<B>Corps. Opt For Portals</B>
<I>Agents Build Corp. Travel Sites, Add Leisure</I>
By Megan Hjermstad
Several of the largest corporate travel buyers recently launched custom Web sites, provided by mega agencies and their affiliates, that quickly can integrate a wealth of content and a variety of travel applications, including links to leisure providers.
WorldTravel Interactive has launched WorldTravel Net for Dow Jones, PricewaterhouseCoopers and a third large corporate customer. Meanwhile, Rosenbluth International has deployed Rosenbluth Everywhere for three corporate clients, including Boston Scientific Corp. and BEA Systems, and by June will have six more sites up.
PricewaterhouseCoopers last Monday unveiled its new travel Web site designed by WorldTravel Interactive (BTN, March 12). The PwC site is for U.S. employees but WorldTravel has created a cover page with a pull down menu that will allow PwC to add on sites for other countries or regions.
PwC already had some travel information on the PwC intranet, but saw the need for a more robust Web site. Although PwC uses American Express as its consolidated domestic agency, it has not yet developed a customizable client Web site so PwC turned to WorldTravel. "We were anxious to get this up as quickly as we could and we liked their core product. When we made a list of all the things we would like to see they already had them," said Americas travel leader Mark Williams.
Design and development of PwC's site took less than one month, even with customized components. "Every one is very different. We build a customized look and feel for every client to complement the corporate intranet, and launch them under multi-product names," said Bill Niejadlik, executive vice president of WorldTravel interactive.
PwC travelers now can access the WorldTravel hosted site through a link on the company intranet or by going directly to the URL. Each individual user has a unique password, but it only has to be authenticated once in order to enter the site.
The PwC lead travel page includes American Express Corporate Card information, travel agency information, security alerts, a section for future surveys, a meetings section, travel department contacts, airport status information, travel news and a customizable section for weather, dining and events for any city. The site also has tabs across the top of the page that link to pages with a personal profile, travel program communications, a direct link to GetThere, vendor contact information, international security and destination information, state department warn- ings, news, FAQs and leisure travel services.
"The travel site even in the old environment was the third most accessed page in the firm. This is enough of an improved product to be number one," Williams said.
PwC traveler profiles still are hosted by GetThere and American Express, but the WorldTravel Net profile allows the traveler to select a primary city for travel and destination information, maintain a user name and password for GetThere, and soon will enable a PwC traveler to enter mobile addresses to receive information via wireless devices.
WorldTravel's intelligent travel assistant, which can push information to the road warrior based on a trip itinerary--such as driving directions, restaurants, entertainment--currently supports Palm VII and Sprint PCS WAP-enabled phones, and WorldTravel soon plans to launch the service for Palm III and IV and Blackberry pagers.
"It is becoming increasingly important to be able to push information," said Williams. "We certainly haven't said we are going to supply those devices, we have not made a commitment to pay for them, but more and more people are purchasing them on their own."
The site's leisure travel section has three hypertext links to American Express leisure, WorldTravel Vacations and VacationWired.com, so individuals can choose whichever they desire. "We wanted to offer travelers options without supplying labor," Williams said.
Travel management companies are responding to corporations who want to provide leisure travel options by creating new leisure arms focused on corporate clientele. In offering these links, travel managers are luring travelers away from using the corporate agency for personal reasons and subsequently reducing transaction fees for employees' leisure travel.
WorldTravel Interactive is developing a revamped leisure channel that it will integrate seamlessly into WorldTravel Net. The new online channel also will support WorldTravel's structured corporate affiliate program, Vacation Partnership, which provides corporate accounts with access to vacation discounts and special deals. Vacation Partnership has 180 official accounts, excluding miscellaneous business that is not tracked back to specific corporations. Jerry Murck, vice president of industry marketing for WorldTravel BTI, said it is becoming more prevalent for corporations to ask in RFPs what an agency's leisure offering is.
"It is based on employees wanting to be able to use the same travel agency. A big part of the value proposition is the name of the company," said Murck. "There are hard dollar advantages as well, as we will negotiate with specific suppliers' discounts and value adds."
NavigantVacations.com, the leisure subsidiary of Navigant International, is now on 110 corporate intranets and has proposals out to another 140 corporate customers. The site provides access to approximately 2.5 million users from both current Navigant corporate clients and new private label customers.
Meanwhile, Philadelphia-based start-up VacationWired.com, which last summer received its ARC and IATAN accreditations, is not competing for corporate business, but is focused on partnering with corporations to offer a vacation planning tool for employees. The company, which offers integrated online and traditional service, has been signing such high-profile clients as PwC and BP Amoco.
"I am a real firm believer in focusing on what your core competency is. A lot of companies made the decision to focus on managing a corporate portfolio," said VacationWired.com president and CEO Candace Sneberger. "Mixing corporate and leisure isn't a very good idea."
Sneberger said corporations also can promote leisure travel partnerships outside of the travel area because it demonstrates a commitment to providing a high quality of life for employees. "It's not showing up just on the travel intranet, but is actually promoted as a perk by human resources, such as a program with a health club or sports club," said Sneberger. "It's valuable in trying to retain the best and brightest."
While offering convenience and a trustworthy reference for employees, a leisure travel affiliation can help corporate travel departments eliminate use of the department for personal travel.
"Leisure travel booking is taking place in corporations, resulting in them paying transaction fees. By having access to a leisure offering, corporations not only offer a perk but they reduce the cost of the travel program," said John Dabek, CIO of Rosenbluth International. Rosenbluth is marketing its leisure offering, Travelution, to its corporate clients and Rosenbluth Everywhere adopters also have the option of plugging Travelution into the site.
Whitehouse Station, N.J.-based Merck & Co. early this year introduced Travelution when it forbid use of the corporate travel department for leisure bookings. "Personal travel started out as not on our radar screen but started to become an expense. We found a lot of business travelers wanted to use the corporate agency for reservations since they were used to the service. The use was growing and personal transactions were becoming a burden for corporate travel agents," said Lisa Meehan, director of travel services.
Merck at the beginning of the year rolled out a message on its telephonic service that refers employees calling for personal requests to Travelution's 800 number. The company at the beginning of April introduced a jump page that links the Merck intranet travel page to the Travelution online booking option.
Meehan said she expects savings for the corporation in excess of half a million dollars from transaction fees for leisure bookings previously claimed by Rosenbluth. However, travelers now have to pay a fee for making a leisure travel reservation through Travelution.
"Now, they have to pay a fee, but there are benefits to this new service for travelers," said Meehan. "There are a lot of things the corporate travel department can't offer them; business travel agents just don't know about weekend junkets to Bermuda or Orlando."
Merck also has negotiated a lower service fee for employees who conduct leisure bookings over the Travelution Web site instead of over the phone, which Meehan hopes will help educate them on the potential cost savings of booking online in the corporate environment.
"One of the added benefits is it actually reinforces what we're trying to do on a corporate basis," said Meehan. "Travelers see in personal travel that it is less expensive to make the reservation online so it is easier for them to understand.