Tech Titans Top Masters Bill

<I>Washington, D.C. </I>- Revelations by the top travel services decision makers at Microsoft, IBM, EDS, Sabre and Andersen Consulting, along with news of a forthcoming monthly travel industry index, were highlights of the fifth annual Masters Program here last week.

The meeting, attended by nearly 100 senior travel services executives, included presentations by CEOs Joe Vittoria of Avis, Ivan Michael Schaeffer of Woodside Travel Trust, and this year's Masters chairman, Mike Boland of Maritz.

Travel Business Roundtable chairman Jonathan Tisch of Loews Hotels encouraged the most senior executives of travel suppliers, agencies and technology providers to join with the leaders of 71 companies who are working to raise the travel industry's profile among federal legislators and administrators by focusing on a few key common issues. Tisch also announced that the TBR will raise annual dues to $10,000 to properly fund the advocacy activities.

New E-Commerce Entrant

The technology panel, put together and led by WorldTravel Partners CEO Jack Alexander, served as a partial coming out for new entrant Andersen, which soon will launch an electronic commerce travel solution for the North American corporate market, Via World Network.

Elmer Baldwin, president and CEO of Via, said five companies-including one non-client technology partner-are testing the network. Via uses voice recognition technology and bill-at-use software at the point of sale to bypass agency and CRS transactions and provide direct settlement for non-value added processes, such as point-to-point self-bookings.

"The point-of-sale transaction is going beyond electronic ticketing," he said. "This enables the customer to pay only for used tickets, eliminating the problems and expense of refunding unused tickets."

Via, established as a separate enterprise last year, now has 120 employees working on what Baldwin called "the end-to-end commerce solution." He said Via has been developing interactive voice recognition technology with Bolt, Beranek and Newman that is currently 95 percent accurate.

Greg Conley, general manager, travel and transportation industry for IBM, said his company is not aimed at competing with distribution channels but that "IBM is betting its future on creating the next wave of network computing."

He said IBM would also soon begin trials with voice recognition products and that he is "bullish on smart cards." He noted IBM's recently announced smart-card trials with American Express and American Airlines, and said IBM and Amex will soon begin a smart-card pilot with a hotel company.

Robert Dirks, Hilton Hotels senior vice president of marketing, said after the meeting that his company will be the one doing that test beginning in early spring at a handful of Hilton's 38 airport properties. The test will be aimed at speeding checkin and checkout and providing guest profiles, possibly using a debit application. Dirks also noted last week's announcement that Marriott and Visa U.S.A. have partnered to develop chip technology.

Conley also mentioned IBM's efforts to develop expense management tools and to work with United on electronic ticketing and Business Travel Solutions in testing Lotus notes.

In contrast with Conley, Microsoft vice president of information products John Neilson (to whom Greg Slyngstad, general manager of the travel business unit, reports) declared, "We are a travel agent." He said the company had invested $400 million and 100 full-time people to the effort and expected it would be at least four years before it would turn a profit. He said that Microsoft and Amex were still on track to deliver Rome, the corporate counterpart to Expedia, by mid-1997.

Neilson estimated that in three years, 25 percent of bookings would be made directly with suppliers, 25 to 30 percent would be done online and the rest would be done through traditional travel agents.

Jose Ofman, corporate vice president and group executive of travel and transportation for EDS-who has been the architect of the company's entrance into travel since it began in 1989-said it is a more complex business than he thought it would be. While he does not see EDS' role as a one of a distributor, "we want to be the transformation agent in moving travel to a commodity market"-a scenario in which, he said, "distributors will own inventory and take risks."

Jeff Katz, president of Sabre Travel Information Network, said the vision for STIN is to continue as a preferred provider of travel solutions. Off the podium, he said that BTS already is in beta test for an intranet version at "less than 10" customer sites and should be available for a December release. Installations at Sabre's five largest customers-all of whom were waiting for the beta testing to wind up-are on the drawing board now, Katz said. By March of next year, the system should be on the market in Lotus Notes, Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 versions.

Also addressing the group was Jim Howell, president of The Howell Group and former chief economist for the Bank of Boston, who bore tidings of the Travel Business Roundtable's most significant accomplishment so far: the development of a monthly index that will be ready early next year which will show the travel industry as a leading economic indicator with a considerable impact on jobs.

Howell, who had been commissioned by the TBR to help develop the index, said the basic data exists for a rigorous and reliable index, and what remains to be done in "hanging statistical parameters around the industry" is to help clarify its linkage with employment.

"The economic indicator demonstrates that the travel business cannot be ignored," said Bill Diffenderffer, CEO and president of System One and chairman of TBR's policy committee. "The time-series data for the past 10 years is strong and reliable and shows that the industry is business-cycle sensitive."

The index is derived from data indexing ARC-member total sales, hotel and motel revenue, room occupancy rates, rental car travel and mileage per day, revenue passenger miles, consumer confidence, personal consumption of services and transportation employment. Corporate card spending data also will probably be factored in.

Vince Caminiti, senior vice president of sales for Delta Air Lines, suggested the group consider aircraft orders as another important indicator. At the program's close, Caminiti joined Diffenderffer and Jeff Harrow, president and CEO of Travel One, on a panel discussing other hot industry topics moderated by next year's Masters Program chairman, Roger Dow, vice president and general sales manager of Marriott Lodging.