BTI Taps BTS Online System

BTI Americas and its technology partner Electronic Data Systems last week united in a formal agreement with Sabre Travel Information Network under which EDS will integrate Sabre's Business Travel Solutions suite of automated products into BTI's Portico and Mantis systems.

Even at a time when partnerships are rapidly becoming the standard way to do business in the industry (<I>BTN</I>, July 29, 1996), the new travel technology triad is one of huge dimension.

Under the terms of the agreement, BTI will replace the existing online booking piece of its Portico system with the BTS product, and will help Sabre market the BTS product to its corporate base. BTI clients last year booked about $4 billion worth of travel.

EDS, which has a 10-year contract to provide technology and system integration services to BTI, already is at work developing seamless connections between the BTS system and Mantis, the new BTI internal computer architecture now being deployed nationwide. EDS also will be available to integrate the system with the internal computer networks of customers who decide to use Sabre's product.

With the deal having been in the works for some time, EDS already has gotten a head start in the integration of the two systems--a process helped along by the open architectures upon which both are based. A swift rollout is planned; internal training of BTI staff begins this week, one customer already is on board, and two more corporate accounts are expected to begin beta testing the integrated system before the end of March.

While the BTS product will be available at first only to North American customers, the long-term vision is to eventually offer it to all customers of the global Business Travel International agency group.

All parties declined comment on any financial details of the contract. BTI marketing vice president Pat Stack said that the agency will set pricing for the BTS system when it is purchased through BTI, although the price has yet to be determined.

BTS vice president and general manager Sam Gilliland said that the partnership is "a continuation of Sabre's strategy to distribute BTS through leading travel management companies," but also noted that the open architectures of BTS and Mantis made the integration of the products a natural fit.

Sabre already has about 15 corporate customers in various stages of implementation of BTS, Gilliland said, including a mix of installations "from the complex to simple dial-up connections to our service bureau," and "a number of deals that are about to close." He declined to cite volume figures.

For customers, the agreement allows the agency to offer an easy-to-use interface for travelers who prefer online self-service bookings, as well as the traditional agency-supported services for those not yet ready for technology, Stack said. On the corporate level, bookings made in either format will access the identical traveler and corporate databases for profiles, policy and preferred vendors, and will be merged in pre-trip and post-trip travel management reports. In either case, the Mantis system's "real-time optimization model" will take into account public and corporate fares and the threshholds needed to meet vendor agreements in suggesting choices to the traveler or the agent.

While acknowledging that "the largest portion of our volume is already on Sabre," Stack emphasized that individual corporations will be free to use air and CRS vendors of their choice with the system.

But Gary West, BTI's new vice president of global information technology, noted that the agency chose a partner only after "an extensive search for the strongest product in the market," and opted for Sabre "because of its long history of technology advances in travel management and reservation products, and its equally long history of success." BTS will be "by far our preferred self-service reservation product, and we feel customers will miss out on the real benefits of our Mantis architecture without the Sabre front-end piece."

In the long and complicated travel technology sales process, Sabre surely will benefit from the sales and marketing help of BTI account managers--whose formal titles of "relationship managers" are indicative of closer and longer-term ties with the corporate market than the CRS can claim. West, a former executive at Houston-based travel technology developer Lifeco Services Corp. who joined BTI in January, noted that a successful rollout of new technologies is a process that cannot be rushed.

"You have to understand the culture of each individual company, and early success is critical," he advised. "Word of mouth is the best way to build momentum, so for travel managers rolling out online booking systems, the best place to start is with heavy travelers who already use laptops."

Asked if BTI will offer customers a voice technology interface like the one being developed by Via World Network (see Front Page story), West said, "voice is certainly on the radar screen. But I have no other comment at this time.