CWT Buys Into KDS For Wave
<B>CWT Buys Into KDS For Wave</B>
By Jay Campbell
Carlson Wagonlit Travel will take a 14 percent share in the capital of Klee Data Systems and has signed a nonexclusive contract for the distribution of KDS' Wave self-booking tool.
The companies earlier this month said that "several" CWT clients already use Wave, some on CWT's recommendation (BTN, Nov. 6).
CWT said it will "plug in" whatever product its clients choose, and it will not offer financial incentives for selecting KDS Wave.
Asked if corporate buyers are pressured by relationships between travel agencies and booking vendors, Belmont, Calif.-based TravelTechnology consultant Norm Rose said, "I'm not sure about that, but there's definitely a preference. Agency support is absolutely necessary. You can't just buy a product and throw it at your agency and say, 'Make it work.' "
Houston-based principal of Consulting Strategies Grant Caplan said, "The history is that there is strong influence by a travel agency to pick the product they have clearly aligned themselves with. American Express was very forceful with the first version of AXI."
In technology, CWT has been playing more the role of a consultant than a technology supplier since the apparent demise of its internally developed SoloAct product (BTN, May 27, 1996). Whether or not customers want CWT to be a technology supplier, complaints about the mega are not hard to find of late: "I hope this technology laggard (CWT) will do something equally exciting in the U.S.," lamented one CWT client who closely watched developments relating to the departure of CEO Jon Madonna on Oct. 18. Madonna was replaced by Wagonlit veteran Hervé Gourio (BTN, Oct. 30).
CWT had plans earlier this year for its own offering, though it's unclear whether that was Wave or a rebranded version of it. KDS sometimes is branded as SoloAct in Europe.
"We have a booking system, not SoloAct, that was developed from the ground up," said CWT's Kris Lambrecht in a July interview with BTN. "It's very new and has not been highly marketed. We're just coming out of pilot mode with a number of corporations."
He said the proprietary tool was part of CWT's client care network (BTN, Sept. 4). "It allows clients to use a booking tool very tightly integrated with normal travel agency implementation, but it only works if the customer is going into the client care network. In the normal operation, we're still supporting third-party tools." In general, said Lambrecht, "Our process is to work very closely with a client and be supportive of any self-booking tool."
CWT and Le Plessis Robinson, France-based KDS said in a statement that they are seeking the opportunity to integrate Web-based and agent-assisted reservation processes, something for which KDS has received accolades.
"Human assistance can dramatically boost the look to book ratio, especially when the transaction involves complex domestic and international travel. Wave's Travel X-Pert provides essential technology to drive adoption within the corporate self-booking environment," wrote Rose in a recent report. "Travel X-Pert allows the travel agent to simultaneously connect with the online user enabling them to collaborate and drive or push content. This ability to successfully execute a complete 'assisted e-commerce' capability may hold the key to greater user adoption of Wave as a corporate self-booking solution."
This type of "collaborative browsing" or "mirroring" has been explored by KDS' competitors, but few appear to be making it a major priority.
It remains to be seen how successfully booking vendors can cross borders. While they are making every effort to do so along with their major clients (BTN, Oct. 16), the cultural challenges are many and detailed.
"Wave is highly focused on Europe," said Caplan. "It works properly in the U.S., but the question is whether the European look and feel will appeal to Americans. There's something intangible about it, even down to silly things like 'one-way' or 'return.' "
Rose had more faith. "I think Wave does have the American style it needs," he said. "There's more to the evolution of the booking tool than simply changing the user interface so it reverses the month and date. There are different business processes. I think it's a lot easier for a European product to adapt than vice versa."
He said U.S.-based booking vendors are challenged by such European needs as rail bookings and net remittance fares. Known in the U.S. as consolidator fares, net remittance fares elsewhere "are actually part of the corporate negotiation process" and "the true cost of the ticket does not correspond to the fare quote within the GDS.