<B>Riener Joins E-Booker</B>
After giving up on a company that lost a battle with electronic tickets, travel industry veteran John Riener is joining the world of electronic booking by becoming chairman and CEO of start-up vendor T-Direct, based in Reston, Va.
With a handful of clients that buy $35 million in air travel planning to beta test the TRez system beginning in December, T-Direct is a baby company compared with Riener's earlier ventures in the travel industry. He was the first CEO of American Express Travel Management Services, ran Amex's card and money order divisions, later became CEO of Gelco Travel and Payment Systems and, in 1989, was named CEO of the Carlson Commercial Travel Co. Recently, however, Riener has taken the e-commerce start-up road. He was president and CEO of Terion Inc. and also headed Docunet Inc., which recently shelved its plans for airline ticket delivery via ATMs. Riener left in June.
"We rolled out the product, but then pulled back as e-tickets were first introduced," said Riener. "E-tickets killed the whole electronic ticket delivery concept for airlines." But e-tickets are helping fuel the market for online bookings, which Riener believes is still wide open.
"I don't think anyone expected adoption to be better at this point," he said. "Well over 90 percent of the companies that wish to manage travel the way we're talking about have not chosen a system. One of the keys to T-Direct is that we are looking at what has gone before--and let's call them the first generation of any kind of online booking tool--and have used the new technologies in the Internet to really do it better."
While refraining from revealing what new features T-Direct will offer, Riener said the company is partnering with IT vendors PSINet and Metamor Worldwide to develop "some fairly unique, patentable technologies." He said the company is emphasizing incentives for travelers and travel arrangers to garner usage. "We spent a great deal of time and research talking to travel managers and agents to see what they'd like improved," said Riener. "The whole approach is not to be an online travel agency, but rather to provide these workflow solutions to both companies and travel agencies."
T-Direct will target clients with more than $1 million in air purchasing. The company will test with both midsize and large clients, and hopes to incorporate enterprise system integration and offer a full release by March 30. T-Direct has pushed back by six months its initial date for the start of beta tests, which had been June, according to president Gordon Locke (BTN, March 20).