Buyers Join Hi-Mark, TRX In Data Standards Effort

Corporate buyers from 25 Fortune 100 companies have joined the Data Advisory Board spearheaded by data aggregators Hi-Mark Software of Atlanta and McLean, Va.-based TRX Data Services. The DAB's goal is to establish standards on the data required to negotiate airline deals, which it plans to outline in a white paper to be issued at next month's National Business Travel Association convention.

The white paper--which is being formulated with input from buyers as well as a few mega travel agencies and at least one major airline--is expected to list data elements, including origin, destination, class of service, specified carrier segments, all carriers' segments, specified carrier spend and all carriers' spend.

According to participating buyers speaking on the condition of anonymity, corporations should have the right to provide airlines with only the data they deem necessary to manage negotiations, determine where it is housed and audit it. The DAB is an effort to combat the growing adoption among airlines of the model for data sharing provided by Albuquerque, N.M.-based Prism Group. That model, in which corporations without the clout to negotiate exceptions are required to provide Prism with more booking data than many feel is necessary to do a deal--purportedly so Prism can process data into summary level reports that suit the carriers--earlier this month gained a boost with the addition of Northwest Airlines to Continental and United airlines in Prism's airline customer roster.

"I think Prism is brilliant, and is trying to monopolize this newly created business," said one corporate buyer. "But no one wants to be strong-armed to use a certain supplier. For us to be forced to warehouse data where we don't want it stored is a big thorn, because of data privacy issues and because the level of detail required is unnecessary."

The travel manager said she stopped contracting with one of Prism's airline clients because it was requiring her to provide data to Prism.

"The outcome of this needs to be that corporations can protect their data, which is a proprietary intellectual asset, and that we certainly should have the right to provide only the data necessary to measure the contract," said another buyer, who is a client of Hi-Mark.

According to leaders of Hi-Mark and TRX Data Services, some buyers among the 25 have used their negotiating leverage to get airlines to agree to have Prism take in fewer fields than they originally told clients they require--but the crucial point is that buyers cannot trust airlines or their "second-tier suppliers," as one buyer termed Prism, to fairly negotiate deals.