SMART, Scandinavian Multi Access Reservations for Travel Agents, is a computerized system for ticket reservation.
History
It was created in 1979
by
SAS
SAS or Sas may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''SAS'' (novel series), a French book series by Gérard de Villiers
* ''Shimmer and Shine'', an American animated children's television series
* Southern All Stars, a Japanese rock ba ...
,
Braathens and
Swedish State Railways. Many travel companies had computerized their systems at the time, and provided terminal interfaces for travel agencies. Each had their own system, often involving widely different codes and procedures. It was cumbersome and expensive for a
travel agency to have multiple terminals, each one connected to a different provider. SMART solved this, by providing a single interface over the public data network
Datex.
It worked by having a Host Interface Processor (HIP) at each travel company. These would emulate a number of terminals, translate the messages, codes and addresses, wrap them in SMARTs own
communications protocol
A communication protocol is a system of rules that allows two or more entities of a communications system to transmit information via any kind of variation of a physical quantity. The protocol defines the rules, syntax, semantics and synchr ...
, and provide the interface over
Datex to the various travel agencies. There was, of course, functionality to limit access.
On the travel agency side, there would be SMART Terminal Equipment (STE) with the reverse function, emulating a server and providing interfaces for terminals. Now however, a travel agent could easily switch between screens for the different companies. The interfaces were similar to those for direct connections, but provided some standardization for codes to ease the transition between the systems.
The STE would also allow printing of documents, tickets, bills and similar, as well as interfacing with the accounting system.
SMART could utilize some of
Datex extra features like queuing and group numbers, and a logical connection (session) was not dependent on the physical connection (which could go up and down for instance during idle times to save money). Parallel sessions could be held with different or the same provider.
SMART spawned off into a company centered in
Stockholm
Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...
in 1984, SMART AB, with the subsidiaries SMART Sverige AB, SMART Danmark A/S, and SMART Norge AS (in Sweden, Denmark and Norway respectively).
SMART is still in use, though not over Datex. It has been widely replaced by
Amadeus
Amadeus may refer to:
*Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791), prolific and influential composer of classical music
*Amadeus (name), a given name and people with the name
* ''Amadeus'' (play), 1979 stage play by Peter Shaffer
* ''Amadeus'' (film), ...
, by the same company. In 2003, SMART AB changed its name to
Amadeus Scandinavia.
See also
*
Travel technology
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scandinavian Multi Access Reservations For Travel Agents
Scandinavia
Travel technology