Carlson Wagonlit Travel this week became the latest supplier to announce new services and technology designed for the midmarket as it launched in Europe its own packaged offering, which includes a newly built online booking tool.
CWT Connect Now is being rolled out in Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom, where the travel management company began testing with clients in December. The service will be available in Austria and Italy in the coming weeks and in Germany in April, according to global and midmarket marketing director for global sales in Europe, the Middle East and Africa Crystèle Erdmann, who added that there are plans to expand the product outside of Europe.
CWT generally is targeting companies that annually spend less than €7 million on total travel, but that figure varies by market. the target market in the Netherlands is corporations that spend less than €700,000 annually, for example, and in the United Kingdom less than £4 million, Erdmann said.
Like other midmarket pricing models announced in recent weeks, CWT is using a simple plan based on transactions. There are no additional costs for such services as implementation, administration and data hosting.
While CWT Connect Now bundles technologies like CWT's Program Management Center travel manager portal and Policy Messenger communications technology, the online booking tool is a new product that uses the Amadeus booking engine and has access to content on all major global distribution systems. CWT also is integrating online booking with alternative forms of payment, such as the increasingly popular direct bank transfers and online payment accounts through global providers like PayPal and local services like iDeal in the Netherlands.
Several suppliers have turned a sharper eye toward the midmarket of late, as it has showed better growth than larger corporations
(BTNonline, March 8). Erdmann said CWT Connect Now development began in December 2006. "Some years ago, in regards to moving online and adopting software to handle customer relationship or supply chain management all the large groups were the first to align their processes for software and automation," said Erdmann. "It's time for the SMEs to come to that."