Motorola Asia Hits 90% On BTS

<B> Motorola Asia Hits 90% On BTS</B>

By Mary Ann McNulty

Motorola Asia in recent months has achieved 90 percent usage of Sabre Business Travel Solutions on total trips booked, slashing its travel and entertainment costs by an estimated 30 percent.

The secret: a mandate from senior management that clearly indicates that if one must travel, BTS is the way to book it. More than 8,700 employees in 12 countries began using BTS in January, said Scott Smith, vice president of marketing for BTS. They were clearly told that eligible trips not booked through BTS wouldn't be reimbursed. Within three months, usage reached 90 percent and has remained there, he added.

The adoption rates have far exceeded the company's original forecast. "We think over time it will grow a bit more," said Sabre's Smith. "We speculate that the 10 percent" of trips that continue to be made by calling the agency are from travelers who are away from the office or don't have access to the product.

Motorola Asia, a standalone division of the Schaumburg, Ill., high-tech firm, has deployed BTS in Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. As English is the common language of the company, the BTS deployment is all in English and is connected to Sabre instead of the Asian global distribution systems in which Sabre is a partner.

"Our users have found the transition to Sabre BTS simple, convenient and attractive because it is such a powerful tool," said Paul Rode, corporate vice president and director of finance for Motorola, who spearheaded the deployment. "Despite being deployed in multiple countries, Sabre was very flexible in handling Motorola's unique travel policy."

Looking for an online booking system last year, Motorola Asia sought "a service provider with a reputation for quality global support and one that fits with our overall corporate philosophy and technology direction," Rode said.

Although Sabre had no other Asian deployments at the time, Smith said, they told Motorola, "we'd love to have a launch customer on. We had a compatible customer to make this work with a strong corporate commitment to making the product work there."

BTS jumped at the opportunity to garner this business, even though it is its first widespread deployment outside the United States. Sabre has some deployment of the booking tool in Australia and Europe, but nothing of this scope.

"This supersedes most of the North American deployments," said Smith, referring to penetration levels. "It contradicts the widely held belief that you have to deploy these slowly and let them percolate throughout the organization and that you can't make this the policy."

Detailing his success at a recent BTS user group meeting, Rode "inspired all the folks there to take a long hard look at their rollout plans. He sort of shamed them" to increase usage, Smith said.

Sabre also said three other large companies recently rolled out BTS: 3Com, Dell and World Bank. More than 280 companies now are using the system.

Switching from Internet Travel Network (now GetThere.com) to BTS, the World Bank sought a system that could "work as a bridge to integrate booking data with our back-office system," said Debbie Horrell, contract manager for World Bank. "We are counting on Sabre BTS to help reduce our current travel spending," currently $110 million a year for air alone.