Forward thinking is in the DNA of stglobe!

stglobe CTO, Hercules Koppas talks about its team’s achievements, the challenges and how stglobe succeeds in staying at the frontline of tech innovation.

1. What does innovation mean for the stglobe R&D team?

Tech innovation is a core value and permanent key objective for us at stglobe. But not just for the sake of it! We want to always pioneer so that we can enable growth in the travel industry. We constantly strive to be at the forefront of technological developments and software innovation with our clients’ and partners’ business objectives in mind. We move forward by answering questions like: “How can we better support our clients and partners?” “How can we enable our clients and partners’ business growth?” “How can we accelerate that growth?”

2. How does stglobe manage to stay at the forefront of technology and innovation?

Forward-thinking is in the DNA of stglobe. Our R&D department consists of a team of experts who constantly experiment with new technology in order to find innovative solutions for our clients and partners. In order to cultivate such a culture of innovation, we always need to ensure that team members stay informed about the latest technological novelties in a global as well as sector level and that they can bring that knowledge and expertise back to the team. It is also my priority to attract new talent so that the stglobe team keeps growing in order to create new ideas, solutions, and ways of thinking.

By continuously challenging what we know, we succeed in always providing an excellent experience to travel agents and hoteliers around the world.

3. What are your priorities as the stglobe CTO?

As the stglobe CTO, my priorities are to:
Lead the R&D team to deliver excellent results for our clients and partners.
Stay always at the front line of the travel industry developments.
Be part of the evolutionary process that is triggered by new technologies.
Inspire the stglobe team to always challenge themselves and always seek for innovative solutions.

4. How do you deal with the unexpected?

The possibilities of technology are infinite and that is really fascinating! However, what comes with that is many perils. To deal with those, my motto is always ‘be prepared’. That means in-depth knowledge, the right tools in hand and thoroughly tested DR Plans.

5. What are the biggest achievements of the stglobe tech team?

Our hardworking team rarely talks about its achievements as we always have our eyes and minds to the next one but this question is a great opportunity, also for me personally, to look back to some of our biggest accomplishments as a team. Some of those are:
Developing a vertical, tailor-made system following the company’s demands while keeping productivity at its highest.
Building a core system connecting different parts of stglobe, from our back office to our clients’ interfaces, that extends around the world through various subsystems and connectivity modules. We are one of the first wholesalers that developed an API allowing our clients to intergrade our product directly into their systems. Keeping all software development in-house giving us flexibility and the ability to easily respond successfully to any new challenge.

6. What are you passionate about?

Technology has tremendously influenced the way people experience travel and it is compelling how quickly this change has taken place.

I am really passionate about discovering how technology will continue to shape the global travel industry as well as the new opportunities this offers.

Hercules Koppas is the Chief Technology Officer at stglobe.