Travelport GDS Wins Stevie® Award in 7th Annual American Business Awards
Atlanta, GA,
25.06.2009
Travelport GDS, one of the world’s leading providers of global distribution systems (GDS), won a Stevie Award for “Information Technology Team of the Year” in The 2009 American Business Awards. Travelport was recognized for the migration of the company’s Galileo and Apollo systems from Denver to Atlanta last September.
The migration was a large and complex effort involving hundreds of Travelport employees across 36 countries yet has exceeded expectations, delivering a 50 percent improvement in system response time for key applications. Despite its complexity, the shift from Denver to Atlanta was made with less than 20 minutes of downtime for all customers including major airlines and travel agency customers. The Atlanta facility features an industry-leading technology platform in terms of functionality, performance, reliability and security to the benefit of all Travelport customers – Worldspan, Galileo, Apollo and several major airlines
The awards were presented during ceremonies at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City on June 22, 2009. The ceremonies were hosted by Cheryl Casone of Fox Business Network and broadcast nationwide on radio by the Business TalkRadio Network.
In winning the Stevie, Travelport GDS prevailed over other finalists including Alliance Data, Dallas, TX; Battle Resource Management, Inc., Clarksville, MD; Credit Solutions, Dallas, TX; Fiberlink Communications, Blue Bell, PA; Midland Memorial Hospital, Midland, TX and Pioneer Financial Services, Kansas City, MO.
Travelport technology executives, Terri Nicholls, vice president of Service Management, and Kelly Higgins, vice president of Network and eCommerce, were on hand at the presentation ceremony to accept the award on behalf of the company. The migration was overseen by Travelport’s chief technology officer David Lauderdale and vice president Tim Dolezal.
In accepting the Stevie, Ms. Nichols noted, “We are honored to accept this award on behalf of all the members of Travelport’s technology team. Their unmatched dedication, collaboration and sheer determination earned this award, for a migration which set a new standard for our business and the industry at large.” Added Mr. Higgins, “The Atlanta data center now runs three GDSs as well as the host reservation systems of several major airlines with a peak message rate of more than 29,000 peak messages per second and over 1.5 billion messages per day.”
Stevie Awards were presented in over 40 categories including Best Overall Company of the Year, Executive of the Year, and Corporate Social Responsibility Program of the Year. More than 2,600 entries from companies of all sizes and in virtually every industry were submitted for consideration.
“We are delighted to receive the Stevie Award as recognition for the truly outstanding efforts of the Travelport GDS teams who pulled together to plan and execute this huge exercise with military precision,” stated Gordon Wilson, president and CEO, Travelport GDS. He added, “With the migration, we now have a world-class data center in Atlanta serving all of Travelport GDS and the airline customers who count on us for some of their most important services. As a result of this migration, our customers enjoy improved efficiency and reliability, as well as the advantages of the technology, products and services that Travelport can deliver through a world class data centre facility with state-of-the-art equipment.”
More than 200 executives across the country participated in the judging process to determine the Finalists and Stevie Award winners.
Details about The American Business Awards and the list of Finalists and Stevie Award winners are available at www.stevieawards.com/aba.
Notes to editors
About Travelport
Travelport is one of the world's largest travel conglomerates, offering broad-based business services to companies operating in the global travel industry. The company is comprised of the global distribution system (GDS) business that includes the Worldspan™ and Galileo™ brands; GTA, a leading global, multi-channel provider of hotel and ground services; and IT Services & Software by Travelport, which hosts mission critical applications and provides business and data analysis solutions for major airlines. With 2008 revenues of $2.5 billion, Travelport operates in 160 countries and has over 5,500 employees.
Travelport also owns approximately 48% of Orbitz Worldwide (NYSE: OWW), a leading global online travel company.
Travelport is a private company owned by The Blackstone Group, One Equity Partners, Technology Crossover Ventures and Travelport management.
About The Stevie Awards
Stevie Awards are conferred in four programs: The American Business Awards, The International Business Awards, The Stevie Awards for Women in Business, and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Honoring companies of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about The Stevie Awards at www.stevieawards.com.
Supporting sponsors of The 2009 American Business Awards include High Performance Technologies Inc., John Hancock, LifeLock, RCN Corporation, Softpro, and Ultimate Software. Media sponsor is the Business TalkRadio Network. Localization partner of the 2009 Stevie Awards is Lionbridge.
Media Contact:
Jill Brenner
Director, Communications - Americas
(973) 939-1325
Jill.Brenner@Travelport.com