<B> Galileo Unveils E-Tools</B>
By Mary Ann McNulty
<I>Oahu, Hawaii</I> - Pointing to its own transformation from a global distribution system dominated by airline owners to one that soon will have 70 percent public ownership, Galileo International encouraged its 2,500 agency subscribers to transform their own businesses to compete in a rapidly changing marketplace.
During its annual subscriber conference late last month, Galileo offered a variety of tools, from new data warehousing and online booking products, to Web-enabled versions of existing products and even prototype versions of its booking system running on cell phones and 3Com's Palm devices.
"The closed technology and business systems that characterized our industry are being replaced by open systems," said senior vice president of subscriber marketing David Near, "and we are aggressively redefining and strengthening our core value propositions. I've always believed change is ultimately good, even if at first it is unwelcome. It rewards companies who are smarter, more innovative and more customer focused."
Galileo unveiled its new Decision Support Tools, a private label of the new QuixData Systems (formerly Apex Solutions) Travel Data Reporting and Net Publishing products, licensed by Galileo last year.
The new reporting packages allow customers to run pre-trip reports, consolidate data from multiple accounting systems, perform quality control checks and mine the data by drilling down to multiple levels of detail. One feature allows customers to post static travel reports to an intranet or view e-mail with one mouse click, said Larry Gove, QuixData's vice president of sales and marketing, while an optional module allows agencies to distribute the system to allow clients to run their own reports.
Net Publishing allows corporations to quickly and easily take summary reports from the reporting package and post them to their company's Internet or intranet sites, where managers can drill down to the ticket level. Corporate or agency customers can buy or license the products from either party for a cost of $4,995 and $70 in monthly maintenance for the travel data reporting; $8,995 with $120 monthly maintenance for the Net Publishing; and $5,995 and $80 monthly maintenance for the optional client module tool.
Joining its three major competitors, Galileo announced plans to embrace Web technologies for help desk applications, enhanced data and even access to the GDS. It also introduced FocalpointNet, a new version of the Windows-based booking view that also runs on the Web, and announced two new services. The first allows agencies to add and process service fees through their electronic Airlines Reporting Corp. reports, while the second give agents the ability to surf the Net through their Galileo workstations at a cost of $40 per month per location.
Galileo also announced enhancements to Travelpoint.com, one of two corporate booking products, including graphical seat maps, a message center, expense reporting, emergency contacts and euro currency quotes.
Upgrading its Viewpoint graphical booking tool for agencies, Galileo by year-end will add a low-fare shopping tool that will show multiple fare options from both published and negotiated fares without having to first book a flight. Both Sabre and Amadeus announced similar products this spring.
Another upgrade, due in August, will make it easier for agencies to manage negotiated fares by allowing airlines, rather than agencies, to electronically forward negotiated fare rules to customers. Other features will enable fare quotes for multiple-carrier itineraries, and add more security and automated tour code and ticket designators.
Addressing concerns expressed by several agencies that either have or will soon convert their back-office accounting systems from TS2000, which is not Y2K compliant, to the new GlobalWare, Galileo is overhauling its training and increasing support and documentation. It also is working on certifying the product on the Windows NT platform, where many of the problems have been reported, said Babetta Gray, senior vice president of customer service delivery.
Following the conference, Galileo announced plans to extend the passive segment booking policies it introduced last year in North America to all other regions of the world, thus charging airlines only for bookings that are ticketed. In taking this policy worldwide, Galileo will implement a modest fee on all other ticketed direct flight segments outside North America.
Effective July 1, carriers outside of North America and Japan will be charged $1.31 for each active confirmed segment, $1.80 for each ticketed passive segment and 59 cents for other segments. In North America, Galileo currently charges $3.40 for net passenger segments, $2.65 for ticketed passive segments and 30 cents for other ticketed segments. An average 3.4 percent booking price hike went into effect in March.
On the trade show floor, several Galileo partners, including Silicon Graphics, ObjectSpace, data storage company EMC2 and Stamps.com, showed some of their solutions. ObjectSpace, in which Galileo invested $5 million, demonstrated prototype applications that would notify travelers of flight changes or delays via cellular phone or Palm devices and rebook themselves. Sabre and Amadeus have announced plans to offer such applications later this year, but Galileo and ObjectSpace executives touted the fact that they've developed the functionality on phones in the market today, albeit in test mode only. ObjectSpace was gathering feedback to take back to their labs.