<FONT SIZE="+3"><B>Tech Talk</B>
10/28/96
<B>Diners To Deliver Automated Expensing</B>
Citicorp Diners Club intends to roll out an automated expense reporting system in the second quarter of 1997. In development since late 1995, the automated expense reporting product, Global Expense Manager, is expected to be beta tested in early 1997. A Windows-based product, GEM will allow travelers to select a variety of accounting codes and cost centers to bill their travel expenses. The product also offers great flexibility in entering expenses in foreign currencies. The software will be loaded onto employees' personal computers as well as on company file servers.
Travelers will be able to sort their charges by posting date, expense type, transaction date or Diners account number; itemize and indicate proper accounting codes; and provide necessary details. Users will then file their report to a server, which will notify a supervisor by e-mail to approve it. Funds will be disbursed via electronic funds transfer.
<B>Software Consolidates Data</B>
International Software Products of McLean, Va., has rolled out a new Windows-based version of its Navigator 2000 travel management reporting system. In use by about 20 global customers, including Booz Allen and Hamilton, Silicon Graphics, Unilever and Alexander and Alexander, Navigator 2000 captures data from a variety of sources-from all agencies used by a unconsolidated account, for example-and pulls it together into a single database. Until now, customers received monthly reports from International Software; the new version will allow them to produce regular and ad hoc reports at their desks.
<B>A Quintet of Booking Systems</B>
Five online systems are attracting attention this month. DirectLink, from Direct Travel of New York, released a new Internet version that moves bookings to real time and a Travel Policy Editor that allows corporations to filter displays to highlight or show only preferred vendors. US West has backed the new TheTrip.com, which offers limo as well as air, car and hotel reservations, and will soon begin e-mailing bargain fares to customers. And Associated Travel in Santa Ana, Calif., rolled out TravelBug.com, the first Website to use its Aqua quality-control system.
Meanwhile, Quiktix, the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based airline document distribution network, formed Voyager Technologies, offering low-cost ticket delivery as well as direct booking and Internet access. And even the European market seems to be going direct: In Aberdeen, Scotland, Seaforths Travel credits its new dial-in booking system, offered free to corporate clients, with bringing in 25 new customers. The system offers access to published fares as well as negotiated rates and consolidator rates. "We're a 30 million agency, and this system has gotten us into accounts we never expected," said director Gary Hance.
<B>System One Goes Online With ITN</B>
Under a new partnership inked last week, Internet Travel Network will provide and support private-labeled online booking sites that connect directly into the Amadeus res system for any of the CRS' 39,000 travel agency customers. System One's Stewart Alvarez said that while the CRS' own corporate-oriented system is still on schedule for Q1 '97 release, "easily 100" leisure and corporate agencies want Websites right now, and many "have been asking specifically about having us work with ITN."
<B>Northwest To Test Electronic Checkin</B>
Northwest Airlines in December will begin testing electronic service centers at ticket counters, gate concourses and World Club lounges in Minneapolis Airport. Offering functions that are similar to Continental's E-ticket machines, the systems will use touch-screen technology to facilitate airport checkin for electronic ticketing. The test will last four months before a rollout to other airports served by the airline.