Megas Customize Client Sites

<B>Megas Customize Client Sites</B>

By Megan Hjermstad

Mega travel management companies are leveraging their travel expertise to create templates for corporate travel intranet sites. As they help corporate clients deploy the sites, the megas are beginning to focus on customer relationship management, a general e-commerce strategy for capturing data to respond to customers' needs in a personalized fashion.

In addition to introducing CRM technology that caters to the individual traveler, such as personal profile information, historical itineraries and wireless notification, agencies are customizing the site content to meet the specific needs of corporations and integrating such Web-based software as online booking and T&E systems. The goal, of course, is to create a single point of entry to increase adoption rates of online travel solutions and to more effectively communicate travel management programs.

The Web sites are based on a standard template that allows for such customized content as travel policies, so it is less expensive for travel managers and much easier to deploy than starting from scratch. Agencies are charging a one-time upfront implementation fee and a monthly maintenance fee--tied, in some cases, to the number of users, which is relatively minimal compared with what it would cost a corporation to build a site internally or pay a Web design company.

Carlson Wagonlit Travel, Navigant International, Rosenbluth International, TQ3 Maritz Travel Solutions, Travel & Transport and WorldTravel BTI all are testing and rolling out customizied Web solutions for their corporate clients.

American Express, however, "doesn't have a formal service to help companies from the ground-up design, but a lot of our account managers get involved in helping companies design Web pages, and the consulting services group does that formally, for hire, which is purely customized," said Melissa Abernathy, spokeswoman. "Also, a certain amount of that goes on with any implementation of AXI or CTO, where we're giving advice on how other companies integrate it."

Renee McDaniel, travel services manager for Atlanta-based CheckFree Corp., said Navigant created and is supporting a robust travel site that she could not get support for internally.

"We have a Webmaster, but while travel is a great expense, it's not a top priority for tech. I don't have the time, energy or ability to do this. It would be very daunting to attempt on my own," said McDaniel.

Navigant last month introduced Navigant Custom Travel Portals, a companywide standard for building intranet travel sites. Navigant over the past several months has converted more than 50 existing client sites and in the past couple of weeks has launched two new sites based on the template.

The new site, which has more features, can be adapted to fit the look of the client's intranet site and can incorporate client-specific content.

"The level of demand from our clients convinced us that we needed a product to address their needs," said CIO Neville Teagarden. He said the portal is part of a comprehensive CRM strategy, but that "CRM, to us, is about good old-fashioned customer service and leveraging tech to enhance our customer service by targeting their needs. The tools are just new."

Meanwhile, Carlson Wagonlit is beta testing its travel portal, Cairo, which was introduced last fall to a group of corporate clients (BTN, Nov. 6, 2000). CWT is testing the site in Europe, Middle East and Africa for release by year-end. And Rosenbluth in December began client production of its Web portal. Rosenbluth has one completed site, three more sites in production and about 20 in the pipeline. The portal is designed as a combination of "portlets," so the company can bring a portal in or out and layer them to fit the look of its corporate intranet. "With the expertise Rosenbluth has in this area, we know what content to provide and we have the ability to link to a number of systems," said CIO John Dabek.

The portal enables travelers to sign on and access historical itineraries, maintain and change profile information and access various online applications. It also allows the traveler to register for and control Rosenbluth's wireless offerings for flight notification, cancellation and rebooking. Rosenbluth in 2Q will add multilingual capabilities for launch in Europe and a global messaging system, enhanced hotel info and expanded wireless functionality for flight booking.

The portal is the crux of Rosenbluth's strategy to be a pioneer in bringing CRM to the industry. "The travel industry is very much behind the curve in the way we support clients compared with other industries. Our industry is so focused on the transaction itself, not who you are and where you are going. We've made the leap to focus on customers," said Dabek.

Rosenbluth is not alone in catering its e-commerce strategy toward the individual traveler. "We believe CRM will be the next wave of portal technology; it brings things down to a customer level. Just by signing on, it recognizes the hierarchy of the traveler and allows a VIP to see upgrade status," said Mike Kubasik, vice president of technology solutions at Travel & Transport. Travel & Transport has been helping customers create customized solutions since the inception of online booking five years ago. Its 50-person IS team, to date, has helped to create intranets for 20 clients and has integrated e-booking into existing sites for twice that many.

T&T in 2Q will roll out an enhanced Web site, which has more dynamic features, such as historical itinerary information. "We're travel experts, so we can aggregate content much more effectively than an outside party, and we can do it quickly," said Kubasik.

The agency also acts as a systems integrator of various online booking tools. "Integral in the portal environment is helping to drive online booking adoption, which is struggling--hovering around 8 percent to 10 percent on average," said Kubasik. "This is giving travelers a centralized place to go to find pertinent information and have a place to book a trip."

Meanwhile, WorldTravel BTI's portal, WorldTravel Net, which was unveiled last summer, now is live and ready for deployment. WorldTravel within the next 90 days will deploy the product for its first five customers, including Dow Jones and Schlumberger. The global version, which has multilingual capabilities, already has been purchased by one client and is being adopted by its Hogg Robinson and BTI partners.

WorldTravel has created a tool kit and aggregated content and default software, though it can plug in any booking or expense reporting system. "The neatest thing is how quickly we can do this. While we're in a meeting discussing it, you're up and running," said president Danny Hood. "We can put together a demo that quickly."

WorldTravel Net has built in one-to-one marketing, such as an active itinerary feature that allows a traveler to set up a profile with personal interests and receive restaurant guides, weather and driving directions via push e-mail. The traveler also can download a version of the application to a PDA. "We are giving the traveler a tremendous amount of information," said Hood.

Meanwhile, TQ3 Maritz for more than two years has been extending its ECom Client Web site to corporate clients. Maritz now has eight clients in full production, including two beta test companies, TIAA-CREF and Rohm and Haas, and eight to 10 more clients in various stages of production. Six of the sites in production have online booking and one has a T&E system. Future enhancements will include bilingual and multilingual capabilities.

Travelers automatically can update their profiles online, and the online information will synch automatically with ProView, Maritz's proprietary database for profile management. Said director of technology marketing Kathie Lia, "It eliminates the need for the travel manager to be a Web developer and an IT expert.