Travelport Worldwide Ltd provides distribution, technology, and payment solutions for the travel and tourism industry. It is the smallest, by revenue, of the top three global distribution systems (GDS) after Amadeus IT Group and Sabre Corporation .
32-651: The company also provides IT services to airlines, such as shopping, ticketing, and departure control. The company was formed by Cendant in 2001 following its acquisitions of Galileo GDS for $ 2.9 billion and CheapTickets for $ 425 million. In 2004, the company acquired Orbitz for $ 1.25 billion and Flairview Travel for $ 88 million. In 2005, the company acquired eBookers for $ 350 million and Gullivers Travel Associates for $ 1.1 billion. In August 2006, Cendant sold Orbitz and Galileo to The Blackstone Group for $ 4.3 billion, forming Travelport. In August 2007, Travelport acquired Worldspan for $ 1.4 billion. In July 2007,
64-468: A discipline, ITSM has ties and common interests with other IT and general management approaches, information security management and software engineering . Consequently, IT service management frameworks have been influenced by other standards and adopted concepts from them, e.g. CMMI , ISO 9000 , or ISO/IEC 27000 . Various frameworks for ITSM and overlapping disciplines include: There are international, chapter-based professional associations, such as
96-402: A fact easily overlooked and forgotten by designers: leading to features creating low customer satisfaction. In information technology, end users are not customers in the usual sense—they are typically employees of the customer. For example, if a large retail corporation buys a software package for its employees to use, even though the large retail corporation was the customer that purchased
128-421: A focal point for reporting incidents (disruptions or potential disruptions in service availability or quality) and for users making service requests (routine requests for services). ITIL regards a call centre or help desk as similar kinds of tech support which provide only a portion of what a service desk can offer. A service desk has a more broad and user-centered approach which is designed to provide
160-417: A secure system come from the fact that the behaviour of humans is not always rational or predictable. Even in a very-well secured computer system, a malicious individual can telephone a worker and pretend to be a private investigator working for the software company, and ask for the individual's password, a dishonest process called phishing . As well, even with a well-secured system, if a worker decides to put
192-407: A whole set of ITSM processes. At their core is usually a workflow management system for handling incidents, service requests, problems and changes. They usually also include a tool for a configuration management database (CMDB). The ability of these suites to enable easy linking between incident, service request, problem and change records with each other and with records of configuration items from
224-413: Is a person who ultimately uses or is intended to ultimately use a product. The end user stands in contrast to users who support or maintain the product, such as sysops , system administrators , database administrators, information technology (IT) experts, software professionals, and computer technicians. End users typically do not possess the technical understanding or skill of the product designers,
256-486: Is a primary IT function within the discipline of IT service management (ITSM) as defined by ITIL. It is intended to provide a Single Point of Contact (SPOC) to meet the communication needs of both users and IT staff, and also to satisfy both Customer and IT Provider objectives. User refers to the actual user of the service, while customer refers to the entity that is paying for the service. ITSM tools are frequently applied to other aspects of business , this practice
288-590: Is characterized by adopting a process approach towards management , focusing on customer needs and IT services for customers rather than IT systems, and stressing continual improvement . The CIO WaterCooler's 2017 ITSM report states that business uses ITSM "mostly in support of customer experience (35%) and service quality (48%)." Execution of ITSM processes in an organization, especially those processes that are more workflow-driven, can benefit significantly from being supported with specialized software tools. ITSM tools are often marketed as ITSM suites, which support
320-603: Is important for people and organizations to need know that the information and data they are storing, using, or sending over computer networks or storing on computer systems is secure. However, developers of software and hardware are faced with many challenges in developing a system that can be both user friendly , accessible 24/7 on almost any device and be truly secure. Security leaks happen, even to individuals and organizations that have security measures in place to protect their data and information (e.g., firewalls , encryption , strong passwords ). The complexities of creating such
352-453: Is often called enterprise service management (ESM). One of the big pushes in ITSM is automation of mundane tasks, this allows people who perform these tasks to take on more critical tasks, this process called IT process automation . The ITIL approach considers the service desk to be the central point of contact between service providers and users/customers on a day-to-day basis. It is also
