Orbitz for Business said it signed an exclusive partnership
with GlobalStar to "extend its travel management capabilities into 75 new
countries" in Africa, Asia, the Pacific Rim, Europe and Latin America.
GlobalStar Travel Management's partner network comprises 80
travel agencies, 3,500 office locations, 14,000 employees and $13 billion in
annual travel sales. As part of the partnership, GlobalStar will "leverage
its local market expertise, innovative technology platform, consolidated data
management system and global account structure to deliver a consistent,
comprehensive travel experience for Orbitz for Business customers,"
according to the companies.
Orbitz for Business long has researched global expansion
options as it lost clients and passed on requests for proposals from those who
needed global capabilities. "While we had the stage set for a global
solution, there was a lot more that could be done," Orbitz for Business
president Frank Petito told The Beat.
"We had a spectacular offering for North American customers, we do a very
good job with Continental Europe, but there are some regions where we weren't
able to provide an offering. That impacted our ability to go after some of the
large customers. One of my major priorities upon first focusing on OFB [in
summer 2009] was how can we come up with a global solution that is comparable
to our existing North American and Continental Europe solutions?"
Orbitz for Business executives in 2009 and 2010
"explored a small number of agency networks" as they searched for a
partner, Petito said. "We have respect for the other networks, but elected
to work with GlobalStar because there's certainly a strong philosophical fit, a
good cultural fit and we were really impressed with the quality of the
integrated reporting they have."
"Obviously, the Orbitz for Business model is a very
good fit for us," added GlobalStar Travel Management president Steve
Hartwell. "We can learn off each other. The online model is different from
offline, but I think there are synergies."
Current and prospective Orbitz for Business customers
"will be able to work with GlobalStar agencies and we certainly expect and
hope that some GlobalStar agencies will elect to work with Orbitz for Business
technology," Petito said.
Decisions on the best online booking technology will
"very much be customer driven," Hartwell noted. GlobalStar agencies
have access to the "best-in-class local market solutions."
Orbitz for Business plans to look at market needs and adapt
its system accordingly. "The more work we do in different countries, the
more we will let the learnings influence our product development decisions to
ensure that the Orbitz for Business tool is, at the right time, available in
different countries where it currently isn't available today," Petito
said.
Online booking tools are "becoming very, very
important" in multinational RFPs, Hartwell said. "The driver market
generally for global consolidation tends to come from the United States. Where
they have a pretty high level of adoption in that market, they're looking to
roll that out to other markets, as well. Some markets are slower than others,
but there's very much a catch-up taking place now. Everybody is looking to
reduce costs in their travel budgets and the online solution is one of the ways
to assist with that. Our partners are embracing it; some markets will embrace
it more quickly than others. Certainly, we've seen the European market increase
[adoption] quite significantly in the last two years or so and the Asia market
will be the next market to see that happen."
Data Aggregation
Whichever booking tools are used to service a particular
client, all data will be consistently aggregated. "That was absolutely at
the top of our criteria when we were looking for an international
solution," Petito said. "There are going to be certain markets where
online adoption is low and people aren't actively looking for an online
solution. In these instances we will provide customers with one point of
accountability—Orbitz for Business—but they may choose to use a GlobalStar
agency. All the GlobalStar information will be consolidated with the Orbitz for
Business information and we'll provide one package of information on a regular
basis to our customers. We found GlobalStar's reporting second to none. They've
spent a lot of time investing in it."
TRX will continue to be a "key part of our reporting
functionality and GlobalStar reporting will integrate with our TRX package to
provide one consistent source of reporting and data to customers," Petito
added. GlobalStar's DataStar product also "is driven by TRX,"
Hartwell noted.
Targeting New
Customers
While the new partners intend to promote the relationship as
a means to expand service with current customers, "we're finding this
extremely impactful as we look to establish new relationships with corporate
accounts that previously might not have been able to work with us because they
had huge needs in India or China, for example," Petito said. "We've
been getting tremendous traction with prospective new customers who really are
supportive with this new model."
Orbitz for Business intends to maintain its existing
European call center in Berlin. "This is augmenting our existing
solution," Petito said, adding that the company is open to customers
working with a GlobalStar agency in Europe.
Regardless of the technology or service configuration,
Petito said global expansion "gives us the ability to service all
customers out there, regardless of size, whether a technology startup or a BTN 100 customer. It gives us the
ability to service North American points of sale, Asia/Pacific points of sale,
Latin American points of sale. As has always been the case, we can work with
folks on an online or offline basis, but folks that make the most sense for us
are those committed to a technology-enabled online solution.
"Right now we can solve for both online travel and
offline," Petito continued. "We currently are able to service the
needs of both small and large customers. But what this relationship really does
for us is give us the ability to service multinational companies with needs
around the globe—with virtually no exception."
Meanwhile, Orbitz for Business continues to book American
Airlines tickets for clients using "an inherently offline means,"
Petito said, following an AA decision in November to terminate its Orbitz
relationship. He added that discussions between the two parties are ongoing.
The article originally was published in The Beat.