Browser-Based Booking Booms

<B> Browser-Based Booking Booms</B>

By Mary Ann McNulty

The movement toward browser-based booking products for travelers and travel agencies continues at a rapid pace, with several announcements by software developers and CRSs.

Paris-based Klee Data Systems is bringing its Wave 2000 corporate online booking tool to the North American market--four years after its European introduction. The company made its North American debut at BTN's Travel Technology World last month and has scheduled its first U.S. installation for early 1999.

Designed for multinational companies, Wave 2000 is a browser-based booking system that accesses schedules and published and negotiated fares simultaneously. Where some online booking systems on the market today gather and display fares and availability separately, KDS's uses parallel processing to perform this task without sacrificing speed, said CEO Moncef Khanfir.

The product consists of four modules for use by different travel segments: travel requester, manager, supervisor and agent. Corporations can set their travel policy in the system to enforce class of service, vendor selection, cost-center numbers and approvals. Multi-leg itineraries are easy to enter into the system and travelers can select which currency they want to display prices. The requester and supervisor components work with any Web browser or run on Windows 95, 98 or NT clients. The other two components run only on Windows.

Wave 2000 already is being used by several corporations and some travel agencies. Carlson Wagonlit Travel, for example, is using Wave 2000 as part of its online booking offering. Khanfir noted that the product is scalable and can be deployed to small or medium-sized companies.

In developing the product, Khanfir, who holds a doctorate in computer science and had developed products for travel agencies before, made sure the product could access multiple CRSs from anywhere in the world.

KDS also offers software that allows airlines to detect distribution discrepancies among their own products, and between theirs and those of competitors displayed through the CRS. A similar product is available for car and hotel vendors. In addition, the company sells an electronic trade product and middle ware to help technology integrators develop applications that access the CRS.

Khanfir declined to disclose pricing, but said it is based on a flat cost per profile that is competitive with other systems available in the United States. KDS also is developing relationships with existing expense vendors to integrate their products.

For agencies, Book It! Pro from Web Ventures and FocalpointNet from Galileo International offer access to CRSs via the Internet instead of dial-up or dedicated lines. Agents or agencies would still need to pay their CRS vendor to access the database, but Book It! Pro hosts the terminal addresses, said Jim Vecchione, executive sales and marketing vice president of Web Ventures, which is based in Marietta, Ga.

Initially launched two years ago on Worldspan, the latest version of Book It! Pro operates on all four CRSs and allows users to book air, car and hotel. The system also includes a private database that allows agents to store, search and retrieve client information. The interface looks the same, no matter which CRS is providing reservation and availability displays. "The inputs are user friendly; the outputs are still cryptic," Vecchione said.

Both Worldspan and Amadeus have licensed the product to provide their agency customers with an alternative to their dial-up products, Vecchione said. The company is finding great demand for this product in countries with high-cost and/or poor telecommunications infrastructure, such as Africa, China, Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

Besides booking, the product allows agents to print documents and tickets.

The latest version of Focalpoint allows users to access either Apollo or Galileo via the Internet, with full access to Viewpoint, Galileo's graphical user interface. To use the offering, agencies must have an account with an Internet service provider and load part of the Focalpoint Net software onto their hard drives. The product is in final testing, with full deployment slated for year-end.

Like Web Ventures, Galileo is seeing much interest from travel management companies in countries with high costs, particularly Latin and South America, said Mike Montemurro, vice president of Galileo agency product marketing in Rosemont, Ill.

Meanwhile, Galileo and Worldspan separately announced other initiatives to allow users to access their systems via the Web. Galileo announced a new Web-based booking product called Galileo Passport that it will offer to suppliers in early 1999. Galileo Passport allows users to book travel over air, car and hotel suppliers' Websites, and seamlessly transfers the user to Apollo or Galileo for availability and booking. It offers full inventory, but also allows vendors to preference the display or limit the content shown to promote their brand or that of their partners, said Michael Foliot, senior vice president of global vendor marketing.

Worldspan last month began offering worldwide e-mail, fax and dedicated Internet access capabilities to more than 1,200 agency customers as it completed the second major phase of development of its Worldspan Go! Internet/intranet platform.

"The introduction of phase two capabilities essentially allows Worldspan to be an Internet service provider, which is the bedrock of the Worldspan Go! platform," said vice president of distributed planning and development Jeff Hoffman.