TravelNet's Voyager combines sophisticated data management, comprehensive inter-CRS communications and Web-oriented user interfaces to create the first full-featured, integrated travel management system.
On-line travel booking and travel management can revolutionize the corporate travel industry, dramatically changing the way corporations, travel agencies and travel vendor do business. But, integrated travel management systems, while widely announced, have been slow to appear. With great savings, convenience and speed to be gained from such systems, one can only ask, why?
After all, it is easy to envision a single system that could: 1) meet the corporation's need to reduce the cost of travel; 2) give travel agencies a means of reduce training costs, while improving the quality of the travel services they provide; and 3) help the travel suppliers establish a lower cost of distribution by linking their supply of seats, rooms and cars with the large corporate buyers who can guarantee regular, predictable, and high volume purchases.
Most of the elements of an integrated system are already in place. Large amounts of travel information (flight, hotel and car availability and rates) is available from semi-public databases (customer reservation systems or CRSs). In addition, most corporate travelers, with modem-equipped personal computers already on their desktops, have ready access to the Internet. This means that with the right tools, they could access those databases easily. Finally, on-line systems could produce excellent paper trails making the reporting (and future budgeting) of travel expenses a snap.
The difficulty lies in the design and implementation of the sophisticated information system that is capable of capturing, extracting and analyzing travel information from a variety of sources. The information in the CRSs is fragmented and difficult to decipher, requiring a sophisticated user (i.e., the trained travel agent) to perform information queries and book travel. In addition, existing CRS travel systems when communicating flight, fare and booking information are not able, except in the most rudimentary way, to maintain an on-line database of travel transactions, itineraries or other important travel information. CRSs are only communication systems, they are not data capture, storage and reporting systems.
An integrated travel management solution must blend a real-time communications system, a comprehensive database system, a CRS-to-human and human-to-CRS translation system, and provide easy-to-use graphical interfaces. The system must easily and effectively connect to existing CRS databases, maintain a comprehensive and up-to-date corporate travel database, and provide real-time reporting of department, company and individual travel information.
Some recently introduced PC-based travel booking systems provide only piecemeal solutions and fail to take into account the complexities of the CRS systems and thus provide little in the way of information or control. For example, once a seat is reserved using this system the user cannot find out anything more about the travel order. They cannot confirm it, change it, or do anything else with it. A trained agent must be used to perform these functions. This simple on-line reservation does not reduce the overhead of the travel transaction. This is not an integrated travel management system and does not meet the needs of the corporation, the travel agencies or the travel suppliers.
In developing the TravelNet Voyager system, TravelNet worked with corporations, travel agencies and travel suppliers to create a system that delivers on the promise of integrated travel management. Voyager's functionality is designed to reduce the overhead of travel on both the traveler, the corporation and the travel agency. This system also provides valuable information for the corporation or agency to use in planning and negotiating agreements with the travel suppliers. This gives both the travel consumer and the travel vendor a better means of managing the purchase and delivery of travel.
The Voyager on-line integrated travel booking and management system allows the corporate user to access a wide array of travel data on airlines, autos and hotels directly from a corporate intranet, or client/server system. Users can make travel arrangements using any number of corporate guidelines (such as preferred carriers, discounted auto providers, alternative scheduling options, etc.). Travel plans can be documented and sent to management (either corporate or department) for approval or notification. When approved, the trip will be booked based on the lowest cost combination of carriers, flight times, hotel reservations and auto rentals.
When the trip is completed, the expenses of the travel can be recorded and actual versus planned reports can be compiled as well as a documented travel expense report. The corporate travel manager and the Chief Financial Officer will have the information to accurately budget for future travel expenses and to track actual performance figures versus those planned. They also have the precise and up-to-the-minute information they need to successfully negotiate even better travel arrangements with their preferred carriers on a route-by-route basis.
The power of the Voyager system derives from several factors including:
The key components of the Voyager system include a scalable, multiprocessor UNIX system, a powerful communications subsystem, the CRS language translators and interpreters, and the graphical user interface.
The Voyager system is a multiprocessing, multiuser system that supports multithreaded and real-time communications. The system uses a modified real-time UNIX operating system and a scalable, extensible hardware and software application architecture. One of the keys of the success of the system is its ability to easily connect to existing travel systems and internal corporate databases with a secure database organization.
