TV Network Pilots Self-Bookings On Air Canada

<I>Ottawa</I> - The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. will mark a national first in mid-February by beta testing a new corporate booking system provided by preferred suppliers Air Canada and Galileo.

While the software at first will facilitate booking and display negotiated rates for the Ottawa-based news agency, director of corporate acquisitions and negotiations Douglas Stuewe expects to add expense reporting and management information modules within 60 days. Fifty techno-savvy CBC employees will test the client-server system, which connects CBC to the Denver res office of Galileo via already-laid direct lines.

The partners also plan on rolling out the system to other early adopters. Air Canada's general manager of product distribution, Ron LeRadza, said the carrier already has identified and spoken with other corporate accounts about setting up additional tests.

CBC is confident that the system is the optimal booking product for its needs. "Every company is different, but this will be a much better version of what I've seen out there for our needs," said Stuewe. He said he had visited other companies testing Galileo's airline-branded products, USAir's Corporate Priority Works and United Connection, and Sabre's BTS.

One feature of the Air Canada system allows the product to identify where CBC news crews are going and generates a message sent to the airline to account for the extra baggage and equipment requirements.

"Clearly, this will be one of the most powerful products in terms of thoroughness," LeRadza said. "For example, the information module will enable real-time, within-the-month downloads of corporate travel data." The companies are unsure whether they will use Galileo's Travel Master expense reporting product as the expense module; "there are a lot of exciting products out there," Stuewe said.

Neither Stuewe nor LeRadza could speculate on how much will be saved. LeRadza said the airline's distribution expenses reached nearly $600 million in 1995. "We're looking at all distribution costs, whether they're commissions, CRS fees, credit card fees or reservations expenses," he said. "We're rolling out e-ticketing next month to Canadian travel agents. There are a lot of opportunities there."

According to LeRadza, computer telephone integration could become a feature of the system in a few years if the economics are right. The technology allows bookers to talk to a computer via telephone. In addition, CBC eventually may try to set up a direct connection between the system and Canada's other major CRS, Sabre. Air Canada's internal reservations system is not a part of Galileo's core system, so a direct connection between the company and the airline is not out of the question either. "We're clearly exploring all the avenues that make sense. If those ones do, we'll look at them," LeRadza said.

The project marks a milestone for CBC in an effort that goes back three years, when Stuewe first approached another CRS with the idea of going direct. "It's not just a piece of technology," Stuewe said. "It's a better way of doing business.