Microsoft Outsources Collection Of Travel Data

<I>Los Angeles</I> - Just 90 days after Microsoft Corp. told its travel department that it needed to begin collecting global travel data, information was flowing into the company from 24 of the more than 30 agencies its subsidiaries use around the world.

How did Microsoft--the world's largest software development firm-- pull off the feat that's taken other companies years to accomplish? The Redmond, Wash.-based giant outsourced data collection to a small McLean, Va., technology firm that specializes in consolidating data from diverse agencies, said Ann Parsons, travel operations manager for Microsoft, at Travel Technology World here last month.

Like most other companies that have struggled with the vastly complex issue of global data collection, Microsoft executives were surprised by the difficulty in what would seem to be a simple task. However, agencies around the world use a multitude of back-office systems, which rarely talk to one another, let alone collect and store data elements in any common format. After figuring out a way to collect data from multiple agencies, the really tough part is determining how best to standardize it and analyze it.

That is where International Software Products has carved out a niche over the past four years, adapting software designed for the banking industry in the 1980s.

ISP's specialty is collecting data through various media--e-mail, the Internet, diskette, modem and even fax or hard copies that must be hand-entered into a computer--and dumping it all into a Microsoft Access database for analysis.

The company has written programs to convert data from each of the back-office systems into a common database, said Susan Hopley, president.

Currently, ISP is collecting data from more than 100 agencies around the world for its 28 corporate and even agency clients. Costs of the service range from $15,000 to $90,000 a year, depending on the number of agencies and number of months data is collected.

Some clients only want to see reports every quarter, although the data is collected monthly from each agency and stored by International Software Products.

Looking at the data collected in May, Microsoft travel executives began analyzing it to figure out what would be relevant to forward to management around the world. "The data is very different than what we're used to getting, as it's raw data," said Parsons. "We have to learn how to use it."

Noting the variances, Rita Boyd, travel services events manager, said they have to understand how one agency might report a ticket that was purchased in coach, but upgraded to first class.

Cultural and government issues also result in data variances. For example, Europe is much more cost-driven and mandated to follow certain policies and preferred vendors. Consequently, there is more data from these agencies.

Another company, The Eastman Group, Newport Beach, Calif., has launched a similar service bureau, called Travel Analysis, in the past year to collect global data directly from the world's four major computer reservation systems for Deloitte & Touche, Lufthansa, Midway Airlines and some travel agencies.

The benefit of this approach, according to president Richard Eastman, is that is offers an audit trail of what was used versus booked, and much greater detail on fares, commissions and taxes paid, including local taxes paid to each airport. Agencies are queuing reservation records to Travel Analysis, where they are dumped into a common database. Corporations can import the data into their existing databases, such as Sybase, Oracle or Access, to analyze the information.

While the CRS data is much richer and more accurate than back-office data, accessing it has the potential to cost a company in "hits" imposed by the various CRS vendors. Depending on what a client is looking for, Travel Analysis might have to look at each record more than once, thus driving up the hits.

The travel staff at Microsoft expects to study the ISP data over the next month or so, before sending the first quarterly reports to management with the start of the new fiscal year July 1.

Domestically, Microsoft receives reports from System One/Amadeus' MAX back-office system that agency American Express uses.

On the global front, the company uses American Express and other agencies, which use a variety of back-office systems.

In addition to collecting all the booked data, the travel staff also is contacting all subsidiaries for specifics on the airline deals they have in place. Plans call for the Redmond office to advise travel executives at each of the 56 subsidiaries of the findings, so all will be informed of what's out there.

"The goal is for each subsidiary to have its own travel program, with an umbrella global travel policy," Parsons explained. Microsoft wants to be able to use the data to leverage its $250 million in worldwide T&E spending.