IBM To Use Lotus In Online Travel Entry?

<I>Armonk, N.Y.</I> - Even as it prepares to release a Lotus Notes version of Sabre's Business Travel Solutions, IBM seems to have bigger plans for the travel industry on its mind--including following Microsoft's lead and packaging travel booking capabilities with its Lotus Notes software.

For now, the two technology companies are talking--on the record, at least--only about using Lotus Notes and Domino, IBM's Internet/intranet platform, as a way to integrate the BTS online booking system into existing Notes customer sites. IBM also plans to link Sabre's expense reporting module with its NEDS Electronic Expense Report system. Announced in August, BTS Notes is scheduled to roll out toward the end of the next quarter.

Lotus client services director Joe Shaulis said the company "is in high-level discussions as far as looking at some solutions based on Domino that would marry us closer to our travel and transportation industry customers, maybe along the lines of the relationship that American Express and Microsoft have. You know about Domino Merchant--picture a Domino Travel."

Shaulis declined further comment on precisely what that means, but the implication is that IBM is looking into the feasibility of loading a travel booking capability into the Lotus Notes software, as well as allowing direct links between travel industry buyers and suppliers over the Domino platform.

Lotus' Domino Merchant model offers customers the ability to configure a transaction-based Website over which customers can order merchandise from Domino's supplier base. And under the relationship between Microsoft and American Express, new versions of Microsoft software will feature a "book travel here" icon; when users click on it, they will be forwarded to Rome, the online booking system being developed by Microsoft and Amex.

Shaulis did say that IBM has "multiple activities under way" to link air, hotel, car and casino suppliers directly with customers--a model already popular not just in the travel industry, but in the aerospace and insurance industries as well. Corporations and travel agencies "absolutely" could use the Domino Internet platform to access airline inventory, and "airlines have been approaching us saying they want direct access to their customers," he said. "We're all looking at dramatic changes in the travel industry, and airlines are looking at Notes as a way to address that change."

Sabre BTS vice president and general manager Sam Gilliland also declined comment on future partnering possibilities between Sabre and IBM, saying, "It is premature to talk about a larger relationship." But he noted that the two are working together on "orchestrating our sales and marketing efforts to push the two products and to leverage our customer bases." That in itself is a significant partnership for Sabre, given Lotus' huge installed customer base among major corporations. Shaulis estimated that close to 20 million corporate "seats" will have Notes on their desktops by the end of the year.

The two companies are developing a BTS application that will "plug and play" in the Lotus installed base, Shaulis said. Once installed, a BTS Travel Planner icon in Notes will bring up the BTS screens that allow travelers to access air, hotel and car rental inventory and make bookings, and feed the fares offered through corporate rates and policies.

Shaulis projected that "nine out of 10 companies that have Notes will go with a Notes solution for BTS" as a way to improve their return on investment in the Lotus product. And using BTS on a Notes platform will allow corporate customers to take advantage of the system's broader communications ability--by automatically paging travelers to warn of schedule and gate changes, for example. In addition, users will be able to enter data in the system offline, allowing them to plan a complicated itinerary while on a plane and then download it into BTS when they get to the office.

Outside the two companies, industry insiders found the concept of loading travel into Lotus Notes intriguing, although they emphasized the speculative nature of the discussion. "We're moving here into the realm of ideas and dreams, not even products in alpha test, let alone beta," said one technology developer. "Microsoft wants to build electronic commerce into their operating system, and I think in the long run that's what we'll see from IBM as well. But we all haven't quite figured out yet whether Microsoft is a software company or a travel agency, and if people will be more satisfied with them as their agency than they are with American Express. The same question will be asked of IBM. If IBM has Lotus Notes in some divisions of a company but not all, will they really be able to manage travel for corporate customers?"

From IBM's perspective, the travel industry is surely a business opportunity worth exploring. The Lotus market in 1996 brought in about $1 billion in sales and "seven to 10 times that amount" in additional revenues from developing specific applications for the product, Shaulis said. He estimated the total opportunity in the travel and transportation industry "has got to be in the hundreds of millions."

Lotus Notes, now in its third release, first hit the market in 1989, offering groupware products for communication (e.g., e-mail), collaboration (shared databases) and coordination of internal corporate workflow activities. Lotus is a wholly owned subsidiary of IBM, which acquired it in 1995. Domino's major competitor, Microsoft's Internet Exchange, was released in March 1996.