Internet-Based Reporting Tools Gaining Momentum

<B>Internet-Based Reporting Tools Gaining Momentum</B>

By Jay Campbell and Megan Hjermstad

Vendors of travel management reporting systems in recent months have generated a frenzy of product-related activity that largely centers on moving to the Internet, at the same time that travel management companies similarly enhanced their proprietary products.

A common gripe among these developers is that online booking gets more than its share of attention, while reporting tools, they said, are more effective in saving corporate travel dollars. Nonetheless, the growth of self-service reservations is beginning to alter the flow of data, which is affecting the development of reporting tools, though online booking vendors, too, are offering reporting modules for pre-trip data.

"Online booking is a giant bust," said Rock Blanco, vice president of e-solutions for Cornerstone Information Systems, Bloomington, Ind. "A small percentage of corporate bookings are going that way. The hype is so far ahead of the reality."

"Reporting hasn't been the glamour side of travel procurement and management, online booking has," said Roger Hunt, CEO of I:FAO North America in San Ramon, Calif. "But more companies are looking at it for negotiations and compliance."

Michael Whitesage, president of The Prism Group in Albuquerque, N.M., said, "There are three values that technology delivers: point of sale, mid-office/quality control and information management. Of the three, the one with the highest yield is information management. Its mission is to identify the best buy and direct travelers to it, which today means a lot with average discounts of up to 35 percent."

Incline Village, Nev.-based consultant Bob Langsfeld, of The Corporate Solutions Group, agreed that reporting deserves more focus. "Database mining will be the most important technology," he said. "We didn't have a high level of managing data in the past--it all was focused in the ARC/GDS process. Now, we're getting into more sophisticated applications, and we have higher and different demands on the information we're looking for. It's still a bit of an enigma, but if I buy direct and pay direct, and I don't use ARC and don't need a travel agency for fulfillment, who do I go to to get that information? You need a higher-level database."

Attempting to address those needs, vendors are pouring their time and effort into product improvements. For many, that means moving to the Web and the application service provider model, where software is not installed at the client site but rather hosted by the vendor.

Describing his new Avion system, for example, Whitesage said, "We have taken the contracted yield management that is used by the airlines and given that technology to corporations. It is consolidated, worldwide travel management, where any number of travel managers can log on to qualify their deals, run reports and track data."

Whitesage also is developing the ability to track business done directly with suppliers for some European customers. By the end of April, the new process will capture the transaction at the airline and translate segment data into origin and destination information, "which is what customers buy," said Whitesage.

Hi-Mark Software on April 1 will release revised versions of its TravelMan 4.0--with enhanced ad-hoc reporting, an improved help system and other features--and WebMan 2000, including multi-language report output, parent/child profile hierarchies and XML, HTML and RTF report output.

Meanwhile, TRX this month will begin beta testing the Web version of its Navigator 2000 reporting tool, and also plans to offer mid-office and pre-trip Web reporting, the latter from its ResAssist booking tool.

I:FAO just launched the Web-based version of its post-travel reporting tool after making the pre-travel product available online at the start of the year. For the former, "We now have a couple of customers coming online," said Hunt, who hails from QuixData Systems, which the Frankfurt-based I:FAO bought last June.

Ten years after its first release and subsequent implementation by such agencies as Rosenbluth International and what is now TQ3 Maritz Travel Solutions, a revamped tool called Crossfire, by Wheaton, Ill.-based Richard Law & Associates, now is installed with seven clients. The product, which "on a limited basis" is sold directly to corporations, is moving to the Windows platform, gaining Web-based interfaces, better accommodating the practice of split- ticketing and the exchange process and offering new market share monitoring features.

Meanwhile, Law is demonstrating a new e-mail-based request system in which a travel manager can e-mail even ad-hoc requests for reports, which are run and e-mailed back.

For smaller travel agencies, Los Angeles-based Trams Inc. is testing a Web version of its back-office reporting tool with a dozen users and targeting April 17 for rollout. Trams will charge $50 per month for access to 18 canned reports, assuming the travel agency has its database connected to the Internet.

Among agency developments, Navigant International's new ReportFlyr 2.0 (BTN, Jan. 29) now is used by 70 percent of the agency's customers, with the goal of 100 percent by April 15 within reach, said CIO Neville Teagarden. Half of Navigant's eight regions "have reported back being pretty well finished with the integration," he said.

Mahwah, N.J.-based VTS Travel Direct just released Direct Data, a Web-based tool used by about 10 percent of clients, said president Pat Fragale. DirectData offers an improved back-office, easy access to information and daily updates. It also is tied to VTS' Direct Link self-booking tool, so trips booked on the Web automatically flow within policy.

Duluth, Ga.-based Travel Inc. developed a proprietary suite of online travel management reporting tools called GalaxyNet and last month launched a wholly owned technology subsidiary, Travel Technology Solutions, to market the tools to ARC-designated Corporate Travel Departments and potentially to customers of other agencies, though not to the agencies themselves. "Everyone wants an Internet solution for reporting," said Garry Moon, director of corporate marketing. "For large enough companies, the CTD model can make good financial sense. The problem is, the company won't have the back-office tools to create useful management reports."

Garber Travel, TQ3 Maritz and Travel and Transport are other agencies offering Web-based reporting, joining such larger brethren as American Express and Rosenbluth.

Largely intended for pre-travel reporting, Cornerstone Information Systems this month released version 3.0 of its Web-based reporting tool Ibank Travel Management, which it acquired in 1996 by buying New Media Solutions.

"I've been pushing the pre-travel aspect because so many agencies take so long to make data ready for reporting," said Blanco. "It can be 30 days behind when it was invoiced." The system has 25,000 users running more than 10,000 reports daily, and new enhancements include "real-time" data capture, global data consolidation, user-defined field tracking and foreign currency conversion.

Sabre now offers two main products for reporting: VantagePoint and GetThere's DirectObserver. The company is focusing most of its effort in this area on the latter product, which comes with the purchase of the GetThere booking tool. "VantagePoint is an example of a client/server application that allows travel managers to get their arms around travel spend," said Jay Gabany, directory of travel applications at GetThere. "The information is housed on the customer's equipment, and it is the customer's responsibility to maintain the data."

Like other pre-trip tools, DirectObserver captures booked data and enables travel managers to take action during the lag time between booking and ticketing, even to prevent the purchase.

The Web-based version of Amadeus' Reporter software will enter beta tests with U.S., Canadian and other travel agencies beginning in the second quarter. The product is set to launch in June.

I:FAO will integrate a number of QuixData's enhanced reporting capabilities into its Cytric booking tool, said Hunt, to improve on its existing reporting capabilities. Outside the booking tool, the company already offers pre-travel information from single or multiple GDSs and travel agencies, complete with alerts for policy breakers.

E-Travel's Intelligence tool, due to be enhanced in the next E-Traveler release, offers 29 reports organized into workbooks that categorize the data into 11 areas.