The complexity of New Distribution Capability is self-evident from its long, slow road to adoption, but American Express Global Business Travel gave that complexity an avatar this year when it produced a public version of its Minimum Marketable Product framework needed to bring NDC content into its marketplace.
The framework, which included 162 use cases for airlines, global distribution systems and online booking tools to fulfill, was a way of "getting different parties all around the world to work together trying to make it happen," Amex GBT EVP of global supplier partnerships Rajiv Ahluwalia said. "If we had just one carrier and one booking tool, it would be a piece of cake, but if you have operations in 25 countries with 20 different booking tools, there has to be a way to make that scalable."
Items within the framework detailed such needs for NDC as ticket exchanges, travel credits and data processing as well as booking-flow issues. As further indication of their complexity, no supplier had completely fulfilled all requirements when they went public, though Amex GBT does not require perfection to start the pilot phase of NDC.
In the meantime, Amex GBT has "made some considerable traction on the marketplace" in terms of those requirements, Ahluwalia said. At the Phocuswright Conference in November, Amex GBT CEO Paul Abbott said the requirements have led to about a dozen changes in airline APIs.
The framework has been part of "pretty large evolution over quite a period of time," said Ahluwalia, that began with hotels and aggregating content outside of traditional distribution methods. As the issues are solved, the aim is to have a broader impact across the industry.
"This is an ecosystem, so how does one influence Amadeus, or Sabre, or Travelport, or Concur, Serko or Cytric as an internal tool, and then how does one influence the customers?" he said. "Bringing all of that together is the challenge we've had for a number of years, but we've made headway in the last 12 to 18 months, and while the steps they take benefit us, they also benefit the entire industry."