Wingo Partners: A be bolder solution to sell through third parties

Wingo Partners is an application developed by be bolder that takes advantage of the best of the current technological environment to provide a practical, reliable, and effective solution, capable of integrating the existing platforms of different companies to open new sales channels, providing additional business opportunities for the airline.

Who is our client?

Wingo is a Colombian airline, part of Copa Holdings (NYSE: CPA), which began operations in 2016 under the ULCC business model. After a year of operation, its growth stage began, suggesting the need to evolve technologically. This phase was called the era of appropriation of Wingo’s digital assets. be bolder came to support Wingo, especially in highly complex projects and in a scenario of high dependence on reservation system providers.

In 2022, Wingo transported 2.3 million passengers, and by the end of 2023, it is expected to have transported 3 million passengers, being the only airline of its type in Colombia.

Wingo has been our client since 2016, and be bolder has developed the following digital assets for the airline: IBE, MMB, Check-In, APP, and Change of Flight, among others.

What is Wingo Partners?

Being an ultra-low-cost carrier airline, Wingo focuses on direct sales channels. Among these is its web platform, which, among other strategies, uses metasearch engines to receive traffic and increase sales. With Wingo Partners, the airline opens a new sales channel through APIs so that third parties can issue and charge customers directly.

Wingo Partners' general connection scheme

Wingo Partners benefits the airline because, among other things, it responds to the need to meet the growing route offering, providing additional sales channels that do not compete with the current ones. In addition, this solution favors the cross-selling of products and services through online travel agencies (OTAs), such as www.tiquetesbaratos.com, which offer tickets and hotels on the same platform.

What makes Wingo Partners different?

Primarily, Wingo Partners is a flexible solution that is not tied to any particular platform. In other words, it was specially developed to adapt to any online travel agency or third-party distributor.

Secondly, the digital asset was developed to serve as a direct connection between Wingo’s PSS and the online travel agency. This means that there are no intermediate layers facilitating the transit of information.

What is our client’s previous work?

Based on its project plan, our client defines the scope, evolutionary, and minimum viable product, among others. Once this is done, the work team is formed, and resources are assigned. At the end of sprint zero, project documentation related to the context and needs to be resolved is obtained.

This stage lasted around two months and included the participation of our client’s strategic and technical areas. In any case, be bolder‘s technical leaders were invited to accompany the client since their recommendations and appreciation are fundamental to the project’s value chain.

How did the development process begin?

The key in the ideation process was having a clear vision of what was wanted, which does not mean that, in principle, one knew how it would be achieved. It was a team effort between the technical and business areas of the company and be bolder‘s consultancy, which allowed several proofs of concept to be carried out.

Wingo required direct integration between its PSS and third-party platforms via an API. There are some alternatives on the market, but the airline needed its own development that would adjust to the technological ecosystem implemented in the airline and its particular business requirements, which represented a challenge.

And after sprint zero, what happened?

After sprint zero, the user stories created by the Wingo team were prioritized, and once the project was structured, the development process began. At this point, it is good to highlight that the agile practices used by be bolder played a fundamental role, as they made it possible to adjust the product until the results desired by the airline were achieved.

Furthermore, given that Wingo Partners is a solution that seeks to integrate different platforms already implemented, the magic consisted of responding to the technological challenges implied by the business demands of all parties involved. Indeed, the systems of both Wingo and its first strategic partner did not stop functioning normally during the development and implementation of the solution.

Once the stabilization stage was completed, be bolder delivered the application to the service desk area so that it could provide the appropriate technical service and so that, among other things, Wingo would have access to the metrics that would allow it to track the new sales channel. Likewise, be bolder provided the client with all the necessary documentation to manage the application efficiently.

Did the results meet expectations?

Completely! The deployment and implementation of the solution went without a hitch, and the only bugs that eventually showed up in production were “handled bugs.” That is, these errors were caused by incorrect handling of the application. For example, information that was not entered correctly by the user. In that sense, the stabilization stage developed without setbacks.

And what are the steps to follow?

“Lots of integrations,” the Wingo team responds in unison. And so it is because the particular characteristics of the solution allow easy integration with practically any Online Travel Agency platform.

In the current international context, the business possibilities for low-cost airlines are endless, and thanks to be bolder‘s support, Wingo will always be ready to take on all challenges.