Lixto - Web Intelligence

1 2008 ,6 rue Paul Guiton,74000 Annecy,FranceWOLFGANGMARTINTEAMpo we rf ul co nnect ionsAn AnalysisofWe b Int elligenceMashing Up Infor mationFor Incr ea sed Mar ket Tr ansparencyin the Tour ism IndustryTHE webintelligence COMPANYl i X toCop yri ghtWolf gangMartin n authoredthisreport. All dataandinformationwasgatheredcon -scientiouslyandwi th the great est attentionto det ai l, ut ili zingscientific er , no guaranteecanbe madewit h regardto complet Martin dis cl aimsal l impl ied warranties including wit houtlimitationwar rantiesof merchantabil -it y or fit nessfo r a particular shallhaveno liabilityfor an y di rect , inci dentalspe -cialor consequential damageor los t profits.

2 Theinformationis not int endedto be usedas the primary basisof s to th e contentof thisstudyar e res ervedby andinformation remainthepropert y of tin for purposes of , evenexcerpts,are onl y per mit -ted wi th the wri tten consentof ight nDisclaimerTheuseof names, tr adenames, trademarkset c. within thi s documentwithoutan y specialmarkingdoe snotimply thatsuchnamesar e free according to trademarklaws andcanbe us ed arbitrarily by an enceto an y specificcommer cialproduct, processor ser vicethroughtradenames,tradema rks,manufacturer names imply an endorsementof Web Inte llige nce 2008 rful connectionsLixto Web Int elligenc e 2008 Market transparencyin the tourism Price comparisonthroughWeb Met asearch:Finding the best offer on the Internet.

3 93 Case study from the hot el sector ..11On line market monit oring at ..114 Market transparencywith Web Intelligencefrom Lixto ..12Ap pendix ..15 Lixto webintelligence 2008 :// SummaryTr ansparentprices are one of the gr eatestchall engesin the tourismindustry and crit ical for gainingacompeti tive ce transparency is possib le as all competit or pri ces are avai lab le on the Inter net. Howe ver , the y fi rstneedto be coll ected and the tourismindustry offers thefol lo wingbenefits: optimum implementationof the pricing strategyto increasedemand and earnings; continuousanalytic comparis on of propri etar y productport foli os with thoseof the competition; effective ident ificationof mar ket eventsand opportunit ies to enablebetterdecisions.

4 Str ict execution of pricin g strat egy thanksto bettermonitoring of all distributionchannels, abili ty to hav e a precis e mar ket picture allowi ng the exactcomparis on of pricingand productsin all rele vant online how is it possible to retr ie ve all rel evant pri ces fromthe Int ernet in a timely, reliable, automated andthus cost- effi cient way?Before any data can be analyzedand before any actioncan be tak en, the infor -mat ion must fi rs t be be doneusing aWebIntelligencesolutionbasedon flex ibleconnectivi ty [1].

5 The methodemployedby WebIntelligenceto do this is calleda Mashup [2] and meansto merge, aggregat e and consoli date inf orm ati on informat ion sources on competitor webport als and booking reser vat ion enginessystemscan beaccessedin an automated, and standardized and robust manner:and Aany infor mationor for mat changeson th e relevan t webpagescan be dealtwit h, enabling the conti nuouscollectionof any rele vant dataav ail abl e on the resulti ng infor mat ion is up to date and comparable and can be usedtoim prov e prici ng policiesas well as to monitor and controlcontract partnerssuchas hotelsor suppliersfr omany other prod uct , product, pri cingand revenuemanagersas wel l as ex ecuti ves can dete r-mi ne the curr ent priceposition.

6 Understand the mark et situati on and apply counter-measuresin near-tim eas pro blem s or risks o increasesprofits and deliv ers a fact-basedmarket pictureofthe current prici ng policyallowingfor im provedpricemanagement and hencebetteruse of marke topportuni WebIntel ligencehas ev en more WebIntelligencecreatesmarket transparency the bestmar ket off er avai lable can be identified usingmetasearchfunctionality. Metasearchis an idealtool fortour ism authorit ies and consumers. The best touri sm productavailable on the Internetis just one mousecli ck n, flexibleconnectivity and mashing-upmake it possible to use variousInter net sourceswhi le keeping complexityand expenses for the coll ecti on of data to a mini asearchfunc -ti onali ty the entire Internetstr ucture, incl udingall relevantproduct characteristics, can be exam-ple, whensearchingfor a hotel,avai lab le querycri teriaincludehotel name,star ranking,mealplans,roomand rate type, arrivaldate,lengthof stay , price.

7 Service fees and tax es, reservationand cancellationpoli ,the consumeror the consumer s travelagentfindsexactly what the customeris lookingfor .[1]Connectivity:All interf aces (i ncluding the architecture)of a system or a solut ion to databases, middleware or applicati ons.[2]Mashup:Creationof new content by a seamless (re-)combinatio n of existi ng Web Int elligenc e 2008 fu ncti onality is an innovativeservice in thetourismindustry of feringpre viouslyunknownlevels of fle xi bil ity andcr eati on of competitive advantagesfor business us an industry characterizedby lo w marginsthi s is a val uable ass purpose of thi s whi te paper is to examineLi xto s Web Int elligencesolutionfor the touri sm in dus tryCompanies operating in the tourism sectorthatconsider markettransparencyand,in particular.

8 Pricetrans-par encyas cr iticalfor thei r competitiv e positi on, cannowgaina competitive edgethroughWebInt elligencesol is fir st necessary to choosea solution thatprovidesreliable andcor rectpri ce transparency andthatwil l al so hel p pr oductmanagers (B2 Bsector)or consumers(B2 Csector)to fi nd thebestproductavailab le. Oneof the most important tasksis to selecta pl atform for mashing up andconnectivityon thewebthatcanbe adaptedindividually on an y rel evantworkstat ion,withoutmajortrainingneeds,andwhichth e employeesnot onlyacceptbut canal so usewit h easeandprecision.

9 Cor recter gonomics,the rightvaluefor money,qui ck implementationandfl exibilit y are of significantimportancein the tra vel sectorif th eseki ndsof sol ut ionsareto wor k pr operly. Froman IT perspectivea highlevelof flexibilityis needed,especial ly for connectivityto onli ne inf ormati on sources, por talsandcompetitive the tr ansparencythatmanagement,sal esdistri bution, marketing,controllingandconsumersdemand, andbri ngsaboutcompeti tionadvantagesfor sus tainableaddedval ue. Thisdocumentaim s to helpcompanies lookingat impl ementing sol uti onsin this Web Inte llige nce 2008 Markettra nspar ency in the tou rism ind ustryTheInt er nethasbecomeoneof themostimportantsaleschannelsto 2006,forexample,Germany al rea dy ion onli ne buyers,comparedto 2005thatis an increaseof 6%.

10 Theshareoftravelproducts wit hi n this fi gureis relatively high;2006saw million onlinebuyersfor airline tickets, lli on for over nightsta ys, millionfor packagetours, rail way tick ets, millionforrent al car s sectorfeaturesano the rnot eworthy trendwhenit comes to us ing the Int ernet;beforema kinga transaction consumerssearchforinformat ion onl ine. Thisis especiallytrue for userslookingfor the caseof ai rlinetic ketsandover nightstays, 70%of buy er s lookfor informationonli ne.