Extensity, Sabre Bundling

<B>Extensity, Sabre Bundling</B>

By Cheryl Rosen & Megan Hjermstad

Sabre BTS and Extensity Inc. have announced a partnership that by fall will allow customers to buy a single integrated booking and expense reporting system through a single contract with a single supplier.

Under the terms of the agreement, Extensity will bundle its expense reporting software with Sabre's online booking system for resale to new and existing Extensity and Sabre customers. For travelers, that will mean "one single sign-on and one consistent user interface," noted Extensity president Bob Spinner.

"We're integrating both the product and the business relationship," said marketing vice president Elizabeth Ireland. "It's a unique relationship with Sabre, a tighter relationship."

According to Sabre BTS vice president and general manager Scott Smith, "almost every one of our customers is looking to integrate the whole workflow process. Travel managers are saying 'give me something to put in front of the traveler.' This travel management suite does everything through a common interface for the end user."

While Extensity already is integrated with GetThere.com, and eventually will integrate with other online booking systems as well, it clearly expects the Sabre relationship to be more than just an alliance of systems.

For beginners, the two companies will call on corporate customers together. And the Sabre connection will bring a new pricing model for an online expense reporting system, as Extensity begins earning revenue based on Sabre transactions. Until now, "we've been a software and service revenue model, but travel booking is done on a transaction basis," Ireland said. "That's an extended business model for Extensity due to this relationship."

As far as integrating with other expense providers, "our strategy is to integrate with whichever system our customers want, and we're integrated with CommerceOne and other Net markets on the procurement side. The beauty of XML is that it makes all that possible," said Ireland. "But it's not our intention to sell other booking systems, even though this is not an exclusive relationship."

For the corporate customer, having the two products in a single seamless system accessed through a single interface and a single set of business rules will keep things simpler, improve adoption and ease training. It also will bring more data together in one place, making it easier to track booked versus actual expenses and unused e-tickets.