Airline technology company Accelya has formed a new New Distribution Capability forum in partnership with UK-based corporate travel consultancy Temoji "to give corporate travel buyers a stronger voice in shaping the future of airline retailing and distribution," the companies announced on Wednesday (16 July).?

Dubbed the Business Travel Innovation Group, the forum includes 20 travel buyers from enterprise and mid-market companies. About two-thirds are from North America, with the remainder from Europe, said Temoji founder and group co-lead Paul Tilstone. The total annual travel spend by the group's smallest corporate member is $40 million, so its membership is weighted toward larger corporations.

Each participating buyer either has implemented NDC or attempted to through their value chain but came across challenges. Even unsuccessful NDC implementations "would be useful for the group to understand what they came across and how they tried to overcome them," Tilstone said, adding that about 80 per cent of the group's members have successfully implemented NDC.

These buyers rated the overall difficulty of implementation at 7.1 out of 10 (where 10 indicates high complexity), the companies said, with most (76 per cent) citing coordination ¨C not technology ¨C as the primary barrier to scaling adoption.

The idea for the "BIG" group came when Tilstone discussed with Accelya chief customer success officer Tye Radcliffe the frustration among industry players who wanted to "try and break some of the barriers that were stopping the adoption of NDC accelerating quicker and in line with their needs," Tilstone said.?

When asked how the group would differ from other NDC groups, such as those developed by the International Air Transport Association and Airlines Reporting Corporation, Radcliffe said that they were not looking to replace IATA's Travel Manager Advisory Group, but rather complement it.?

"We're bringing their advice right down to where we're doing the building of the capabilities," Radcliffe said. "We're leveraging those [IATA] standards ¡­ and building these capabilities for these airline customers, taking that advice back up to the customer. ¡­ And we want to foster an open place where it is a safe space for [the buyers] to talk. We are taking the anonymised feedback and bringing it back up to our airline customers to say, 'as we put our roadmaps together, as we do our strategic planning, let's take the advice that these experts are giving us and make sure we're applying it appropriately'."

Accelya and Temoji also published a white paper to accompany the NDC group announcement. It featured participants from Accenture, Salesforce and ZS Associates, as well as seven buyer "must haves": an omni-channel experience, validated savings and transparent pricing, seamless servicing, buyer-controlled economics, seamless payment and settlement, personalisation not bundling, and support for sustainability goals.

In addition, insights from the group will "help shape a new industry-wide effort" set to launch at the Global Business Travel Association's annual convention next week in Denver, according to Accelya. The initiative will focus on "closing implementation gaps, improving coordination between stakeholders, and making it easier for airlines, sellers and buyers to scale NDC adoption with confidence."