Tech Cos. Making Full-Court Push Into Distribution Mkt.

As most travel management companies settle on one or more solutions for accessing and possibly booking Web-only fares, a small handful of new tech vendors have emerged as Web-fare leaders and at least two of them are gearing up to further penetrate the distribution channel.

While one established company, TRX, also has made substantial inroads with agencies on its Xpedition product, new Web-fare players, including Atlanta-based AgentWare, New York-based FareChase and Alexandria, Va.-based Outtask, have demonstrated enough appeal to convince travel management and technology vendors that they offer anything from temporary to permanent, and potentially influential, solutions.

The latest on these vendors includes a partnership between AgentWare and the Sabre-owned GetThere booking tool, an August timeframe for FareChase to offer Sabre agents Web-fare bookings, deals between FareChase and both Amadeus' E-Travel and I:FAO, and a new agency product from Outtask. However, the window of opportunity for Web-fare providers may be closing as some travel suppliers and corporate buyers report lower instances of Web-only fares being attractive to business travelers and airlines begin spreading such fares to other distribution channels and/or providing reports on bookings.

"Web fares are no longer an issue," said Mark Williams, Tampa-based director of Americas travel and meeting management for PricewaterhouseCoopers. "I think the airlines have pulled them from the business markets. We haven't heard from travelers that they can find better fares on the Web in six weeks."

Several other buyers interviewed last week by Business Travel News had not witnessed the same trend, but regardless of how useful Web-only fares are to business travelers, airline pricing practices are not something on which to base a business. According to recent research by Portland-based Topaz International, Web fares that beat actual agency itineraries appeared just 8 percent of the time in the first half of 2002, one percentage point higher than in the latter half of 2001.

That is why some providers of Web-fare finding technology are showing they have more to offer.

TQ3 Maritz supplements its TRX-provided system with Outtask—which uses FareChase—to integrate displays of both global distribution system and Web-only fares and to use a GDS-based PNR. According to Richard Spradling, corporate vice president of information technology with TQ3 Maritz Travel Solutions, "Web-fare solutions could become the permanent middleware technology."

That's how AgentWare see things.

"For smaller agencies, our mission is to be an alternative global distribution system," said Richard Keefhaver, vice president of business development for AgentWare. He said the company also is exploring the establishment of direct connections to travel vendors. In addition to the new GetThere relationship, AgentWare's client/partner list includes Navigant subsidiary Aqua Software, Galileo and its Highwire self-booking tool, Metropolitan, Northwestern, Stevens, Travel & Transport, Tzell and WorldTravel BTI.

While just a few early corporate adopters of Outtask's Cliqbook product are beyond beta testing, the company continues to add to its client list. The latest customers include 3Com Corp., Ciba Specialty Chemicals and Raymond James Financial. Outtask this month also announced its Cliqbook XA agency product and named Omega World Travel and VTS Travel Direct as partners. The company also hired Bob Langsfeld, formerly a founding partner of The Corporate Solutions Group consulting firm, as a senior vice president charged with growing the company's Cliqbook and Vinnet expense management products.