Orbitz 2014 Annual Report Download - page 8

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8
the products or services delivered; and the customer chooses the supplier. We are, however, subject to charge-back by airlines
for fraudulent transactions.
When customers assemble vacation packages, we may offer the customer the ability to book a combination of travel
products that use both the merchant model and the retail model. Vacation packages allow us to make products available to our
customers at prices that are generally lower than booking each travel product separately.
Operations and Technology
Systems Infrastructure
We use CenturyLink and Verizon Business co-location services in the United States to host our systems infrastructure for
Orbitz, CheapTickets, Orbitz for Business, HotelClub, ebookers and private label partners. CenturyLink and Verizon provide
data center management services as well as emergency hands-on support. In addition, we have dedicated staff on-site at each
facility.
Systems Platform
Our systems platform enables us to deconstruct the segment feeds from our GDS partners for air flight searches and then
reassemble these segments for cost-effective and flexible multi-leg itineraries. The easy-to-use Orbitz Matrix Display allows
customers to simultaneously view these various travel options so that they can select the price and supplier that best meet their
travel needs. In addition, our vacation packaging technology enables travelers to view multiple combinations of airlines, hotels
and other travel products and to assemble a customized vacation package that is generally less expensive than booking each
travel product separately.
We have technology operations teams dedicated to ensuring that our websites operate efficiently. These teams monitor
our websites, our private label customer websites and the performance and availability of our third-party service providers, as
well as coordinate releases of new functionality on our websites. We have product development teams focused on creating new
and enhancing existing website functionality. These teams completed the migration of our global consumer brands to one
common technology platform in 2012 (the “Global Platform”).
Customer Support
Our customer support platform includes customer self-service, chat, email and call center services to provide our
customers with multiple options to enhance the travel experience. We utilize intelligent voice routing and intelligent call
management technology to connect customers with the appropriate agent who can best assist them with their particular needs.
We utilize third-party vendors domestically and internationally to manage these call centers and customer service centers.
Fraud Prevention System
We use a system of third-party and internally developed fraud prevention tools that we believe enable us to efficiently
detect fraudulent bookings. The system automates many functions and prioritizes suspicious transactions for review by fraud
analysts within our fraud prevention team.
Marketing
We use a combination of online and traditional offline marketing. Our sales and marketing efforts primarily focus on
increasing brand awareness and driving visitors to our websites. Our long-term success will depend on our ability to continue to
increase the overall number of booked transactions in a cost-effective manner.
We use various forms of online marketing to drive traffic to our websites including search engine marketing (“SEM”),
travel research websites, meta-search travel websites, display advertising, affiliate programs and email marketing. We continue
to pursue strategies to improve our online marketing efficiency and have utilized our advanced analytics capabilities to support
development, testing and verification of new strategies. These strategies include increasing the amount of traffic coming to our
websites through search engine optimization (“SEO”) and customer relationship management (“CRM”), and improving the
efficiency of our SEM and travel research spending. We also use traditional broadcast advertising to focus on brand
differentiation and to emphasize distinct features of our businesses that we believe are valuable to our customers.