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#1732791957726384-571: Is one who can protect and achieve the best security out of the system they use. Because of the importance of end-user security and the impact it can have on organizations the UK government set out a guidance for the public sector, to help civil servants learn how to be more security aware when using government networks and computers. While this is targeted to a certain sector, this type of educational effort can be informative to any type of user. This helps developers meet security norms and end users be aware of
416-500: Is to help the user understand certain aspects of the systems and to provide all the answers in one place. A lot of documentation is available for users to help them understand and properly use a certain product or service. Due to the fact that the information available is usually very vast, inconsistent or ambiguous (e.g., a user manual with hundreds of pages, including guidance on using advanced features), many users suffer from an information overload . Therefore, they become unable to take
448-700: The IT Service Management Forum (itSMF), and HDI . The main goal of these organizations is to foster the exchange of experiences and ideas between users of ITSM frameworks. To this end, national and local itSMF and HDI chapters (LIGs or local interest groups for itSMF) organize conferences and workshops. Some of them also contribute to the translations of ITSM framework documents into their respective languages or publish their own ITSM guides. There are several certifications for service management like ITILv4, TOGAF or COBIT. End-user In product development, an end user (sometimes end-user )
480-473: The 1960s and 1970s, computer users were generally programming experts and computer scientists . However, in the 1980s, and especially in the mid-to-late 1990s and the early 2000s, everyday, regular people began using computer devices and software for personal and work use. IT specialists needed to cope with this trend in various ways. In the 2010s, users now want to have more control over the systems they operate, to solve their own problems, and be able to customize
512-606: The CMDB, can be a great advantage. ITSM tools and processes are commonly referred to as ITIL tools, when in fact they are not the same. More than 100 tools are self-proclaimed ITSM tools - example 'ITSM systems' include FreshService, ServiceNow and Samanage . Software vendors whose ITSM tools fulfill defined functional requirements to support a set of ITIL processes, can obtain official approval, allowing them to use Axelos trademarks and an "ITIL process compliant" logo, under Axelos ' ITIL Software Endorsement scheme. A service desk
544-557: The company acquired Deem from Enterprise Holdings for an undisclosed amount. In 2017, Travelport was the first GDS to be awarded the International Air Transport Association NDC (New Distribution Capability) Level 3 certification as an aggregator of travel content. In 2018, it became the first GDS operator to manage the live booking of flights using the NDC standard. On May 30, 2019, the company
576-538: The company completed the partial corporate spin-off of Orbitz via an initial public offering. In May 2010, the company acquired Sprice.com. In 2011, the company sold Gullivers Travel Associates to Kuoni Travel for $ 720 million. On September 25, 2014, the company became a public company via an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange . In 2015, Travelport acquired Mobile Travel Technologies for €55 million. On March 10, 2023,
608-942: The company to focus on perceived problems instead of focusing on the actual problems of the software. In the 2010s, there is a lot of emphasis on user's security and privacy. With the increasing role that computers are playing in people's lives, people are carrying laptops and smartphones with them and using them for scheduling appointments, making online purchases using credit cards and searching for information. These activities can potentially be observed by companies, governments or individuals, which can lead to breaches of privacy, identity theft , by, blackmailing and other serious concerns. As well, many businesses, ranging from small business startups to huge corporations are using computers and software to design, manufacture, market and sell their products and services, and businesses also use computers and software in their back office processes (e.g., human resources , payroll , etc.). As such, it
640-422: The company's electronic files on a USB drive to take them home to work on them over the weekend (against many companies' policies), and then loses this USB drive, the company's data may be compromised. Therefore, developers need to make systems that are intuitive to the user in order to have information security and system security. Another key step to end user security is informing the people and employees about
672-533: The end user collaborates with and advises the management information system and Information Technology department about his or her needs regarding the system or product. This raises new questions, such as: Who manages each resource?, What is the role of the MIS Department ? and What is the optimal relationship between the end-user and the MIS Department? The concept of end-user first surfaced in