The partitioning of the system into independent functional "engines," a key design feature, brings a number of important system benefits. Naturally, partitioning makes it easy to scale the system upwards by transparently adding and subtracting hardware resources as the end-system requirements change or grow. Just as importantly, the partitioning of communications subsystems and internal trip and travel databases allows one communications subsystem to funnel many separate user requests through a single economical connection to multiple CRS systems. This is an important advantage when considering the cost of multiple connections to existing travel databases maintained on mainframe architectures. It also allows Voyager systems to be scaled upward without the crippling costs associated with expanding existing travel systems.
A Voyager-specific application program interface protocol or API is used in each of the separate subsystems. When one component needs a function being performed by another processor, it makes a request to that subsystem via a standard API. In this way, it can perform its function without being concerned with any other function. The side benefit of this architecture is that it is easily scalable. Processors can be added or subtracted as needed by the overall system requirements without involving any changes in the majority of the processors and other system functions.
An important feature of the system is its ability to support simultaneous and multiple access to remote CRSs. This allows an initial travel inquiry to be sent via Voyager to several CRS systems. The information obtained from the CRSs can be cross-checked and compared and only the most appropriate data displayed back to the user. In this way, the Voyager system can search and analyze data from many suppliers, seeking and finding the best possible fares and routing combinations for the traveler. Since this process is automated, the user need not be trained or experienced in the ways that airlines and hotel reservation systems are designed. Also, since this activity is automated, it is much faster than a traditional travel agent making multiple requests to several CRSs one at a time.
A key design consideration of Voyager (one that is quite unlike other travel systems) is that a CRS database is only a travel vendor's system, one of many available to Voyager users. Therefore, when the traveler uses a CRS, Voyager assumes there will be multiple accesses to several CRSs. There is an expandable lookup table of vendor resources and how to connect and translate information available from each one. This table includes information on how to access vendor databases and our to connect to existing internal corporate databases and even external travel databases outside the corporation.
Traditional systems assume that any access to a CRS is for purchasing a ticket using that vendor's system. Thus, very little information other than the booking and reservation information is recorded. Access is through a mainframe connection that requires an IBM 3274-type terminal using a specific "terminal address" for each terminal. (Even when using PCs and Macintoshes to access these systems, they are acting in 3274 emulation mode.) Existing access to CRSs required dedicated terminal addresses (TAs) to be assigned to each terminal when they log on to the CRS system. Until they log off, this address is tied up, and no one else can use it. Even for highly trained travel agents, a typical transaction can range from 5-7 minutes to as much as 15-20 minutes on-line. For untrained corporate travelers, searching cryptic CRS systems the time may be far greater.
When corporations contemplate giving these untrained corporate travel users the ability to "roam" around the travel infrastructure "exploring" travel options, the idea of needing thousands of terminals using dedicated terminal addresses is daunting. The reason is cost. Access to terminal addresses is a monthly fixed cost that can soar unacceptably as the numbers go up.
Voyager handles TAs quite differently. Voyager does not tie a TA to a user. Rather a communications subsystem can maintain a single TA and support multiple user requests without incurring an unacceptable cost. This allows Voyager systems to continue to be economical to operate even as they are scaled upward in size and number of users, even untrained, occasional users.
One of the empowering tools that makes this automated querying possible is a sophisticated CRS parser/composer/interpreter. As any travel agent will attest, the CRSs have a cryptic language all their own. TravelNet has employed sophisticated parsing, interpreting, and composing software techniques to support a wide range of comprehensive communications between a "human initiated" information or booking request and the CRS's computer (circa 1970s) language. All of the translation between user and CRS takes place transparently, but is absolutely and fundamentally important to the success of this automated query system. The creation of this "human-to-CRS" and "CRS-to-human" language system is similar to the task of creating an automated French-to-English and English-to-French translator. Not just a dictionary, it must understand complete sentences and comprehend a wide range of possible responses to the same request. And, it must be able to compose intelligible requests to put to the CRSs. This is not a trivial task, and is one that must be solved by anyone attempting to automate the query procedure. TravelNet's Voyager is already compatible with the most widely used airline, hotel and auto CRSs including Sabre, Apollo, and THISCO. In real life usage it has been quite successful in achieving both effective translations and compositions.
The TravelNet Voyager communication subsystem, in addition to being multilingual, can track information from the CRSs that is created outside of the Voyager system. For example, the CRSs maintain an internal database of transactions and a record of any individual session. A session may be a set of requests and responses that result in a booking of a flight or the generation of a Passenger Name Record or PNR (seat reservation). Voyager is able to access and read the internal CRS temporary database files so that it can track events, travel plans and ticketing activities for the corporation, even when those activities are being generated from traditional 3274 data terminals. This means that as a company implements a Voyager system, it can continue using its traditional methods of travel booking and still integrate this information into its overall corporate database via Voyager. Voyager can incorporate all of the corporationÕs travel information, regardless of where and how it was generated.
