Travel technology firm TRX today will begin a two-week beta test with six corporate customers of its new TravelTrax standard offering, which provides simplified reporting using Web 2.0 architecture.
TRX plans to incorporate feedback from the beta test into the product in time to go live with it at the CFO Rising conference in Orlando in late March, when it will make it available to new customers. It plans to give existing customers access to the new tool by the end of June.
The new corporate data reporting tool initially will provide an eight-report summary on the traveltrax.com Web site, which customers can use to get high-level insight into their air, hotel and other travel-spend patterns and drill down for further detail, said Greeley Koch, TRX vice president for corporate solutions.
Koch said TRX initially conceived of the tool about one year ago to provide information for executives at companies without dedicated travel managers and with U.S. air volumes of about $2 million and smaller. All of the companies beta testing the product are of this size. Since acquiring Travel Analytics
(BTN, Aug. 14, 2006) and Hi-Mark Software
(BTNonline, Dec. 7, 2006) last year, however, Koch said TRX also has seen larger companies with a need for this kind of summary report tool. He said TRX would work to incorporate feedback from larger companies over the next few months.
Meanwhile, the tool has been strengthened by Hi-Mark's advanced data-stream capabilities, he said, and TRX's analytical tools that show buyers the kind of programs that they possibly could negotiate.
While pricing for the standard offering has yet to be resolved, TRX will offer the tool through an annual software license. TRX also will soon deliver a more high-powered "professional" version, and a version for travel agents it calls an "enterprise" version. TRX will sell directly to corporate customers and also through travel agency partners.