Orbitz 2008 Annual Report Download - page 17

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providing customers with relevant content, such as expert and user reviews, to encourage hotel and vacation bookings; and
•
continuing to develop new functionality on our websites to make it easier and more appealing for customers to book hotels and dynamic
vacation packages.
Grow our business internationally. We believe that there are substantial growth opportunities in regions outside of the U.S. for our international brands.
We believe that strong international growth in the online travel industry, combined with the geographic diversity of our brand portfolio, will enable us to
continue to increase net revenue generated from our international brands. Our new global technology platform will further enhance our ability to drive this
growth.
Improve our operational efficiency through investment in our global technology platform. We believe our global technology platform will drive
operational efficiencies. Our new platform will provide a single technology infrastructure capable of supporting our brand portfolio as well as our white label
partnerships.
In July 2007, we launched the global technology platform for our ebookers brand in the U.K. In November 2007, we migrated our ebookers brand in Ireland
onto the platform, and by late 2008, we expect to complete the migration of our remaining ebookers websites. We believe the global technology platform will:
•
reduce development costs and the time it takes to launch innovative new features on our websites;
•
increase operating efficiencies through back office automation and by centralizing certain business functions such as customer service,
fulfillment and accounting;
•
increase the options available to our white label partners by tailoring their website experience to match their customer base and brand
identity; and
•
offer our suppliers an efficient way to access our distribution channels via a single extranet connection.
We have already realized benefits as a result of the U.K. migration. The platform allows us to offer a broader range of hotel inventory to customers for
booking. As a result, hotel inventory on the ebookers U.K. website has tripled to over 85,000 hotels globally. We expect to see further improvements in hotel
inventory as we obtain the ability to book additional inventory through our global hotel supply team. We have made significant improvements in the hotel and
dynamic packaging booking path, which has resulted in improved conversion rates. We have also experienced operational efficiencies and eliminated many of
the manual processes required under the old platform. We expect these improvements, combined with the anticipated centralization of certain business functions,
to lower our operating costs at ebookers over time.
Company Website and Public Filings
We maintain a corporate website at http://corp.orbitz.com. The content of our website is not incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on
Form 10-K/A. Our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") are provided to the public on our Investor Relations website, free of charge, as
soon as reasonably practicable after they are electronically filed with, or furnished to, the SEC. Other information regarding our corporate governance, such as
our code of conduct, governance guidelines and charters for our board committees, is also available on our Investor Relations website (http://www.orbitz-ir.com).
In addition, the SEC maintains an Internet website that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers, including us,
that file electronically with the SEC at http://www.sec.gov.
10
Source: Orbitz Worldwide, In, 10-K/A, August 28, 2008