Atlas Travel last month rolled out a traveler profile system that enables bidirectional synchronization with any global distribution system or other external source. With an eye on marketing the new system to other travel agencies, the Millford, Mass.-based travel management company also built in customer relationship management components.
Part of the Common Knowledge suite of services, the new profiler tool already is in use at most of Atlas' corporate accounts, including those running the Outtask Cliqbook self-booking system. It also was used this month by one of Atlas' newest clients, Boston-based technology publisher IDG, an $8 million account with 1,600 travelers.
"Analyzing profile data, and tying that in to trip histories, was not possible before, in the Atlas world or in any agent world, because you cannot query the global distribution system," said Atlas chief technology officer Rock Blanco. He cited the example of elite status within airline loyalty programs. "It is now a simple query for us to determine who the Gold and Platinum members are of one airline and hand that off to a new airline to provide instant memberships. You could not even think of doing that in the GDS, because you would have to comb through profile after profile."
Upgrade requests for frequent overseas travelers, prompted by pop-ups on the agent desktop, are another example. "It is an opportunity to provide a higher level of management for the traveler and the account, focusing on the preferences of the traveler," Blanco said. Though many customer relationship management benefits are not available at the point of sale in the Cliqbook environment, they are addressed during mid-office quality control.
Blanco said only two vendors offer comparable products: TRX and Trondent. The difference, he said, is the Atlas system is augmented with CRM features and bidirectional—synchronized profiles are accessed by travelers via a Web interface and agents via a GDS.
The multi-GDS profile database also interfaces with XML- and Open Travel Alliance-compliant systems to capture existing profiles and map them within a "data store." Blanco said agency customers "have the ability to structure their map any way they see fit," unlike some existing GDS systems. Corporate accounts also can customize the profile database; IDG, for example, added a three-digit department code to the original data fields.
Atlas built the system "with a service- bureau mentality" in order to market it to other agencies. White Plains, N.Y.-based Portaga, which is working with Atlas on an e-mail-based booking system
(see story), already has licensed the profiling component.