Mega Agencies Working On Multi-Channel Res Access

<B>Mega Agencies Working On Multi-Channel Res Access</B>

By Megan Hjermstad

Mega agencies are attempting to create integrated desktop solutions that provide the travel counselor with access to multiple reservation channels, including direct connections and online booking tools, and access to more customer information than ever before.

Though agencies have been using graphical-user interfaces at the point of sale for a couple of years, they have found that an interface to just one global distribution system, or even multiple GDSs, no longer is sufficient. So, behind the screen, agencies are attempting to create robust databases that integrate the information collected in each channel.

In addition to capturing the most up-to-date traveler profile information to create master traveler profiles, agency databases provide agents with access to such historic traveler information as unused tickets, recent itineraries and active itineraries for reservations started or completed in any booking environment. Ultimately, these desktop tools promise to not only solve the issue of integrating reservations systems, but also to offer agents access to more customer information, allowing them to provide personalized service based on individual needs and preferences.

American Express next month will unveil a new internally developed product called CIGA, or Customer Information Gateway Application. The Web-based portal will allow travel counselors to access the Internet, multiple GDSs and offer the potential to access suppliers through direct connections. The tool also will integrate customer relationship management technology at the point of sale, which will allow counselors to recognize a caller and to pull from a database that contains information on that individual's recent travel activity. "It will offer very good customer service, as counselors will spend little to no time on formats and cryptic keystrokes," said director of emerging technology Debbie Schultz. "They will have a lot more tools at their fingertips."

WorldTravel BTI has partnered with Dallas-based TRX Inc. on a collaborative effort, called Trinity, which will be launched next year. The point-of-sale tool, which also will be made available to other agencies, will provide a graphical-user interface that will allow travel counselors to view split screens to have simultaneous access to multiple GDSs, direct connections with airlines, Internet fares and self-service res tools. Danny Hood, president of WorldTravel BTI, said the goal is convergence of multiple res systems. "Agents will have access to any database they need, not just the traditional reservation system, and have everything right at the desktop," he said.

Navigant International is developing a similar Web-enabled agent desktop tool that will apply screen-pop technology to augment and enhance the GDS. CIO Neville Teagarden said the tool will be the next product launch for the travel management company, which earlier this year released its proprietary data reporting product, ReportFlyr (BTN, Jan. 29). The data warehouse that is the platform for ReportFlyr also will serve as the foundation for the agent desktop tool and will facilitate integration of traveler information from the GDS and any of a number of online booking tools. "We are really focused on getting down to the traveler level data and improving customer service," Teagarden said.

Customer service is a strategy that Rosenbluth International has focused on as it harnesses the power of CRM tools in its Web-based agent desktop solution. The mega agency in the next five weeks will set up a lab for testing the technology, which it will begin deploying in 2002. "We are trying to transition from servicing transactions to servicing customers," said CIO John Dabek. "Where we need to progress as an industry is in better understanding the needs of our customers."

Rosenbluth will use CRM technology to capture all of a traveler's contact information, contact history and past travel experiences--information that normally would not be contained or accessible on a desktop via traditional tools. When an agent receives a call, the caller is identified by the telephone number or through a telephony interface and a window automatically pops up on the screen with information about the caller. The desktop will have other windows for the traveler's corporate travel policy with information on authorization. The tool will have embedded automated workflow tools, which will allow the system to flow calls to an available agent or enable an agent to pick up on a reservation already in progress right where it was left off. "We do a very good job of handling that today but these automated tools take it to another level," Dabek said.

The system also will draw on knowledge-based tools to assist the agent at the point of sale with such information as restaurant recommendations, ground transportation and frequent flyer program information. "Having the ability to be keystrokes away from providing answers we see as a very critical component," he said.

Dabek said the desktop tool can be used at any location where Rosenbluth services customers, but that Rosenbluth will seek to roll it out first to large call centers or "contact centers," a term Dabek said is more appropriate as they increasingly are handling multiple forms of traveler communication. The desktop tool will integrate such e-CRM tools as online chat and Web collaboration for online booking tools. Although Rosenbluth provides those tools today, Dabek said they are really not integrated with the agent desktop technology.

The agent desktop, which will sit on top of any GDS, will be more graphical and more user-friendly. For less experienced agents, or agents trained on only one GDS, this will be a help, but for more experienced agents, it actually might slow them down. "It will make it a lot easier to bring new people into an environment as our business grows, but we must have the functionality and speed so experienced travel associates do not feel as if they are losing something," Dabek said.

Dabek stressed that the purpose of the desktop tool is not to replace the GDS. "We're supplementing the GDS," he said. "Our goal is to access all GDSs, using XML and other advanced interface technology."

Meanwhile, other megas are enhancing existing point-of-sale tools by integrating new components. Carlson Wagonlit Travel has developed its Integrated Service Offering, which connects its three call centers in Mendota Heights, Minn., Downers Grove, Ill., and Denver, Colo., and draws on integrated agent desktop technology. CWT has expanded on the core Traveler Service System technology engine to create what is now a more robust, integrated service platform with a proprietary self-booking tool plugged in. "ISO is unique in what it is and what it does," said Loren Brown, global CIO. "It offers total business continuity."

Three years into development and utilization, the network now services 50 clients including large-market client, Andersen, in addition to e-purchasing consortium clients. CWT last month in Europe launched for its first pilot customer a new Web-based profile management solution that works in the traditional and ISO environments. The global profile management tool synchs with the GDS and CWT's proprietary self-booking tool or KDS Wave, which it promotes as a solution in Europe.

The agent desktop, a point-and-click system in a Windows environment, which Brown referred to as a "GDS helper," currently accesses Apollo for faring information, but has the potential to interface with any GDS. "It has a higher level of abstraction for agents that will allow us to better leverage the workforce," Brown said. The tool also has built-in ability for direct connections, which CWT is discussing with airlines and hotels.

The technology also applies automation that traditionally happens in the mid-office, such as a recurring fare check tool and a workflow engine on the front end. Although Brown said such mid-office products as Aqua and Corre still have utility, they are less essential for quality control in ISO. "In the front office, we are automating deferred task and manual deferred tasks for upgrades and lower fare checking, and replacing traditional mid-office type of functionality," Brown said.

TQ3 Maritz Travel Solutions also has built agent automation into its ProView point-of-sale tool. "Where we traditionally had people involved, we tried to move all that to the automated point of sale," said vice president of information technology Richard Spradling. "All the processes that traditionally occur at the operational support level--reviewing for accuracy, checking for lower fares--comes in frictionlessly. Once the PNR is complete, human intervention isn't required."

TQ3 Maritz has offered its ProView graphical agent desktop solution since 1995. "What is done in ProView consistently reduces errors and improves quality. As items are identified that cause exceptions, we use technology to drive exceptions out," Spradling said.

The agency has made significant enhancements to ProView and added interfaces to online booking systems and its own meetings reservations tool. The meetings management tool gives a consultant, with three to four additional clicks, the ability to book a meeting. TQ3 Maritz also has designed two-way profile synchronization between online booking tools and its own structured profile database that resides offline. The system links to not only the traveler profile data, but to a single database that contains a traveler's transaction history.

"For every single ticket issued marked 'unused,' it presents it as available for exchange," Spradling said. "If the agent automation sees a ticket available at the time a reservation is made, ProView constructs the exchange right in the record.