<FONT SIZE="+3"><B> Inside Track</B>
</H1>Sabre Acquires Rights to Prism's Workstation
<B>Sabre's </B>Business Travel Solutions isn't even here yet-but it already has a foothold in the corporate market, thanks to a deal inked last week that gives it exclusive rights to sell the <B>Prism Group's </B>popular Travel Manager's Workstation to corporate customers. The Workstation software, to be renamed Decision Manager, will serve as the middle module of the BTS automated booking, management reporting and expense reporting system-in effect giving Sabre an existing customer base that includes such big names as<B> Aetna, Black & Decker, Citibank, Colgate-Palmolive, Goldman Sachs, McDonald's</B> and <B>Salomon Brothers</B>. The oldest surviving travel management reporting system on the market, the six-year-old Workstation has over 100 loyal and techno-savvy clients, including 20 of the <I>BTN</I> Top 100 travel buyers. Prism Group will retain the right to sell the system to travel agencies for their own use in preparing reports for customers, but not to private-label or resell the system to travel managers.
USAir, Delta To Offer Web Tix
<B>USAir </B>and <B>Delta</B> both plan to introduce ticket purchasing on their Websites later this year. Delta, which is targeting the fall, said it also considered disk-based booking software such as the <B>United </B>Connection and USAir's Priority Travel Works, but concluded that it was not worth the cost.
Small Hotels Get GDS LINK
Smaller, independent hotels have finally found their way onto the Global Distribution System as <B>Sabre</B> launches a program for properties without computerized reservations systems. Called Direct Request for Hotels, the system automatically generates a fax request to the hotel, which then confirms the reservation and faxes it back to the agent within 24 hours.
"This is the most low-tech access we have seen to a GDS," said Brian Kinsella, vice president of corporate and industry affairs for the <B>American Hotel & Motel Association</B>, which has signed an agreement with the GDS to grant discounts to AH&MA members.
DirectLink Unveils Corp. Products
<B>DirectLink Technologies</B>, the technology subsidiary of New York-based <B>Direct Travel,</B> is rolling out two new products for the corporate market. DirectLink, a Web-based automated booking and travel management reporting system, is available to corporate customers directly, or can be private-labeled by other agencies loooking for an automated solution to offer their own customers. Smaller agencies also might be interested in DirectLink's new Global Fares program, being released this week, which will allow them to access Direct's international rate desk for pricing foreign itineraries. Through Sept. 30, Direct Travel will offer two free rate quotes to any agency inquiring about Global Fares. For more information, check the company's Website at www.dt.com.
AT&T sells Carlson Wagonlit's services
<B>AT&T </B>has tapped <B>Carlson Wagonlit Travel</B> as its agency partner in a program launch aimed at the telecommunications giant's business customers. The new venture, <B>AT&T International Business Resources,</B> establishes the mega agency as a business travel specialist in three of AT&T's current global programs that provide services to businesspeople. Carlson Wagonlit will provide a dedicated 800 number within each of the programs to handle travel requests, with information forwarded to the Carlson agency nearest the client for follow-up. Among the services available are lowest available airfare, preferred hotel rates, negotiated car rental rates, emergency passport and visa assistance, and trade show and meeting planning.
Hotel Bid Player
As the <B>National Business Travel Association</B> heralds its new standardized RFP language this week in Dallas, one NBTA hotel-committee member will announce a new service to outsource the hotel bid process.<B> JBH Travel Solutions,</B> Janice Hanson's 15-year-old hotel-commission reconciliation and recovery company, has integrated the new hotel form into internal software to handle any or all pieces of the RFP task.
Hanson's RFP Solutions team won't shrink-wrap and sell the software, but will focus on much-needed service. "Some of the corporations we've been talking to tell us that they've put out 1,000 RFPs just to get 500 hotels," Hanson said.
Sending those stacks of paper electronically will speed the process, although "only the very major hotels are automated," Hanson said. "A lot of hotels still use handwritten folios, so we've got to move into the electronic age at the pace the hotels will move at-and a lot of them are moving along at warp speed.