Expedia Group Using Automation to Drive Digital Business

CASE STUDY Expedia Group Using Automation to Drive Digital Business

www.stonebranch.com MICHAEL BAYHA Senior Systems Engineer, Expedia Group

“Stonebranch’s automation solution has many beneﬁts, but the most important factor in our decision to switch was Global travel technology organization modernizes how dramatically it lowered its automation platform for improved DevOps our support costs. support, self-service business-user enablement The user base can now and real-time application file transfer. manage their requests independently, and this allows our engineers to focus on improvements to our core product and the development of net new features and applications. Stonebranch frees up our skills and time.”

RESULTS Background Challenges

Founded in 1996, Expedia Group is one Expedia Group’s business is built on Greatly reduced total cost of the world’s leading full-service online innovation and speed of deployment. of ownership; internal travel brands, helping travelers easily However, the company’s existing support costs much lower plan and book travel from the widest workload automation system was built selection of vacation packages, flights, on an outdated platform with an outdated Self-managed transition hotels, rental cars, rail, cruises, activities, licensing scheme and a cumbersome, attractions and services. thick client. This was problematic for Automated DevOps developers and end users. They expected lifecycle The company’s global presence includes better self-service capabilities in order to localized websites in 33 countries and deliver business value more quickly. an award-winning mobile app. Expedia Self-service automation Group’s websites include Expedia.com, Deploying and updating the thick client empowers business Hotels.com, CarRentals.com, Hotwire, and making software upgrades was users, cuts time to CheapTickets, Trivago, Venere.com, laborious and a costly drain on Expedia complete tasks by half or Travelocity, Orbitz and HomeAway. Group’s engineering resources. more

If Expedia Group was going to remain More effcient automation a leader in the competitive travel due to robust API technology industry, a smooth transition to a modern automation solution was essential.

Expedia Group decided to replace its with Self-Service burdensome legacy workload automation Expedia Group now has teams from system with a modern, scalable and Finance, Security, Infrastructure, Data secure automation solution. The company Warehouse and customer-facing entities didn’t need to look far for a new system: using Universal Automation Center to Stonebranch’s Universal Automation Center automate their business processes. was already in use by Orbitz, a company Stonebranch helps this diverse group of acquired by Expedia Group in 2015. teams save time and increase productivity.

After intense scrutiny of Orbitz’s use of Michael Bayha says, “The user base can MICHAEL BAYHA Universal Automation Center, Expedia now manage their requests independently, Senior Systems Engineer, Group chose to deploy the Stonebranch and this allows our engineers to focus on Expedia Group platform across its global enterprise. improvements to our core product and the development of net new features and The Stonebranch platform exceeded applications. Stonebranch frees up our “Overall, the Stonebranch Expedia Group’s critical requirements, skills and time.” solution has performed standing out from other solutions for its: exceptionally well and has Overall, tasks require half the effort been well received by our  Ease of use and self-service capabilities compared to previous processes. With the customers.”  No thick client required time saved on operational work, teams are  Extremely robust API, enabling Expedia better able to focus their efforts on the Group to expedite many automation development and deployment of additional and maintenance scenarios tools, platforms and features that enhance ABOUT  Seamless, simple upgrade path Expedia Group’s competitive advantage. STONEBRANCH  Licensing costs that added up to a And onboarding times have been reduced lower total cost of ownership from one week to one day.

There was, however, a deciding factor. Stonebranch builds According to Michael Bayha, Senior Results: Fast and Easy IT orchestration and Systems Engineer, Expedia Group, Deployment, Strong ROI automation solutions “Stonebranch’s automation solution has that transform business many beneﬁts, but the most important Migrating from Expedia Group’s former IT environments from factor in our decision to switch was how workload automation software to simple IT task automation dramatically it lowered our support costs.” Stonebranch’s Universal Automation into sophisticated, real- Center went very smoothly. “We managed time business service 90% of the transition ourselves because automation. No matter the Enabling Developers the technology is so easy to use. The degree of automation, the An additional beneft is that Expedia Group Stonebranch sales and support team Stonebranch platform is now manages the lifecycle of its workload worked with us to ensure the deployment simple, modern, and secure. automation defnitions, using Universal was seamless and successful,” says Automation Center’s bundle and promotion Michael Bayha. “Overall, the solution has Using the Stonebranch tools. Development, testing and production performed exceptionally well and has been Universal Automation deployment of all scheduling changes are well received by our customers.” Platform, enterprises can now managed securely and reliably. seamlessly orchestrate Expedia Group has enjoyed a tremendous workloads and data across Moving data between applications and return on investment from Stonebranch’s technology ecosystems and platforms is a key part of Expedia Group’s modern workload automation platform. silos. Stonebranch serves application workload automation, and And ROI remains strong, thanks to a far some of the world’s largest the built-in managed fle transfer tasks more economical total cost of ownership. fnancial, manufacturing, and agent fle transfer capabilities allow healthcare, travel, integrated automation of fle transfer and transportation, energy, and application workloads. technology institutions.