KDS Tackles Usability, Adds Pre-Trip Workflow

Paris-based corporate self-booking provider KDS yesterday launched version 4.0 of its KDS Corporate product, adding a "smart booking" feature that eases booking by remembering historical patterns and a workflow engine that manages pre-trip approvals.

The upgraded system "enables global travel managers to set multi-level pre-trip authorization procedures, allows users to dynamically modify online itineraries and dramatically speeds up the booking process," according to a company statement. Among other features, KDS Corporate 4.0 "now allows users to update a reservation (PNR), changing or canceling one or more segments of the itinerary even after it has been queued to the agency or fulfillment center," said the statement.

The upgrade is free to KDS' corporate customers, which top 300, according to the company. "At Alstom, travelers want self-booking tools to be smart, user-friendly and powerful," said Claire Leimgruber, global commodity manager for Alstom, a Paris-based energy and transport corporation, in the KDS statement. "Our travel managers want solutions that respect real-world situations, so these systems must be fully customizable. The features of the new KDS Corporate 4.0 will no doubt boost our adoption rates and will provide a solution that is flexible enough to meet all of our users' needs."