Galileo Markets Booking Tool

<B> Galileo Markets Booking Tool</B>

By Mary Ann McNulty

Galileo International this month began implementing the first site to use Corporate Travelpoint, the online booking solution the CRS is private-labeling from Internet Travel Network and marketing to corporations having more than $10 million in air spend. Executives declined to identify the customer.

For now, the private-label version of ITN's Global Manager is very similar to what a corporation can get from ITN. But, Galileo executives in coming months expect to distinguish their offering with product and service enhancements, said Mike Cavanaugh, senior manager of corporate marketing for the Rosemont, Ill.-based CRS.

For example, corporations using Corporate Travelpoint will get a "richer set of structured data" than Galileo is making available to ITN, Cavanaugh said. Under the partnership agreement, ITN gets to use Galileo's structured data software instead of screen scraping technology to access fares, availability and other criteria. The change is expected to boost the speed and robustness of the booking system.

After it integrates Galileo's structured data software by this fall, Cavanaugh said, ITN's Global Manager will be able to provide users with the three lowest priced itineraries in Apollo. Corporate Travelpoint will be able to offer the seven lowest-priced itineraries, each with up to eight segments and up to 32 prices per segment. Galileo also intends to handle all service and support for the online booking product through its own global services network, rather than through ITN. "One of the things that Galileo is rated very highly on is being able to support customers," Cavanaugh said to explain the strategy.

This fall--or sooner--when ITN releases a multi-node version of its software, Galileo will even offer corporations the ability to access multiple computer reservation systems to meet its global needs. ITN already is accessing multiple CRSs to service Texas Instruments, however, the new version will streamline the process.

A corporation might opt to use Galileo in Europe, Abacus in the Far East and Apollo in North America, Cavanaugh said. "If their goal is to manage travel on a global basis, a single CRS won't cut it. Today, they need to be able to access multiple CRSs and travel agencies."

Historically, accepting that reality has been difficult for Galileo and the other CRSs. In the corporate market, the vendors have learned that such functionality is critical for global deployment. Sabre too plans to allow customers to connect its Business Travel Solutions booking tool to other CRSs. "It's on the planning horizon, but the current customers in the pipeline aren't driving it yet," said Pete Stevens, director of marketing and business planning. BTS distributor BTI Americas has developed a way to run the software using Apollo and another agency plans to do the same using Worldspan, he added.

For Galileo, release of Corporate Travelpoint fills the void in its product line-up created earlier this year when it decided to ditch its custom-developed booking tool. "We had great expectations that this was going to be the foremost product in the market," Cavanaugh said of the Java-based software. "Unfortunately, a lot of the technology we were looking to use at the time proved that it couldn't handle the high transaction volume in a CRS. When that became clear to us, we started to look at external products in the market and to talk to agencies and corporations about what they considered the strongest in the market. That led us to ITN."

For small to mid-size companies, Galileo has Travelpoint.com, an Internet-based booking tool that offers some policy restrictions using TravelScreen and the ability to price a limited number of negotiated fares.

About 75 corporations are currently using the product, with more than 10,000 active users, Cavanaugh said. For the small corporation or unmanaged traveler, Galileo developed a disk-based product called Travelpoint. Although it has been released in 70 countries, the software isn't scheduled to be available in the United States until later this year.

Galileo is distributing the disk and Internet booking tools exclusively through its agencies, Cavanaugh said. However, the CRS is marketing Corporate Travelpoint directly to corporations, "but selling primarily through our travel agency channel and through supplier partners."

Galileo executives also are meeting with its airline partners to determine their interest in distributing the product to corporate customers.

"Frankly, we're working their marketing strategies," Cavanaugh said. "Their approach to distributing corporate travel systems has changed," since Apollo, and then Galileo, first began developing the corporate booking product two years ago.

Then, United, US Airways, Air Canada and KLM planned to private label the product. Each had at least one corporation testing the software developed.

Cavanaugh said the company is meeting with corporations still using the airline-branded products to see if they're interested in switching to any of the three Travelpoint products. Pricing for Corporate Travelpoint will mirror ITN's pricing, which includes an upfront set-up fee and per transaction charge.