Asian Agency Integrates GDSs

<B> Asian Agency Integrates GDSs</B>

By Joyce Wong

Swire Travel in Hong Kong has become the first travel agency in Asia to install the integrated Travel Agency System, enabling the integration of disparate global distribution systems into one central system.

The move is expected to cut corporations' T&E costs "by capturing their travel spend accurately and efficiently, and providing them with information for the best way to do travel purchase," said Swire managing director Robert Yih.

Swire Travel's manager of system and business development Kenny Chien said, "The unique feature of this product is that it has multiple GDSs. Travel agents need to be able to use more than one GDS as the information on each is different. But until now, we did not have a system that could integrate and process all the information."

Travel Agency System also gives Swire the ability to produce more meaningful MIS reports. "When we need the information for bargaining with the supplier, we have all the transactions that we have made on behalf of the client, and that information is analyzed and summarized for us," he said.

Swire Travel managing director Robert Yih said, "It helps us to work at the highest possible degree of accuracy, which is a key criteria that clients judge us by. And we help our clients save money by capturing their travel spend accurately and efficiently, and providing them with information for the best way to do travel purchase."

Swire is hoping to have the system fully operational by April, after which it will undergo a trial run.

Travel Agency System, which can be customized for each travel agency, was developed by General Multi-Wits, IBM and Oracle.