Cos. Consider Sabre Alternatives In Face Of Added Fees

<B>Cos. Consider Sabre Alternatives In Face Of Added Fees</B>

By Jay Campbell

A backlash by Sabre BTS customers against a pricing increase that takes effect at the start of July has many pledging that they will re-bid their self-booking business.

One buyer even went so far as to say, "I think Sabre really believes they have these customers by the short ones, but they're in for a rude awakening. You don't push us around."

However, according to Jeff Palmer, COO of the Sabre subsidiary that now owns BTS and GetThere, "We have the best products, used by more corporations, more successfully than any others in the market."

Indeed, there's no denying Sabre's leading position.

Often claiming 70 percent market share, Sabre has key observers convinced that it is dominant.

"Sabre might get a lot of backlash from corporate customers today, but there are very few alternative products out there," said Paul Keung of CIBC World Markets in New York.

Clearly, Sabre's competitors disagree, as does consultant Norm Rose, president of Belmont, Calif.-based TravelTechnology.com, who now is preparing an update to his study on corporate self-booking tools. "There are even more alternatives than you realize," Rose said. "There is a major shift happening, not only in ownership issues, but some products are becoming more infrastructure providers and others are looking at the direct distribution arm. It's still a changing marketplace."

Though a cloud of uncertainty hangs over the ownership/partnership future of Oracle's E-Travel (BTN, May 7), with Amadeus as the most recent rumored suitor, a handful of buyers interviewed by Business Travel News said discussions with E-Travel management put to rest any concerns they might have. E-Travel also is exploring a new role as the booking engine behind Delta's small-business Web site, Mind Your Own Business Travel.

Similarly, Worldspan's Trip Manager recently landed a contract with Continental Airlines to power its small-business site. The corporate tool is in the midst of a graphical user interface makeover that likely will be revealed at the end of July at the National Business Travel Association convention in Atlanta. Worldspan also is looking to bolster Trip Manager's reporting capabilities through a deal with Hi-Mark Software in Atlanta.

Atlanta-based TRX Inc.'s ResAssist product, soon to get new features on its login page, will receive an ease-of-use upgrade to version 7.0 by early next year. One buyer also said Oak Brook, Ill.-based OAG Worldwide is a potential supplier.

In Europe, I:FAO and KDS are gaining traction. I:FAO this month signed a deal to have its Cytric system distributed by BTI Central Europe, which claimed to have 15,000 corporate clients, while KDS recently announced plans to enable its Wave suite of corporate booking tools to bypass the global distribution system on bookings with Hertz. The companies plan on making the new connection available in the next version of Wave, due out this fall.

There also are a number of new competitors in the United States, including Seattle-based Highwire Inc., which earlier this month revealed it would be implemented by Deloitte & Touche, the seventh largest corporate travel account. Highwire is showing strong momentum for a startup following an earlier deal with Microsoft.

Dublin-based Datalex, with U.S. offices in Atlanta, has a corporate booking template called BookIt Corporate, which travel and travel management suppliers can purchase to resell to customers. Corporate travel is "really high on our development list," said vice president of marketing Wayne Pegram.

Datalex owns half of Yatra, which is beta testing with less than 10 clients its tool designed for the midmarket.

"Yatra and Highwire could really have an impact," Rose said. "They both are offering new technologies."

Meanwhile, Galileo plans to pull back the curtain on its Corporate Travelpoint 2.0 at the National Business Travel Association convention and has promised to name a very large initial client. Cendant, which last week announced its acquisition of Galileo (see story, page 1), has no plans to interrupt that rollout schedule.

"We have talked quite a bit with Galileo about 2.0," said Sam Katz, Cendant chief strategic officer. "Our development plans are consistent with what you've heard previously."

Many buyers also are awaiting word from Orbitz on any designs it may have on the corporate market. One Orbitz executive recently suggested that getting into the corporate travel arena would be relatively easy, a comment that suggests that they have underestimated the complexity of the managed segment of online travel or that they have not yet taken a serious look at what the market requires.

As GetThere and its more established competitors know, online managed travel is far from easy.

Even after putting together a product, the adoption challenge remains. Its experience on that front, however, is clearly a major competitive advantage for GetThere.

"On the surface, it does appear easy to a lot of technologists and suppliers," said Pegram of Datalex, which works with Orbitz on its consumer site. "You simply provide booking to corporate travelers and a few bells and whistles. What's missing is policy enforcement and other features corporations are looking for. It may be easy in the context of 'it's a booking engine,' but it's a different story to add those features.