Buyers Debut CWT Symphonie

The early adopters of CWT Symphonie, Carlson Wagonlit Travel's attempt to fully integrate travel management operations, have reported improved service, superior data management and cost efficiencies. CWT Symphonie uses a robotic workflow engine to integrate air, hotel and car booking information from both agent and online processes, and stores it in a single location, eliminating the need to synchronize multiple databases.

Danny Meier, corporate travel manager for Andersen in Chicago, where he is responsible for $150 million in annual air spending, began implementing CWT Symphonie last December in a five-phase process completed by March of 2001. Meier said the implementation accommodated his program's specific features, such as its travel validation process, where travel transactions are approved by verification of employee identification number.

"The key benefit of the CWT Symphonie platform involves integration," Meier said. "Front-office and back-office records are integrated, so we don't need two databases with two sets of traveler profiles. The self-booking tool is integrated with agent booking, which eliminates confusion. Everyone has the same information."

Andersen's Meier said he has spoken with travel managers who have hired extra staffers just to sort out discrepancies between self-booking records and agents' records. With CWT Symphonie's single database, there is no such confusion, he said. "With CWT Symphonie, we have no synchronization issues at all," he said. "This is a key differentiation between Carlson's product and other agencies' offerings."

The concept of centrally storing transactions and profiles also is in development by other travel agencies, sometimes with the help of such technology vendors as Galileo (BTN, July 30).

Norm Rose, president of Travel Tech Consulting Inc. in Belmont, Calif., said that CWT Symphonie represents a trend in the approach now being taken by several agencies. "The idea is to have harmony within the system," he said. "This is accomplished by putting everything in a single database." Ideally, having all the components of a travel management program on one database will increase efficiency, he explained.

Meier also said he appreciated the fact that there is one supplier for all his travel management needs. "If we have a problem, the cause is easy to isolate: it's either Carlson, or us. We don't have to check with other suppliers to see what's going wrong." Meier said Carlson provides the full breadth of technical support for its product and that help is accessible by phone or e-mail. "The response time on help requests is excellent," he added.

Another early adopter, Rick Altman, travel procurement manager at E-Trade, signed on for a three-year contract with CWT Symphonie at the end of last year. Altman, who handles a $6 million annual air budget for the Atlanta-based online financial services company, said it was Carlson's low price, along with the platform's integrated e-booking capabilities and superior data management, that captured his business. "We wanted top-of-the line e-booking," he said. "CWT Symphonie was the only product that operated with a single set of traveler profiles, whether tickets are booked by an agent or the traveler. That was important to me."

Altman has 24 percent compliance for e-booking. "The e-booking tool rocks best for simple itineraries," he said. "People who fly the same routes over and over again are most likely to use the Net to book their own tickets." He said Carlson charges him 35 percent less for online bookings than for agent bookings.

Altman also found value in the simplicity of reporting afforded by the single database. "The record-keeping capabilities are a bonus. From one source, I can pull up data on our entire travel program. The reports come in great detail," he said. "CWT Symphonie's reporting capabilities allow me to discern our marketshare for air tickets, hotel room nights and car rentals. From a procurement perspective, this puts me in a better position to negotiate with suppliers."

Kris Lambrecht, director of product management at Carlson Wagonlit, said that data integration is the defining element of the new platform. "All the components of CWT Symphonie act in concert," he said, adding that unlike offerings from other agencies that use third-party tech developers, the entire CWT Symphonie system was developed in-house by Carlson employees. "In general, CWT Symphonie is a blend of all our human expertise and our technology," Lambrecht said. "It's all our products put together in one environment." Lambrecht explained that profile management, back- office functions, agent services, e-booking, e-reporting, mobile services and meeting registration all are included in the CWT Symphonie package.

"All the components interact together within a single data vault located in Minneapolis," Lambrecht said. No client data leaves the Carlson network until a ticket order is passed to a GDS for fulfillment. "The single network eliminates duplication, allows for great efficiency and provides greater security for our clients," he said. "These are huge issues for our users."

The main controller of the CWT Symphonie system is its robotic workflow engine. "The workflow engine organizes client requests in a deferred task management system according to volume and the specific services required by each client," Lambrecht said. He said CWT Symphonie proved its efficiency during the crisis of Sept. 11. "Our CWT Symphonie clients saw no difference in call service levels during that time," he said. "That's an amazing feat, because the call volume was astronomical. Our workflow engine gets users through very harsh conditions."

CWT Symphonie is priced according to a three-tiered transaction fee schedule, Lambrecht said.

Robin Schleien, president of CWT North America, hopes the new travel management platform will be used for 1 million transactions by year-end. Other clients signed so far include the PricewaterhouseCoopers buying consortium.