BTN Names Online Agency Pioneer Travel Manager Of The Year

Business Travel News last night during the National Business Travel Association's annual convention in Dallas named as its 19th Travel Manager of the Year Ellen Hanzl, divisional assistant vice president of corporate travel with Computer Associates. Hanzl is the first high-volume corporate buyer to manage travel using what essentially is an online agency. In January 2002, CA closed its Amex onsite in favor of travel management services from Sabre's GetThere, which outsources fulfillment to TQ3 Travel Solutions.

Before selecting the unorthodox configuration, "We were not saving on self-booking because we were paying a fee to Sabre and we were also paying a management fee to Amex," Hanzl said. "It was the usual arrangement for a large onsite." When Computer Associates had installed Sabre BTS in 1999, the goal was to alleviate call demand on agents. As self-bookings grew to today's level of more than 60 percent, however, "fewer tickets were being handled by the agents, so we had fabulous customer service, but it was expensive to maintain an in-plant, three branches, management and 45 agents," Hanzl said.

Using the GetThere Fulfillment Service Option, Computer Associates cut back to 11 agents handling telephone and support for self-service reservations on nearly $40 million in U.S. booked air travel and reduced its transaction fees by half.