Travel management companies are deploying point-and-click systems that overlay traditional global distribution system screens in an effort to access multiple GDSs and cut down on agent training costs, ostensibly without reducing productivity. Client trials and some implementation on new features from IBM, TRX, Worldspan and others already are underway.
While graphical interfaces to the GDS are not new, vendors traditionally have had difficulty proving their productivity in contrast to speedy GDS users.
"There's definitely a steaming scrap heap of desktop initiatives by some pretty big companies over the past five to 10 years, and all those initiatives have died for a variety of different reasons," said TRX Inc. president and CEO Trip Davis. "Now, we think the technology is right for a server-based, full-time Web application. Three to four years ago, the industry couldn't handle this kind of full-time usage of a Web app. Secondly, we have an all-out focus on agent issues, productivity and usability."
Davis said TRX in August began "a fully operational pilot with real corporate clients and real agents making bookings and servicing travelers" using technology called Selex, formerly Project Trinity
(BTN, July 29, 2002). "Training time is shorter, flexibility for the application is improved and, most importantly, the personal reaction by agents is positive. We think we have 60 to 90 days and then a release cycle in December, then an expanded pilot in the first quarter of next year and another release cycle in April 2004."
Testing the product are Rosenbluth International and WorldTravel BTI, which is integrating Selex into its BTI Intellect suite of products and services. According to WorldTravel officials, their effort to establish a common, worldwide user interface for agents means Intellect already supports such other point-of-sale applications as Turbo Sabre and IBM's Advanced Communication System Access for Windows. WorldTravel said it would begin beta tests of the universal interface, which it calls BTI Inform, next quarter.
According to IBM officials, the company's nine-year-old ACSA Windows system, used by a wide range of travel suppliers from travel management companies to hotels and vacation sellers, is getting an upgrade to handle interactive Web features using the Java language. A separate IBM product, known as A2CS, provides connectivity to multiple GDSs. "Customers now are coming to us because they wanted the independence," said IBM development and services manager, core and enterprise solutions services Sherry Makis. "We've made it somewhat language-independent for the end user, which gained a lot of productivity."
As for Davis' scrap heap, Makis said, "Part of it is that travel companies have wanted to maintain their uniqueness, so sometimes ideas that enter the marketplace are great ideas but they don't allow for the evolution of each company individually. Also, with the travel upheaval and acquisitions, there was no ease of migration because there were multiple platforms. Travel is at the forefront of e-business itself, and many of the products I've seen didn't have the ability to grow with the industry as fast as the industry needs them to.
"Not all agencies can afford to deal with all four GDSs," Makis added, "but in today's world, as each GDS has evolved, if you miss one of them you may be missing part of the marketplace." IBM's product literature on ACSA adds that users may be able to "negotiate better rates with GDSs."
Each of the GDS providers offers some sort of graphical user interface, though multi-GDS access has not been a primary motivator. Worldspan late last month announced Go! Express, a Windows solution that "reads the user's initial entry and displays clickable options for the next steps, reducing keystrokes, saving time and increasing productivity. Go! Express provides fast access to appropriate follow-up entries or scripts that can be executed with a simple point and click." Initial functions include air, car, hotel and fares and pricing.
According to the Sabre Travel Network Web site, Turbo Sabre offers "fill in the blank pop-up windows" that "enable travel agencies to shop for and sell travel products without using Sabre system formats." Sabre claimed that the software reduces keystrokes by 30 percent to 50 percent, cuts training cycles by 33 percent or more and increases quality control compliance by 90 percent to 100 percent. Turbo Sabre is available in Europe, North America and Latin America in English, Spanish and Portuguese.
Sabre vice president of global accounts sales and service Don Sciarappa last year said one Sabre corporate client had used TurboSabre in conjunction with Sabre BTS as a "customized workflow tool" that helped reduce agent positions from 220 to 79 on just 10 percent lower volume.
Cendant Corp.'s Galileo also offers FocalPoint and ViewPoint to handle similar functions, positing in one marketing document that agents cannot be competitive without upgrading from the traditional GDS. "Viewpoint is Galileo's platform of choice—the foundation on which all future developments will be built," the company said. "It offers several powerful exclusives, including graphical seat maps and the low-fare shopping tool that won't be available through other GDS platforms."
Amadeus Global Travel Distribution claims a first with its Vista browser-based res tool, which, according to its Web site, can be installed in minutes, increases agent productivity by up to 30 percent and can be taught "in just two and a half days."
"By replacing the complex and hard-to-learn system language typical of most GDS usage, Vista can make a real and immediate difference to your bottom line by raising productivity, improving service and lowering costs," according to Amadeus' marketing literature. For its Windows-based product, Amadeus APS, the company claimed a 60 percent reduction in the time it takes to perform functions on the Amadeus GDS.
According to Amadeus, "Expert agents, already fast and familiar with the traditional system screen reservation formats, can switch between the old and the new in an instant."
"From a couple of experiences we've had, our best approach to get this set up for agents, customized for their needs, is to start by training the savviest," said IBM's End User Solutions and Services brand manager Connie Walberg. "Commonly, it takes them a couple of days to get a feel for the system's capabilities, and that allows them to create what they need for their job first."