Via Adopts A New Strategy

<B> Via Adopts A New Strategy</B>

By Mary Ann McNulty

<I>Minneapolis</I> - Finding it more difficult than expected to push its unique suite of direct booking offerings into corporations, Via World Network is adjusting its distribution strategy to pull products into corporations with the help of airline, agency, consolidator and other industry partners.

At the same time, it released a new version of its Via Voice speech recognition software (not to be confused with IBM's product of the same name), that relies on Nuance Communications' natural language application. Previously, Via used speech recognition technology from BBN Hark, now GTE Internetworking.

This fall, Via intends to deploy the latest version of the software to allow premium Northwest Airlines customers to book air, car and hotel using voice prompts on a toll-free reservation line and automatically exchange and refund electronic tickets (<I>BTN,</I> May 18).

The distribution strategy change was made late this summer, according to Elmer Baldwin--president and CEO of the limited liability company wholly owned by Andersen Consulting--after he and the owners evaluated the business plan.

Because of the new distribution strategy, Candace Sneberger, formerly vice president and general manager of managed travel markets, left in September. Via, which began its corporate sales efforts in early 1997, is still marketing directly to corporations--having just sent out 500 kits to companies--but is no longer relying solely on direct sales to corporations for business.

"We are more aggressively selling through channels. We believe that a much more effective approach to making lasting change happen is to work with agencies and others," Baldwin said. "We have wasted so much time trying to work with corporations that really were not interested in restructuring their relationships with agencies."

Denying rumors that Via is no longer being marketed to corporations or distributed within Andersen Worldwide, Baldwin said, "Those are great rumors, but they're not true. All owners and all enterprises constantly reevaluate their businesses. That's an ongoing process. We went through an extensive and fundamental review of our business and we're constantly making adjustments to grow this business."

Within Anderson, Via has deployed its online and voice booking systems to all 25,000 employees in North America and is now focusing on boosting use. As with most such implementations, Via has developed a variety of incentives to encourage use. In addition, it has hired a market research firm to survey employees and learn what else would encourage them to use the automation.

Baldwin declined to discuss adoption numbers now. However, of those using its technology, more than 65 percent are using the online product with the remainder using voice response.

Via has direct links to four airlines--Continental, Northwest, TWA and US Airways. Settlement is by credit card, both through the Airlines Reporting Corp. and direct with airlines.