CO Demos Reporting Tool Amid Data Privacy Concerns

<B>CO Demos Reporting Tool Amid Data Privacy Concerns</B>

By David Jonas

<I>Tampa, Fla. - </I>As the ongoing controversy surrounding data privacy engulfed its Corporate Insight system, Continental Airlines unveiled at the Association of Corporate Travel Executives conference here last month new online reporting capabilities of the system that will give buyers faster and more complete information about unused tickets and market share performance.

Corporate Insight reporting features--which include contract term and customer savings analyses, as well as unused ticket reconciliation, available online and refreshed monthly--will be available to 850 accounts by autumn. Six of Continental's corporate accounts have been beta testing the system and 300 Continental account managers and related personnel are certifying each contract in preparation for the rollout.

The contract term analysis shows if an account has fulfilled its requirements in the measured term, broken out by market and cabin. Continental said such timely performance reporting means corporate accounts proactively can adjust carrier usage and traffic patterns to meet contract goals.

Meanwhile, the customer savings analysis details corporate expenditures for each market by class of service. "This section of the report shows how much was saved by using the Continental discount, assuming the company took the discounted fare whenever they could," explained Mike Gorman, the carrier's senior director of sales programs and MIS. A future enhancement to the system will show when and where the discounted fares actually were used.

The savings analysis also helps Continental determine where corporate accounts are opting for other carriers. "This can show, market by market, where we may need to lower our prices," said Christine Cheek, Continental senior development manager for sales information development.

Other elements include a contract opportunity analysis detailing a corporation's travel patterns in markets not currently covered by a Continental contract. This type of analysis could help expand a contract and possibly identify opportunities for joint alliance deals with Northwest Airlines.

Also, the matching of flown revenue enables buyers to pinpoint unused tickets and convert them into refunds and exchanges. Albuquerque, N.M.-based Prism Group, which serves as the third-party data aggregator on the front end of Corporate Insight (BTN, Aug. 14, 2000) and developed the back-end reporting capabilities, said as much as 30 percent of a company's business is refunds.

Continental will send monthly e-mails to its corporate clients, notifying them that their newest data is available online. The entire process of collecting the data and formulating reports for buyer review will take around two months, significantly faster than current data availability, sometimes dated by six months.

Meanwhile, 150 of Continental's clients, concerned about data security, recently signed new agreements with Prism. Nevertheless, other buyers still have serious reservations about using the system (see story, page 1).

For its part, British Airways has been working with Prism for several years but only uses the market reporting module. "Reduced operating costs creates a better environment in which to work with corporations," said Bob Brunner, the carrier's manager of business travel development. "We just need to know enough to achieve contractual obligations. All we are trying to do is to monitor a deal."

Meanwhile, Roswell, Ga.-based Hi-Mark and other third parties are working on monitoring corporate commitments throughout airline contracts.

Corporate Insight complements Continental's internally developed Sales Insight system used by 1,000 Continental employees. Northwest has licensed Sales Insight and renamed it SalesNet. Though it does not yet use Prism's piece, Northwest remains very interested. "We like the Prism aspect a lot, it is measuring the right things," said Fay Beauchine, the carrier's vice president of sales and customer service, who is putting the several million-dollar cost of Corporate Insight in next year's budget.

Continental said other carriers are interested in licensing the system, but in a report circulated at the ACTE conference, said, "The big three carriers only raise objections to Corporate Insight because they are a step behind in the technology department."

In response, Delta Air Lines senior vice president of sales and distribution Lee Macenczak told BTN that the carrier already has such functionality.

"We have been working with our corporations on an individual basis to disclose that flown data back to them. It is full disclosure on our part, done on a one-to-one basis, but not on a regular basis," Macenczak said. "For example, we would respond when a corporation asks about refunds or unused tickets.