Wal-Mart Goes 'Agentless'

<FONT SIZE="+3"><B> Wal-Mart Goes 'Agentless'</B>

By Stefani C. O'Connor

<I>Bentonville, Ark. </I>- In the race to mainstream electronic reservations, retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has at last cleared the security hurdle that blocked its efforts last year to implement an automated booking system for its corporate travelers. The national chain has rolled out a customized version of Rosenbluth International's E-Res agentless system to several corporate departments, where it will be beta tested.

Expectations are high for the PC-based system, which Wal-Mart developed as a negotiating tool. Wal-Mart anticipates the product will not only help ultimately streamline travel for its 7,000 travelers, but also will add leverage to its $87 million global T&E spend as compliance policies are met.

Rosenbluth has estimated that the system will save Wal-Mart 10 percent off its $30 million U.S. travel budget. Michael Jack, Wal-Mart's travel director, noted that "in our previous system, we saw about a 6 percent reduction in air cost, so we might see that again."

The system has been on the drawing board for two years, and for some industry observers, this month's "launch" might seem like a summer rerun. In June 1995, both Wal-Mart and Rosenbluth were gearing up for July implementation of the first phase of an integrated travel management solution that within six months was expected to handle a multitude of services (<I>BTN</I>, June 12, 1995).

But security issues snagged the process. The information systems staff had strong apprehensions about an outside vendor coming directly online, with the potential ability to link to the corporation's proprietary information.

"The internal security issue at Wal-Mart was successfully resolved by designing appropriate security, such as firewalls, to protect access to its internal system," said Barbara Frutchy, marketing director at Rosenbluth. "Because E-Res is an online connection, it's important for clients to feel comfortable with that connection."

The system allows travelers to book air, hotel and car rental on their PCs. It displays the most recent flight options and fares, as well as room and vehicle availability, and incorporates the company's travel policy guidelines, preferred suppliers and traveler profiles. The system also will use Rosenbluth's Trip Planner, a low-fare search tool.

According to Jack, Wal-Mart's travelers have been looking forward to the system's implementation and are comfortable with the technology. "The initial phase of rolling out a new project is to convince the travelers and the coordinators that they will like using the system, because they're very used to being in tune with a person," he said. "They want to know if this is going to be as user friendly as just calling somebody and letting them do all the work."

Wal-Mart's travelers have had a chance to weigh that choice. The retail chain had automated its travel reservations process more than six years ago with the help of World Wide Travel.

"When we left our old provider and went with Rosenbluth, there was a disappointment that we did not have another system ready to roll out," said Jack. "They were going back to the way we had previously booked it, which was to call a reservations agent, and they didn't want to go back to that format. They liked the options being right in front of them, where they could print it and make their own selection. They felt like they were going back into the Dark Ages."

The switch to Rosenbluth came after Wal-Mart looked at its travel system with an eye to going international, and decided "our previous provider could not meet the needs we had going through the rest of this century and into the next," Jack said. Although the bulk of Wal-Mart's travel is domestic, the company will be "leaning toward international" in the next few years, according to Jack. The corporation considered American Express and WorldTravel Partners before choosing Rosenbluth.

Wal-Mart is taking a two-sided approach to the new system and will be giving it a trial run not only with its travelers, but with support staff such as secretaries and administrative assistants, who will use it on a daily basis in the future.

"I think that ultimately, travelers or travel agents will use the system as the sole booking tool," Jack said. "A lot of the formats are built in, so that all you're doing is hitting some buttons that are confirmations of what you need. When the travelers come back, every single piece of data is captured from the accounting standpoint, so that all they have to do is go in and say, 'yes, I did stay at the Holiday Inn; yes, I did rent a car; and the charges are all correct,' and it's automatically shipped to our accounting department for processing."

Jack said the departments using the booking tool would account for about 10 percent of the company's total travel. Within a year, he expects the system to book about 60 percent of domestic reservations.

Other challenges Jack is looking to on the horizon include another automated booking product from Rosenbluth that is geared toward group movement; incorporation of an automated expense reporting system with pre-population features for transient and group via its card provider, First Bank Visa; and a continuing tilt toward net fares.