Amadeus has been highlighted as one of Europe’s leading companies for investment in research and development by the European Commission.
Amadeus wins praise for investment in R&D
Amadeus has been highlighted as one of Europe’s leading companies for investment in research and development by the European Commission.
The travel technology company invested €250 million in 2009, a 10% increase on the amount invested the previous year, to research and develop technologies for use in the travel sector.
The 2010 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard, an annual report published by the commission, examines the largest 1,000 European companies investing in R&D during 2009 and ranks them according to the total amount invested.
The Amadeus investment was recognised by its inclusion in the following results:
• First place in Europe by total R&D investment in the computer services category
• Number one in Europe by total R&D investment in the area of travel and tourism
• Third largest investor in R&D in Spain for all business sectors
Total investment since 2004 stands at more than €1.2 billion, reflecting a consistent investment every year of around 10% of consolidated revenues, according to Amadeus.
The company has 16 R&D centres around the world (Nice, London, Sydney, Antwerp, Aachen, Frankfurt, Munich, Boston, Miami, Toronto, Strasbourg, Tucson, Bangalore, Bogota, Warsaw and Bangkok), encompassing a team of 4,000 people.
Development executive vice-president Jean-Paul Hamon, head of all the company’s software development branches, said: “Amadeus has a proven history in innovation, with pioneering products and initiatives in the travel industry. R&D will continue to be key to the evolution of our position as a large-scale technology leader.”
R&D efforts in recent years have been particularly focused on:
• Continued development of the Amadeus Altéa Customer Management Solution (CMS), a community-based airline IT platform that consists of three solutions covering reservation, inventory management and departure control
• Development of the Amadeus Hotel Platform, a solution for hotel chains which combines central reservation, property management and global distribution systems into one fully integrated platform. The recently-launched platform is designed to support hotels in the age of globalisation and expansion, enabling them to respond to changing traveller demands
• Development of sophisticated search engines with new parameters, such as budget, destination preferences, etc. Amadeus Affinity Shopper, a solution based on the original Amadeus Extreme Search concept, is an example of recent developments in this field
• Development of products related to travel agency management, designed to facilitate work processes and maximise productivity
Amadeus has also launched a 20,000 euro travel innovation prize, and is collaborating with Travolution to produce an annual Innovation Report. The first report will be unveiled as part of Travolution’s media partnership with Travel Technology Europe 2011.