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#1732791957726704-419: The jargon and acronyms it contains. In other cases, the users may find that the manual makes too many assumptions about a user having pre-existing knowledge of computers and software, and thus the directions may skip over these initial steps (from the users' point of view). Thus, frustrated user may report false problems because of their inability to understand the software or computer hardware. This in turn causes
736-402: The late 1980s and has since then raised many debates. One challenge was the goal to give both the user more freedom, by adding advanced features and functions (for more advanced users) and adding more constraints (to prevent a neophyte user from accidentally erasing an entire company's database). This phenomenon appeared as a consequence of consumerization of computer products and software. In
768-698: The programmer-developers and the everyday end users so both parties could maximize the use of the products effectively. A major example of the public's effects on end user's requirements were the public libraries. They have been affected by new technologies in many ways, ranging from the digitalization of their card catalog, the shift to e-books , e-journals , and offering online services. Libraries have had to undergo many changes in order to cope, including training existing librarians in Web 2.0 and database skills, to hiring IT and software experts. The aim of end user documentation (e.g., manuals and guidebooks for products)
800-412: The right course of action. This needs to be kept in mind when developing products and services and the necessary documentation for them. Well-written documentation is needed for a user to reference. Some key aspects of such a documentation are: At times users do not refer to the documentation available to them due to various reasons, ranging from finding the manual too large or due to not understanding
832-411: The risks involved. Reimers and Andersson have conducted a number of studies on end-user security habits and found that the same type of repeated education/training in security best practices can have a marked effect on the perception of compliance with good end-user network security habits, especially concerning malware and ransomware. In end-user license agreements , the end user is distinguished from
864-466: The security threats and what they can do to avoid them or protect themselves and the organization. Clearly underlining, the capabilities and risks makes users more aware and informed whilst they are using the products. Some situations that could put the user at risk are: Even if the security measures in place are strong, the choices the user makes and his/her behavior have a major impact on how secure their information really is. Therefore, an informed user
896-407: The software, the end users are the employees of the company, who will use the software at work. End users are one of the three major factors contributing to the complexity of managing information systems . The end user's position has changed from a position in the 1950s (where end users did not interact with the mainframe ; computer experts programmed and ran the mainframe) to one in the 2010s where
928-431: The systems to suit their needs. The apparent drawbacks were the risk of corruption of the systems and data the users had control of, due to their lack of knowledge on how to properly operate the computer/software at an advanced level. For companies to appeal to the user, it took primary care to accommodate and think of end-users in their new products, software launches, and updates. A partnership needed to be formed between
960-648: The user with an informed single point of contact for all IT requirements. A service desk seeks to facilitate the integration of business processes into the service management infrastructure. In addition to actively monitoring and owning incidents and user questions, and providing the communications channel for other service management disciplines with the user community, a service desk also provides an interface for other activities such as customer change requests, third parties (e.g. maintenance contracts), and software licensing . Computer emergency response teams (CERT) are specifically dedicated computer security incidents. As
992-672: The value-added reseller, who installs the software or the organization that purchases and manages the software. Certain American defense-related products and information require export approval from the United States Government under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations and Export Administration Regulations . In order to obtain a license to export, the exporter must specify both
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1024-515: Was acquired by affiliates of Siris Capital Group and Evergreen Coast Capital, an affiliate of Elliott Management Corporation , for $ 4.4 billion. IT services Information technology service management ( ITSM ) are the activities performed by an organization to design, build, deliver, operate and control IT services offered to customers . Differing from more technology -oriented IT management approaches like network management and IT systems management , IT service management
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