<B> TechTalk</B>
By Cheryl Rosen
<B>Taking Out The Auction Guesswork </B>
IBM this month took the Internet travel auction to a new level, with a product that makes it possible for buyers to know in advance exactly which carrier and flight they are bidding on. "The good news is that with the IBM Sell-Off and Auction system you will know the brand, the flight number and the time of the flight on which you are bidding," said Claude Guay, global executive for marketing and business development of IBM's Travel & Transportation Industry Solutions Unit. For the supplier, the system automates the work flow behind deciding which inventory to auction, passing data from the yield management system to product managers and helping "pull in revenue on what was previously considered perishable inventory." The system also can automatically initiate special offers directed to preferred customers. While it has yet to sign a customer, Guay said IBM relied on feedback from major travel suppliers to build the offering, and "is pretty close to signing an airline and a hotel pilot customer."
<A NAME="2"><B>Galileo Unbundles For Carlson Wagonlit</B>
Carlson Wagonlit Travel this month signed its first global GDS contract, a multi-year deal with Galileo International. One Carlson executive said the single global contract is a "one-stop-shop" approach that replaces the traditional country-by-country contracts Carlson has held with all four GDSs, and offers an unbundled structure that allows the agency to opt to use Galileo's terminals and lines or its own. He said the contract is indicative of a larger "strategic partnership," which may involve new technologies, notably for large global call centers.
<A NAME="3"><B>Trip Manager 5.0 Hits The Market</B>
This month marked the official debut of a new version of Worldspan's online booking system, Trip Manager 5.0--the first new release since Worldspan bought the rights to the Trip Manager source code from TTG in August. Among the new features are alternate airport fare search capabilities, hotel maps and driving instructions, and 20 more profile fields for such information as the traveler's cell phone number or cost center. Worldspan also has simplified the process of making changes to reservations, so when travelers change the time or date of their airline flight, the screens for making hotel and car rental reservations are prepopulated with the new information. Vela McClam-Mitchell, staff vice president for e-commerce corporate and consumer markets, said the changes are based on the priorities of Worldspan's customer advisory group, and more are in the works for the next quarterly release. Worldspan currently is seeing 24 percent month-over-month increases in Trip Manager bookings from its 500 corporate customers.
<A NAME="4"><B>Laughlin Moves From Amex To Amadeus</B>
Amadeus has started a new Strategic Relationships organization and hired former American Express vice president Scott Laughlin to head it up. Laughlin said his job is to develop new products for the U.S. market and to build Amadeus' market share here by focusing on the 10 largest travel agencies. While Amadeus is the largest global distribution system in Europe and Latin America, it clearly lags in the United States. Of the nation's 10 largest mega agencies, only three--WorldTravel Partners-BTI Americas, Rosenbluth International and Navigant International--are preferred Amadeus customers. Laughlin acknowledged that the odds of convincing the others to switch entirely to Amadeus are slim. "The issue is not necessarily changing, just increasing their market share," he said, based on Amadeus' global strength and its partnerships with nontraditional players like SAP, whose corporate accounting systems interface with Amadeus' corporate travel booking system.
<A NAME="5"><B>Microsoft to Sell Smart-Card Software </B>
Microsoft Corp. this month will begin selling a Windows operating system for smart cards, chairman Bill Gates announced, and will partner with chipmaker Infineon Technologies AG, a spin-off of Siemens AG, to develop a smart card software-hardware combination. The Microsoft products will adopt the GSM standard for wireless phones, so the cards will be interoperable with new telephone technologies. Mike Dusche, Microsoft's smart card marketing manager, envisioned a scenario in which travelers walk up to a reader in an airport club or hotel room and use a smart card to access Microsoft Office or e-mail.