerator, making it simpler for airlines to meet the demands of today's digital traveler. With this travel-specific commerce solution, airlines can maintain consistent pricing and promotions across channels – Web, mobile, kiosk, sales desk, on-board/in-flight, contact center and distribution – providing the experience consumers expect.

TUI Poland Sp. z o.o., China Express Airlines Company Limited and P&O Ferries are companies in the travel industry relying on SAP Hybris solutions.

Compliant with the New Distribution Capability (NDC) standard advanced by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), SAP Hybris Commerce, travel accelerator, supports travel providers with modern retailing practices. The solution includes such features as personalized offers, enabling airline companies to deliver a cohesive customer experience across digital and physical touch points.

The travel accelerator for SAP Hybris Commerce enables airlines to determine which products are offered to whom and at what price based on such things as their current activity, booking history, loyalty status and sales channel. Products, fares, flight ancillaries like extra leg room and partner products are stored individually in a central catalog. This allows airlines to create attractive merchandising and pricing options.

These most recent enhancements to the travel accelerator allow airlines to:

Deliver market-leading retail commerce capabilities on industry-standard airline reservation systems
Improve conversion rates – converting Web site visitors into customers who complete a purchase – with fully responsive storefront and context-based content management
Create bundles and promotional offers across customer segments and channels
Implement direct-connect initiatives to agencies and business-to-business partners by using IATA's NDC standard
Combine ATPCO fares with dynamic fares and flight ancillaries managed directly in the SAP Hybris Commerce solution
Dynamically bundle air content with accommodation to create single-price packages and offers

"The way consumers research and book their travel is experiencing a fundamental shift, driven largely by the digital revolution," said Matthias Goehler, senior vice president and head of industry solutions, SAP Hybris*. "With the booking process no longer linear, airlines who rely on indirect distribution for sales will face major challenges when competing in a digital world that demands a 'retail-centric' approach. The travel accelerator for SAP Hybris Commerce, which follows IATA's NDC standard, offers advanced travel retailing and merchandising capabilities that meet contemporary business demands to drive business growth."

NDC is a travel industry–supported program launched by IATA for the development and market adoption of a new XML-based data transmission standard. The new standard makes it possible for airlines to close the gap between what is available on their own Web sites and what travel agents have access to through their systems. This enables easy access to all of an airline's offerings in the travel agent channel, as well as the ability to personalize offers through airline products, such as extra leg room or a special meal option.

"The NDC standard transforms the way air travel is sold through the travel agent channel by addressing today's distribution limitations," said Yanik Hoyles, director, New Distribution Capability Program, IATA. "Fully compliant with the 16.2 schema version, the release of SAP Hybris Commerce, travel accelerator, joins NDC players who are supporting airline efforts to provide enhanced customer experiences."

To learn more about SAP Hybris Commerce, travel accelerator, and how it benefits travel providers, please visit the Web site.

For more information on SAP Hybris, visit the SAP Hybris News Center or follow SAP Hybris at @saphybris. For more information on SAP, visit SAP News Center or follow SAP on Twitter at @sapnews

*SAP Hybris is a brand name launched in January 2016 to represent the SAP solutions for customer engagement and commerce as well as the offerings, employees and business of acquired company hybris AG, which continues to be our legal entity until integration with SAP is complete.

About SAP Hybris Solutions
SAP Hybris solutions provide omnichannel customer engagement and commerce software that allows organizations to build up a contextual understanding of their customers in real time, deliver a more impactful, relevant customer experience, and sell more goods, services and digital content across every touch point, channel and device. Through customer data management, context driven marketing tools and unified commerce processes, SAP Hybris solutions have helped some of the world's leading organizations to attract, retain and grow a profitable customer base. SAP Hybris software for customer engagement and commerce provides organizations with the foundation, framework and business tools to create a holistic customer view across channels, simplify customer engagement and solve complex business problems. For more information, visit www.hybris.com.

About SAP
As market leader in enterprise application software, SAP (NYSE: SAP) helps companies of all sizes and industries run better. From back office to boardroom, warehouse to storefront, desktop to mobile device – SAP empowers people and organizations to work together more efficiently and use business insight more effectively to stay ahead of the competition. SAP applications and services enable more than 355,000 business and public sector customers to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and grow sustainably. For more information, visit www.sap.com.

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