Distributed Booking: Bringing in Outsourcing Opportunities?
Previously, I had a blog about the release of Skype Prime Beta and its potential as a BPO enabler. Now, Techcrunch has an article covering other developments in the distributed booking space (with other players)..
Real world services become much more efficient when paired with Internet-based search and booking platforms. Today, event venues, hotels, airlines, restaurants and other businesses can build their own booking applications with software from various vendors. And OpenTable has done a good job creating a bookings portal for restaurants. Skype Prime and Ether are two good services that let phone-based vendors book, charge and perform their services online.
But no one has created a distributed bookings platform that can easily be plugged into individual businesses’ websites (without any programming knowledge), as well as yellow page and other local business sites. Once this platform exists, consumers will have a much easier way of booking everyday services (think tennis lessons, dentist appointments, hairdresser appointments, massages, cooking course, etc.). The potential market is millions of daily transactions.
I like the term “distributed booking” better than others like “booking 2.0″, “outsourcing 2.0″ or “retailing 2.0″. How can this potentially affect world trade in general? With the emergence of more players, this can definitely help make the world economy more integrated. However, before this can become mainstream, secure money moving systems must also be fixed and go mainstream. Right now, Skype Prime is not an option for Philippine merchants because of the inability of Paypal to enable Philippine account holders from receiving money. Maybe other players in this space can take this limitation into consideration.
