IBM Piloting New Galileo Self-Booking Tool

Galileo is gearing up for the rollout of a new corporate booking tool called Traversa, which will begin its launch with IBM this summer and become the migration platform for Travelport Classic's more than 700 corporate users. The company said it would begin moving customers to the new tool beginning in the fourth quarter, with hopes to complete migration by the end of next year.

In addition to its migrating client base, Michael Ihle, Galileo by Travelport vice president of product development for the Americas, said the company is seeking to snag Galileo-using clients of Sabre's GetThere.

Galileo began creating Traversa 18 months ago with the goal of launching a "hybrid between the consumer side and the corporate online side," Ihle said. The tool allows travelers and administrators to book air, car and hotel in the same session without reentering search criteria; compare fares to and from various airports; save searches by airport; track unused tickets; and view an Air Matrix and seat maps before booking, among others.

Although built in-house on a separate platform, Galileo modeled components on Orbitz— "a graphic interface known to millions," Ihle said—which is in the midst of an initial public offering from the companies' shared parent, Travelport.

Although Traversa, which was developed with IBM, shares a lineage with Orbitz for Business and Travelport for Business, Ihle said the new tool is targeting a different user. "If you look at the sweet spot for Orbitz for Business or Travelport for Business, they tend to gravitate more toward the smaller players that don't have the more complex policy pieces, nor do they actually work with corporations that have TMCs they need to fulfill," Ihle said. "There is some competition and some overlap that will naturally occur, which is just healthy, but given the nature of how we built this with the complex policies that can be handled and the agency interface, that is the biggest dividing line between what we produce and what they produce."

IBM currently is piloting Traversa, but the company—the largest single corporate purchaser of travel—in July will begin a four- to six-month enterprisewide rollout in 16 countries. Ihle said Galileo in the third quarter would launch additional pieces for agency resellers, such as integration into back-office and mid-office systems, with plans to begin rolling out other corporate customers in the fourth quarter.