<H1>Sabre Sets Fees For BTS</H1><H2>Customers want intranet product</H2><H3>By Cheryl Rosen</H3><I>Dallas - </I>As Sabre Travel Information Network's Business Travel Solutions nears its September release date, the company has firmed up several details about the product, including fees and a plan to use third-party technology for the software.
The most important decision on the list is the long-awaited pricing model. Users will pay a flat fee for every trip booked on the system, according to BTS vice president and general manager Sam Gilliland. While there is still "a bit more validation to do," Gilliland said he expects to release a sliding scale of prices based on volume, from about $7.50 per trip down to about $4 for large companies.
A trip will be defined as a full PNR, including an airline, a hotel and a car reservation. A set number of cancellations and rebookings will be allowed on each reservation without charge, although the exact number has not yet been determined.
Also noteworthy is Sabre's decision to avoid reinventing the wheel-and no doubt, to speed delivery of a working system-by using existing third-party software for the system's travel management reporting and expense reporting modules. Sabre plans "to have a number of offerings on the shelf that are tightly integrated" and packaged together with Sabre's home-grown booking module, Gilliland said. Sabre is building the booking system itself, and buying the management reporting and expense reporting modules. Gilliland said the choice of partners will be made in 30 to 60 days-in time for the National Business Travel Association annual conference in August, where the system will be on display.
Sabre has decided to partner with an as-yet-unnamed Big Six accounting firm to provide system integration and process reengineering expertise for customers, and to provide an intranet module for corporations that want to make a booking system accessible to travelers over the World Wide Web. The intranet module, which uses the working name Laredo, will allow travelers to call up an identical-looking front end from whatever type of computer they have-PC or Mac, UNIX or even mainframe-over the Internet. "Forty percent of our customers have expressed interest in an intranet solution," Gilliland said.
These changes in the marketing plan come as the result of extensive business process reengineering studies conducted for Sabre by several of the Big Six accounting firms. Preliminary returns show corporations that automate their travel booking and reporting processes can decrease their costs by 50 to 60 percent, Gilliland said.
The decision to go with transaction fees instead of monthly charges comes with the goal of getting the new technology deployed to as many users, with as little complication, as possible. Gilliland said that a flat monthly fee (which Carlson is using for its ActOne product) could cause corporations to restrict use of the system to their most frequent travelers, who will deliver the best return on the investment. But with a transaction fee, companies "get the same value whether they book one or 20 trips a year," he said.
BTS is in "early adopter testing" with three corporations; two more are scheduled to come aboard at the end of the month. Beta testing at four additional sites is scheduled to run from July to September.