Regionals Offer Tech Solution
Seven regional travel agencies have teamed to develop an automated end-to-end travel management solution that they are now offering their corporate clients.
The Travel Management Alliance, which formed last fall (BTN, Sept. 9, 1996), hired technology consultant Rock Blanco, president of Medfield, Mass.-based New Media Solutions, to oversee the construction and maintenance of TMA Online, the completed Internet-based system that he unveiled to the agency collective's clients earlier this month.
The solution Blanco devised incorporates software from some of the most respected names in the business. For an automated booking module he chose software from The Eastman Group; for management reporting, he managed to license the Prism Travel Manager Workstation product just before Prism sold the rights to Sabre for its BTS product; and for expense processing he chose VIN.net.
While the partners have pooled their financial resources to create this system, they will market it to clients individually.
In addition to providing state-of-the-art technology at an affordable cost, the partners also are expecting the alliance to broaden the scope of their services by increasing their purchasing leverage for their clients. "It is here that our influence by virtue of our combined volume will most definitely be felt," said Paul Salvatore, president of Robustelli World Travel.
The alliance intends eventually to purchase hotel and airline inventory.
The regional agency alliance, which consists of Austin Travel, Fugazy International Travel, Robustelli World Travel, Sea Gate Travel, Stratton Travel Management, Worldtek Travel and Britannic Travel Limited based in England, has identified more than 200 prospective buyers among its clients, most of which have air volumes of $500,000 to $2 million. The combined volume of the agencies would make it the sixth largest agency in the United States.
Paul Leyh, president of Stratton and chief operating officer of the Travel Management Alliance, said the partnership will increase bargaining power, reduce operational costs and improve customer service.