DATA MINING

Data mining has many advantages over screen scraping.

1) Screen scraping relies on the target (suppliers web site) not changing the appearance, or the positioning of the relevant information.

2) If a target site changes, then screen scrapers fall over.

3) Screen scraping is much slower (typically 5-10 times slower) than data mining.

4) Screen scraping is slowing being blocked by the target web sites, as it's a slow and error prone method of obtaining data.

5) Data mining's advantage is very rapid deployment to obtain the relevant information.

6) Data mining is less prone to system failure when a target web site changes. For example, a large no-frill target has changed their web site many times in the last two years, and each change has required screen scrapers to re-write their code. Our data miner has NOT been changed for this target since 2005.

7) Data mining is less resource intensive than screen scraping. Typically 3% of the equivelent screen scraper.

8) Data mining is MUCH faster, as the code is written in PERL.

9) PERL was designed from scratch to handle diverse data structures, and runs very fast on Linux PC's.

10) Using Linux servers, we are able to run multiple process's (threads) at the same time, without a noticable slowdown in either bandwidth (100Mb/s) or processor utilization.

API - XML

The TTSS API can be called for 'FLIGHT ONLY', 'ACCOM ONLY' 'DP FLIGHT+ACCOM+PRE-PACKAGE'

FLIGHT ONLY

The TTSS API can be called with 'FLIGHT ONLY' for both 'GENERAL' and 'SPECIFIC' searches. You can search +/- (i.e. 1st May, +/- 3 days) A General search can be as simple as 'LON'-'AGP',01MAY13,7 NIGHTS, 2 PAX and return, in price order, all availability matching LON (LGW/LHR/LCY/SEN/STN/LTN) to AGP.

A Specific search is from a single point to single point, i.e. STN-AGP

ACCOM ONLY

The TTSS API can be called with 'ACCOM ONLY' for both GENERIC and SPECIFIC searches.

A Generic search can be as simple as 'TORREMOLINOS, 3*,HB, 15JUNE13, 4 Nights 2 Adults , 0 Children. You can also search 'COSTA DEL SOL' 1st May 13, 5 nights any board, any star and it will return ALL matching availability, in price order. A Specific search can be drilled down, if required, to a specific hotel, i.e. TORREQUEBRADA, 8th Dec 13, BB, 2 nights 4 adults, 1 child.

'DP FLIGHT+ACCOM+PRE-PACKAGE'

This allows you to search FROM either a specific UK departure point (i.e. BRS) or a grouping (i.e. SCOTLAND) to an overseas airport (i.e. AGP,COSTADELSOL,CANARIES) and it will return, in price order, all matches.

The system allows you to decide which airlines, which bed banks and which pre-package (i.e. TUI and all sub brands, Thomascook and all sub brands, etc) to return.

The system has a configurable 'margin' control system, where you can add either a fixed value (i.e. FR + 40 GBP) or a percentage (i.e. BA +2%)

FLATFILES

TTSS can offer both FLIGHT ONLY (updated every two hours) ACCOM ONLY (updated once per day) and PRE-PACKAGE (SOD once per day, UPD upto 4 times per day)

FLIGHT ONLY FLATFILE

Flight only flatflie can run upto 100M rows, depending on durations/routes/datebands required.

An example of our flight only format is:-

"FR /FR ","30/10/2013","02","BRS","MLA","MLA","BRS","FR 3774","1840","2300","01/11/2013","FR 3775","0640","0915","17276","17276","-","GBP"

"GM /GM ","16/09/2013","10","LHR","BGI","BGI","LHR","**AA6138","0830","2135","26/09/2013","*AA1384","1425","0945","73444","73444","Published","GBP"

"GM/GM","16/09/2013","10","LGW","BGI","BGI","LGW","VS0029","1000","1400","26/09/2013","VS0030","1645","0550","76999","76999","Nett","GBP"

ACCOM ONLY FLATFILE FORMAT

The Accom Only flatfile will run (depending on Season) from 750M - 1.2B rows

An example of our Accom only format is:-

"2013-07-26","14","7509","ME Cancun Hotel","5","Cancun"," "," "," ","16882","1","Deluxe Double Room","Sunset","5089","-1272","0","3817","LCB","2A0C","CUN"

OFFER BUILDER

The TTSS Offer builder combines charter flights,no-frills flights, scheduled flights and Consolidator flights with Bed Bank availability to build Dynamically Packaged Holidays.

Each flight provider and Bed Bank supplier has complete margin control at multiple levels, so you can set margins by supplier, by gateway and even at the Hotel level.

The Holiday builder combines the DP Holidays generated by the TTSS Offer Builder with the pre-package (Traditional Tour Operator's) Holidays to be uploaded to various platforms, such as IceLolly, Teletext , Holiday Discount Centre, etc.

The System allows you complete control on what is build, i.e. you can build the cheapest 10 hotels, 3* Half Board in Torremolinos and the cheapest 5 All Inclusive 5* in Sharm.

You can either ADD a fixed value (i.e. + £ 10) or a percentage (i.e. -3%) to either the flight providers, or the bed banks.

On Pre-Package data, you can select ALL properties, or just the properties you want to advertise.

At the pre-package level, you can select either a fixed value markup (i.e. +25 GBP) or a percentage (i.e. -12%) to the tour operator packages.

We currently hold 85M flight records and in excess of 900M accommodation records on the DP system that can combine the data 'on the fly'.