BR - API

4 axway.com Two deciding factors: Axway value and local support For the ambitious system development plan, The Star Entertainment Group needed a reliable and powerful API solution. "We reviewed the providers out there and found most were far too costly," said Laurent Fresnel, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of The Star Entertainment Group. "Axway's solution gave us quality, but also value for our money." Axway's solution roadmap was also an important consideration for the company. "We wanted to make sure we had a partner that would follow us and deliver new functionalities as we needed them," said Fresnel. Another decided advantage was Axway's technical support at the local level. "In Australia, it's a major challenge to find people with the requisite skill sets," said Fresnel. "So, even if price and quality of other solutions had been equivalent, I would still have selected Axway because of its commitment to Australia and its technical people on the ground here." Design of the Axway solution began in parallel with the development and deployment of new front and back ends systems in late 2014. By November 2015, the first API went live delivering content from a modernized CMS to the new website. "Throughout, Axway was at our side to help and guide and train us," said Fresnel. "Over time, Axway transitioned from an operational role to a consultant, and now is doing knowledge transfer. We've taken ownership of the solution." Jumps in hotel bookings and market share The Star Entertainment Group has put more than 25 APIs into production since the launch of the Axway solution. A top priority from the onset was to boost company share of the hotel reservation market using their new API-enabled websites and mobile app. That positive result came quickly. Hotel aggregators once controlled the lions' share of hotel bookings for The Star Entertainment properties. "Our ongoing challenge is to balance room bookings to our own channels while also leveraging the power of other hotel room aggregators. Clearly our profitability improves where we incur lower commissions and secure bookings via our own channels. Our business case showed that if we increased our direct bookings by 10%, we'd have an ROI on the Axway solution in less than six months." It paid off quicker than predicted. "We had a full ROI in four months," said Fresnel. "For us, the API layer is an enabler to generate revenue. We designed our new websites to be responsive and we noticed that 33% of bookings were handled entirely on a mobile device." "We had a full ROI on the Axway solution in four months. For us, the API layer is an enabler to generate revenue."

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