Orbitz 2013 Annual Report Download - page 8

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8
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. We also have the ability to connect to and book
air travel directly on certain airlines’ internal reservation systems through our supplier link technology. Our 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 allows them 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 also developed and implemented our global technology platform that
supports our global consumer brands.
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 have an internally-developed fraud prevention system that we believe enables 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.
We have dedicated marketing teams that focus on generating leads and building relationships with corporate travel
managers and potential private label partners. Our Orbitz for Business sales team includes experienced corporate travel
managers who are qualified to assist organizations in choosing between the variety of corporate booking products that we offer.
Intellectual Property
We regard our technology and other intellectual property, including our brands, as a critical part of our business. We
protect our intellectual property rights through a combination of copyright, trademark and patent laws and trade secret and
confidentiality procedures. We have a number of trademarks, service marks and trade names that are registered or for which we
have pending registration applications or common law rights. We currently hold numerous issued United States patents and
pending United States patent applications. We file additional patent applications on new inventions, as appropriate.
Despite these efforts and precautions, we cannot be certain that any of these patent applications will result in issued
patents, or that we will receive any effective protection from competition from any trademarks and issued patents. It may be
possible for a third party to copy or otherwise obtain and use our trade secrets or our intellectual property without authorization.