TQ3Navigant today announced the release of proprietary online corporate travel management solutions under the Passportal brand. Based partly on the Powertrip booking technology Navigant bought last year
(BTN, May 28, 2003), Passportal comes with both standardized and customizable models. The former, known as Passportal Standard, is designed for lightly managed corporate programs. It offers ticketing and agent call center services and five canned reports with fixed pricing, including $5 for a touchless domestic transaction and $15 for a domestic agent-assisted transaction. Paper document shipping costs $25, fax or phone reservations for cars or hotels are $15 and loyalty program upgrades are $20. Refunds, exchanges, cancellations and voids--which Navigant has said happen before the trip on more than half of reservations--cost $15. Self-enrollment costs $149.
Loading corporate net rates in both the Standard and custom Passportal Select solutions costs $500 per contract. While the Standard offering does not allow clients to collect vendor revenues, that is negotiable under Select. Traditionally, more than half of Navigant's GDS revenues are incorporated into customer contracts under an open-book approach. Passportal's backing global distribution system is Sabre, which Navigant said processed 70 percent of its worldwide GDS bookings in 2003.
Passportal Select is directed at the TQ3Navigant midmarket customer and offers customizable reports and more client control on the processing of reservations using the Aqua quality control tools. Pricing depends on the level of customization.
Navigant last year spent $3.5 million for Powertrip and two small TMCs, and while the company has invested in the tool's interface, policy management and security components, that expense does not equate to the original purchase price, said vice president of operations Gina Keating.
"They're not spending a hell of a lot of money on it, so if they can do it on the cheap and put together a product that answers the competitors selling against them, that's a defensive strategy," said Sidoti & Co. analyst David Gold. "Even if they don't get much usage, call it a cost of sales."
According to Keating, the product is not widely deployed across Navigant. "We're entering the initial sales and marketing phase." Keating was unable to refer
BTN to an early client. "We've asked some, but they declined the limelight," she said.