Amadeus Debuts Corp. Bookings, MIS

<B> Amadeus Debuts Corp. Bookings, MIS</B>

By Amon Cohen

<I>Madrid</I> - Amadeus Global Travel Distribution has launched Amadeus Corporate World, its self-booking and management information system for corporate travelers. It went on sale in Europe earlier this month, but U.S. travel managers will have to wait until mid-June to get their hands on the product.

Amadeus Corporate World has a self-service reservations module called Corporate Traveller and a reporting module named World Zoom (known in its test stage as Corporate Zoom). Corporate Traveller is available in all Amadeus European territories in 15 different languages. First shown to travel managers at the International Business Travel Association conference in May 1997, World Zoom originally was scheduled for release by the end of that year. It now is available in Scandinavia and Germany, and will roll out elsewhere in Europe as customers request it.

The European launch of Corporate Traveller is known as Version 1, while the United States will be treated to what has been labeled Version 1.5, including adaptations for the U.S. market, such as private fare structures that are not found in Europe. Innovations not in Version 1 include a more creative fare-search engine, suggesting a range of fares, departure times and airlines. If, for instance, bookers request travel on a Wednesday, the system might alert them that they can save money by delaying departure to an alternative flight on a Thursday.

Corporate Traveller will be competing for global corporations in the U.S. market against Internet Travel Network, which has had a partnership agreement with Amadeus since 1997, when the computer reservations system was known domestically as System One. That partnership comes up for review at the end of 1999, but Amadeus sources hinted that they would like to maintain the relationship with ITN.

A third global online booking option will arrive at an as-yet-unspecified date, when the Amadeus booking system for SAP R/3 users finally is unveiled. Amadeus corporate travel planning manager Laurent Chartier said six multinational clients are piloting the SAP collaboration on both sides of the Atlantic.

Version 1 of Corporate Traveller has been tested by 14 corporations in Europe, producing a number of refinements, including a more flexible application of travel policy to bookings. Prototypes of the product only allowed a company direct bookings to the same preferred suppliers across all destinations. Version 1 allows a different policy to be set for each destination.

Many of these destinations will be found in a feature called QuickTrip. Amadeus discovered that each pilot client made more than 80 percent of its trips to fewer than 20 key destinations. Using QuickTrip, travel managers can define their major city pairs and build predefined itineraries, which the traveler can call up to make a rapid reservation. Once a seat is booked, QuickTrip can select policy-compliant hotels and rental cars, if required.

Another improvement has been in the integration capability of the product. Amadeus claims Corporate Traveller now offers a built-in interface that allows automated data exchange with travel order and approval workflow applications. Similarly, the interface with World Zoom can be used to interact with other travel and expense reporting databases.

Chartier said customer feedback made Amadeus realize that its corporate products had to be capable of working within end-to-end automated travel systems and other non-travel company systems, which is the essence of the collaboration with SAP.

"Corporates are seeing this as an opportunity to reengineer their whole travel process," Chartier said. "We have therefore built in interfaces that allow our system to integrate with their existing workflow and intranet applications. They see travel as just another icon on the employee desktop and they want it to look the same as all the other icons. Integration was a very important requirement. It is something we have piloted and it works very well."

Amadeus also has worked on the ability to customize Corporate Traveller and claims that it now is easy to alter details such as logos and screen layout. Multinational clients will be able to decide whether they want a different site, with its own layout and language, for each country, or a single site that can reach all travelers internationally via its intranet or Lotus Notes.

To enhance local service, Amadeus also has started to add local products, such as the Swedish railway system. It intends to add more in a Version 2, which will have a year-end 1999 release. Version 2 also will feature the ability to implement multiple policies within an organization and information content for travelers, such as destination data.

To date, Amadeus has not confirmed any corporate customers, but it has given broad hints that early signatories on the dotted line can expect favorable terms. Corporate clients will not pay Amadeus directly. As a self-declared ally of the travel trade, Amadeus will sell only through agents, with a fee structure provisionally based on a one-time installation fee plus a license fee per user profile. Whether and how the agent is compensated by the client will be a matter of negotiation on a case-by-case basis.