GDSs Catching Up On Mtgs.: Galileo, Worldspan Crafting E-Mgmt. Tools

The relatively sudden embrace of online meetings management tools by corporate travel booking systems continues, as Galileo International and Worldspan each prepare solutions for the marketplace. Though details are sketchy about the impending solutions, both companies plan to jump into what quickly has become a crowded field.

One notable exception to the trend is Waltham, Mass.-based E-Travel. The company has decided not to pursue further meetings management development, either in-house or through a partnership, focusing instead on improving client usage of its transient travel tools.

Galileo, which last year bought Highwire and its booking system, has entered into a partnership with online attendee management company SeeUthere Technologies to allow online air booking through Highwire at the point of registration through SeeUthere.

SeeUthere has partnered with two other online booking systems, owned by TRX Inc. and KDS, over the past six months to offer similar functionality.

"With our partnership with SeeUthere, we are extending the capability of Highwire to help corporations take control of meeting-related travel and meeting spend overall," said Highwire CEO Marka Jenkins.

Worldspan said it intends to develop a meetings management solution by year-end, possibly one developed in-house. "Worldspan has decided to move forward with the meeting planning enhancement based on feedback we have received in the marketplace," said Worldspan spokesperson Lisa Kwon-Brooks. "It's evident from our customers that they need an integrated solution when planning meetings and would like to incorporate the online booking process with the meeting planning process."

The rush to develop or partner meetings management and registration solutions that can interface directly with air booking tools dates back to last summer, when GetThere integrated that functionality with its DirectMeetings subsidiary. Since then, in addition to TRX and KDS, Outtask announced a partnership with StarCite Inc. and Cardinal Communications' RegWeb tool to offer similar tools.

"This is a logical extension of the self-booking platform," said Norm Rose, president of Travel Tech Consulting in Belmont, Calif. "Integrating the registration and booking processes makes perfect sense."

The moves beg the question of whether the trend is being driven by actual corporate buyer demand or whether the technology companies simply are trying to keep pace with each other. Rose believes both are happening. "That's hard to differentiate," Rose said. "This is becoming a checklist item on requests for proposals, so it is going to drive competition among vendors. All of this owes a lot to GetThere's purchase of DirectMeetings. It drove the market. Now more buyers are looking at meetings as a separate thing."

Microsoft Corp., which was one of Highwire's largest Travelport customers at the time of the Galileo purchase last August, expressed an interest in the tools the partnership between Galileo and SeeUthere could provide.

"It is absolutely part of our strategy to use the online Travelport site with an integrated meetings solution," said Rich Case, Microsoft corporate travel and corporate card program manager. "We see attendees traveling to meetings as a population that the online tool can support."

Case said better tracking and identification of transient and meeting travel for Microsoft's corporate travel department is a key attraction. "We think the online tool already captures a lot of meeting travel, but we want to make sure," Case said. "Plus, we like the thought of automatic integration between registration and booking, instead of telling attendees to just go to the site to book after registration."

Kevin Killeen, director of employee travel for Detroit-based General Motors and a client of Worldspan's TripManager, favored the concept of further integration between meetings management and online booking.

"It would be useful to have," Killeen said, "but there are other solutions out there."

One company that will sit out this trend, for now, is E-Travel, said senior director of marketing Rob Wald. E-Travel has had a partnership with StarCite for two years that serves predominately as a marketing alliance, with each company promoting the others' wares to their clients.

Nevertheless, some insiders were surprised that StarCite aligned itself with Outtask's relatively new Cliqbook booking system (Meetings Today, April 22) and not E-Travel.

"E-Travel and StarCite have worked very closely together over the past two years on a number of initiatives designed to foster our mutual success," Wald said. "The marketplace has changed somewhat since we first partnered with StarCite, and it is very clear to us that our focus should be delivery of ROI through higher utilization by our global customer base.

"To a certain extent, we believe the industry has gotten a bit ahead of itself here," Wald continued. "For the most part, integration with Internet meetings management technology really becomes more meaningful when utilization rates reach certain levels. As industry booking rates increase, we fully expect to be working more closely with StarCite, as we continue to believe in the strength of their solution."