Rose To Buyers: Get Into Mobile TechCompanies in the next one to two years will reenergize stalled efforts to establish enterprisewide mobile technology standards and practices
(BTN, March 26, 2001), and corporate travel buyers need to be just as involved with their Information Technology departments on wireless initiatives as they have been in the development of intranet portal travel pages, according to Travel Tech Consulting Inc.'s Norm Rose. Rose's new 81-page report, called Emerging Trends in Wireless Technology and the Global Travel Industry, sponsored by WorldTravel Interactive, is a primer on the technical development of wireless standards and technologies and how travel industry vendors are integrating them. Wireless applications, hyped beyond reality in the late 1990s and into 2000, have an obvious home in the travel industry, Rose wrote, as "the frequent traveler is the early adopter of new mobile technology." Among the services either already available or in development are schedule alerts and other notification, reservations and location-based information. For business travelers, Rose said, a vital feature is integration with calendar applications.
"The challenge still is that plugging in flight times is difficult on little devices," said WorldTravel BTI senior vice president of marketing and business development Joe Monaghan. According to American Express Corporate Services vice president and CTO for corporate travel solutions Michael Laughlin, "Wireless was the buzzword of the year a few years ago. With 9/11 and everything else, it took a back seat quickly from a security point of view. I think many IT departments are still concerned about the security of wireless applications, but we are beyond the early adopters and now people are looking at ways to use devices for simple transactions."
Worldspan Ups Negotiated Faring CapabilitiesWorldspan's SecuRate negotiated rates solution is getting an upgrade with new global capabilities and a new brand, SecuRate Air Plus. The Atlanta-based global distribution system provider earlier this month said final user testing is underway, and the new solution will be available to Worldspan travel agency, e-commerce, corporate and airline customers later this month. SecuRate Plus "stores and processes all fare information, negotiated and published, in a single secure database," Worldspan said. Features include access to negotiated fares with Worldspan's E-Pricing for Worldspan Power Pricing and Power Shopper searches, full integration with Rapid Reprice for more complete, consistent repricing transactions and an expanded automated rules capability and historical fares and rules for more efficient processing. "In addition, SecuRate Air Plus' new user-friendly, Web-based user interface makes inputting and managing fare data faster and easier than ever," the company said.
Amadeus Boosts Booking Tool, ManagementAmadeus' E-Travel unit is rolling out version six of its Aergo booking product. According to E-Travel managing director Ian Wheeler, companies need solutions "without the hassle of purchasing multiple products to accommodate local requirements." Aergo enables the management of "multiple, global travel programs and policies from a single, secure Web source," supporting "all local market requirements, including languages, currencies, travel suppliers, low-cost carriers, travel content and date/time formats." Meanwhile, E-Travel last month said Amadeus veteran Marcos Issac was named director of corporate and distributor channels, based in Madrid, reporting to Wheeler. Amadeus said Issac will lead E-Travel's international business development, account management, implementation, sales and marketing teams for corporate accounts outside of the United States. Also, Kay Urban will succeed Tory McKinnon as president and CEO of Amadeus North America when he retires at year-end.