Travelforce Pty Ltd and Aon to implement Travelport corporate online booking in Australia
Hong Kong – March 11, 2004 – Travelport Corporate Solutions, Inc., a leading provider of corporate travel management solutions and a subsidiary of Cendant Corp. (NYSE: CD), today announced that Travelforce Pty Ltd has become its first Travel Management customer in the Asia Pacific region. Following Travelport’s successful debut in the US last August, and in the UK last October, this new agreement signals Travelport’s continuing expansion into the major business travel markets around the world.
One of Travelforce’s largest clients, Aon Risk Services Australia Limited (Aon), will be the first of its customers to utilise Travelport to arrange and book corporate travel online for its 700 travelling employees. Aon is Australia’s number one provider of broking and consulting services for risk management, insurance transactions, reinsurance, employee benefits and superannuation.
Travelport’s online booking tool gives corporate travel managers unprecedented control and flexibility over travel programmes and a greater ability to influence policy adherence in the online environment while offering travellers an easy-to-use online system for arranging travel. Travelport is specifically designed to meet the needs of business travellers, travel coordinators and the travel management company. It is easily configurable into existing corporate systems.
Travelport’s broad functionality allows corporations to efficiently manage profile synchronization to ensure traveller data are accessible across different databases, enhance policy enforcement, and integrate pre-trip notification, web fares, fulfillment services, Premium Economy booking and multi-class itineraries. Leveraging the strengths of Galileo as a global distribution services (GDS) provider, Travelport has helped corporations reduce overall travel management costs by up to 40%.
More than 275 of the world’s leading companies are using Travelport. The BTTB Sydney 2004 Conference March 23 and 24 marks the official launch of Travelport in Australia and New Zealand. Galileo will be working closely with travel management companies when offering Travelport to corporations in these markets and elsewhere in the Asia Pacific region.
“We are delighted to launch Travelport in the Asia Pacific and warmly welcome the decision of Travelforce and Aon to take advantage of this unique and customizable business travel solution,” said John Guscic, Vice President South Pacific.
“We have carefully tailored Travelport to meet the needs of the Australia and New Zealand markets. The timing is right to introduce an integrated and flexible solution in the Asia Pacific’s evolving corporate travel marketplace. As companies continue to look for ways to reduce costs and assume more direct control over large cost centers, such as corporate travel – the second largest controllable expense within an organisation – we will continue to see demand in this region for cost effective managed programs increase.”
Travelforce CEO, Andrew Ross, said that the company is always keen to embrace the latest technologies to create savings for clients.
"We are excited to be first to market in this region with the Travelport solution. It is a world-leading web-based system which will be able to drive down transaction costs by up to 40% for our clients.
“We will deploy Travelport on our website via our new Ascent Client Management System under the branding 'Self Service'.”
Travelport makes its debut in Australia and New Zealand with new features that include Advanced Policy™, a second-generation travel policy adherence tool that leads the industry. Advanced Policy allows corporations to implement very detailed business rules to search more effectively, enforce policy more creatively and manage travellers better. Travelport is the only online corporate booking tool offering this capability.
“We are especially excited about our Advanced Policy capability,” said Kurt Knackstedt, Director of Product Management and Marketing (Asia Pacific). “This powerful element of the overall solution – by far the most advanced in the industry – offers Travelport users a unique benefit. We use dynamic rule settings – a system that obeys policy rules but can do a little bit extra for you. It’s like policy software with built-in common sense. So the system will search for an airline specified by the travel manager. But it will go back a second time and interpret the policy to deliver the best fare from available inventory, while also capturing and inserting trip-specific benchmark data. Our competitors only have 1st generation travel policy – they are missing dynamic rule settings.”
ABOUT TRAVELPORT
Travelport Corporate Solutions, Inc., a subsidiary of Cendant Corp. (NYSE: CD), is a global full-service provider of strategic services and tools for mid- and large-sized corporations, providing access to online booking tools and global distribution services. Travelport was designed in partnership with customers and provides flexible solutions to corporations directly, and in association with its growing network of travel management companies. Through its vast portfolio of proprietary tools, Travelport is easily configurable into existing corporate systems to help increase employee adoption and reduce expenses while still meeting the high demands of business travellers. As a Cendant company, Travelport offers corporations ongoing stability, accountability, innovation, commitment and flexibility that only come with control of ownership from a leading name in travel. For more information, please visit www.Travelport.com.
ABOUT TRAVELFORCE
Travelforce was founded in 1976 and is the leading independent corporate travel organisation in Australia. It boasts a large team of travel professionals and is led by Andrew and Mary-Lou Ross. A winner of numerous awards and accolades the company prides itself for providing great service, whatever it takes, in both the corporate and leisure sectors. It services some of Australia’s best-known organisations from industries such as banking and finance, entertainment, food and beverage, manufacturing, insurance, mining, legal and government. Typical clients of Travelforce will have an annual travel expenditure of between AU$50,000 and AU$5,000,000.
Contact:
Stuart Ridsdale
Corporate Communications Manager, Asia Pacific
Cendant Travel Distribution Services
Tel: (852) 2821 2301 (direct)
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NOTE TO EDITORS
Travelport is a high-end online corporate booking tool that is now tailored to meet the needs of the Australian and New Zealand markets. Key features include:
· Advanced Policy
Travelport’s industry-leading Advanced Policy management system is like travel policy software with built-in common sense. It’s designed to give organizations maximum flexibility and control. Instead of only using traditional corporate hierarchy rules, Travelport allows companies to apply policies in multiple ways, including by specific search criteria or trip purpose. Advanced Policy also gives corporations more power over how the system shops and displays fares to help direct travellers to a company’s preferred vendor rates. Travel managers can increase traveller satisfaction, policy adherence, and online adoption, while improving supplier contract performance.
· Web Fares
The ability for low cost carriers that do not participate in Galileo to be bookable in Travelport. This ensures Travelport provides a hassle-free single solution for the corporate travel agency servicing a corporate client.
· Premium Economy
Travelport is the first online booking tool to let corporations and business travellers book and select seats for Premium Economy class – with integrated support for travel policy.
· Multi-class Itineraries
If the trip is allowed in business class one way but only economy coming back, Travelport Release 12 has new functionality that specifies this type of policy.
Travelport is already a leading provider of corporate travel solutions worldwide:
· Reducing costs and driving adoption – Travelport’s 30-30-30 performance
On average, Travelport solutions reduce costs by 30%, can be implemented in as little as 30 days, and enable 30% adoption within a few weeks of implementation.
· Designed in partnership with customers
Travelport was designed in partnership with customers and provides flexible solutions to corporations and travel management companies. It is easily configurable into existing corporate systems.
· Fulfillment
Travelport offers fulfillment through leading travel management companies in Australia and New Zealand.
The Travelport name originated from Highwire, Inc’s online booking tool – Travelport.net
· The Travelport name replaced Highwire, Inc. in August 2003 and the name of the Cendant subsidiary is Travelport Corporate Solutions, Inc.