<B> Tech Talk</B>
By Mary Ann McNulty, Technology Editor
<B>SAS, Lufthansa Re-up With Sabre</B>
Ending its squabbling over equal representation in all global distribution systems, Scandinavian Airlines System has signed a new agreement with Sabre that expands its participation and has its sales force telling agencies and corporations in Denmark, Sweden and Norway how easy it is to book through the GDS. Lufthansa also signed a new agreement with Sabre, with essentially the same major points, though it hasn't yet resolved the legal disputes.
The SAS agreement resolves issues between the two companies concerning the U.S. Department of Justice antitrust investigation into the marketing practices of the Amadeus CRS and some carriers, but the investigation continues by the European Commission's Directorate General IV. The matter was referred there under a U.S. and European Union antitrust cooperation agreement.
<a name="2"><B>Smart Card Proponents Talk Privacy</B>
"Enabling Privacy in a Virtual World" is the subject to be debated by privacy advocates, lawyers, bankers, e-commerce experts and regulators in Washington, D.C., May 20 as the Smart Card Forum--a multi-industry organization working to accelerate the acceptance of smart card technology--convenes. "As companies and consumers converge on the Internet as the medium of choice for conducting business, the need to effectively and seamlessly address issues of security and privacy become increasingly urgent," said Donna Farmer, president and CEO of the Washington-based association. The group also made available for sale research it conducted last fall on consumer acceptance of smart cards (<I>BTN,</I> Sept. 14, 1998).
<a name="3"><B>Developers Hire Top Talent</B>
The hiring boom continues for booking and expense vendors, and even GDS Amadeus. Shoring up its product development ranks, Dallas-based Xtra On-Line hired Henry "Ric" Rodriguez, former vice president of research and development and chief architect for Borealis Technology in Reno, Nev., as its new vice president of software development. Rodriguez also worked for Seagate Software, Mobileware Corp., Novell Inc. and Genesis Business Systems. In the expense space, Captura Software Inc. in Bothell, Wash., hired former Microsoft manager Mike Houston as executive vice president of products, and promoted president and COO Dan Vetras to CEO, and Katarina Bonde to executive vice president of global sales and marketing. Houston has been consulting for the past two years, since leaving Clear Call Financial Inc. in Stoneham, Mass. At Microsoft, he managed the company's support online site and strategy for its Office suite. Rival Concur Technologies Inc. of Redmond, Wash., hired former Ameritech executive Bruce Chatterley as new executive vice president and general manager of EmployeeDesktop.com, its suite of procurement and expense software. Chatterley served as vice president of new products and business development for the Chicago-based phone company, and also worked for US West, General Electric Information Services and IBM. Finally, the U.S.-based operations for Amadeus hired Mel Trudeau as new vice president of commercial development, reporting to president and CEO Jim Davidson. Trudeau is charged with developing new market and revenue opportunities in traditional and non-traditional sectors, initially focusing on development of low-fare search products with technology partner ITA Software, the Cambridge, Mass., firm that Amadeus acquired last year. For the past 18 months, Trudeau has been consulting for American Express Corporate Services, following six years with Reed Elsevier and its OAG unit.
<a name="4"><B>Gelco Taps Eastman's Autolink For Booking</B>
To turn the vision of the Department of Defense's Travel System a reality, Gelco turned to Atlanta-based Innovata and Newport Beach-based The Eastman Group to deliver online inventory availability and pricing to its Gelco Travel Manager product. Using the Eastman Group's AutoLink gateway, the parties earlier this year connected the Travel Manager software with real-time air, hotel and car availability. The gateway also allows the DOD's agency, American Express, to integrate the profiles stored in the CRS to Travel Manager. While used by a number of federal government agencies to move the travel requisition, approval and payment to a paperless environment, Travel Manager until now didn't display real-time availability or link to a GDS. But DOD requirements forced Gelco to find a booking system that could link to multiple GDSs. AutoLink links to five--Abacus, Amadeus, Galileo, Sabre and Worldspan--as well as directly to many airlines.