There are two key to the power of Voyager's travel database technology: data capture from start to finish, and the organization of the data into a "trip" database as well as a "corporate" travel database. The Voyager system starts to capture data the moment the user begins planning the trip and retains all of the data generated throughout the entire process. This means that all trip information, even that generated by other systems, is maintained in the Voyager databases. For example, a Voyager system can provide information on trips planned one way, but ticketed another way. Or, Voyager can provide information about trips planned and booked, but not taken. Or, Voyager systems can track trips not planned at all, and even processed using external travel systems.
Best of all, this complete corporate travel information is available in real-time, giving the corporate travel manager instant access to information on planned, booked, ticketed and actually expensed trips. This is a great improvement over waiting for information from the airlines' accounting systems that take up to 60 days to process accounts and then provide only final expensed data at that.
The organization of the Voyager travel information into a trip database gives the travel manager a better view into the travel data. Typical travel systems use only the PNR record from the CRSs as the data storage system. With Voyager, a lot more information, including what was planned, what was booked, what was ticketed, who traveled and when, and what was reported as expensed, as well as what needed authorization and who actually approved the expenditure, is available for measurement and analysis.
In addition to the individual trip database, a separate decision support database is maintained. This allows access to important corporate travel information without compromising the security of personal information contained in the trip database. A typical trip database may include sensitive personal information of the traveler such as credit card numbers, home telephone numbers, spousal names, etc. This information should not be available to the corporate manager, even though other trip information is necessary. Voyager maintains separate databases so that personal privacy and data security can be maintained.
In addition to separate databases, Voyager supports several levels of database security. These include password protection, for system and database access. At logon both a user ID and a password is required and there are several levels of system administrator assigned security levels. Each access level is restricted in the ability to view sensitive personal and corporate data. In addition, there are network security measures initiated at logon by the dispatch server that protects against sabotage or unauthorized access through data terminals. A secure firewall that monitors all access and allows legal access and legal commands only provides protection against remote users inadvertently or maliciously accessing or damaging the system.
Another important facet of the Voyager database technology is its ability to flexibly connect to alternate travel databases. Using the database server and communications "engines" links to popular commercial database systems can be easily made and maintained. This means that if a corporation already has a corporate database system, information can easily be transferred between that system and a Voyager system.
The core of the Voyager corporate travel databases is held in the SQL database server and its associated trip and decision support databases. This relational database technology provides a comprehensive means to store guidelines, planned travel budgets, booked travel plans and actual travel expenditures. It also provides a flexible means of creating custom reporting functions for the CFO or CIO as well as the standard travel reports required by a corporate travel manager. Individual trip report templates can be generated with all of the booked expenses already filled in. This allows the individual traveler to produce trip expense reports easily. Department travel reports and corporate travel reports can also be generated so that the travel manager or department manager can see instantly how the group is performing versus the current budget, forecast or goal. Finally, corporate-wide information can be maintained and presented to the CFO so that they can quickly apply this information against any corporate discounts that may be available.
A prime example of this is when a corporation has negotiated favorable rates with two carriers. These rates will be applied when a set threshold of travel is passed. With TravelNet Voyager, the instant that the first threshold is achieved, the corporate travel manager can be notified and subsequent travel can be routed to the second carrier in order to achieve the second discount faster. This gives the corporate manager a means of achieving corporate discounts faster and the hard information on actual travel usage to use in future negotiations with carriers.
E-mail links allows the travel system to be used to notify department and travel managers in advance of travel. In some cases, travel may need to be approved. With TravelNet Voyager, as soon as the booking information is obtained, an e-mail notice can be sent to the appropriate manager for notification or approval, before the booking is actually placed.
The last important component of the TravelNet Voyager system is the user interface. Great care was taken to replace the cryptic CRS command line interfaces with easy-to-understand graphically-oriented user interfaces.
Both the Voyager client/server and Web/intranet interfaces provide colorful, easy-to-use, forms-based screens to simplify the travel planning and booking process. By simply "filling-in-the-blanks" where appropriate, a traveler can complete a request for information for a particular travel itinerary. This results in a form that is stored in the trip request database internally by the Voyager system. This form is translated into the appropriate CRS queries and sent out via the Voyager communications subsystem across several CRSs. When the information from the simultaneous queries is obtained, the most appropriate data is sorted and presented back to the user via the forms-based display screens.
Best of all, the interface to a Voyager system is real-time and interactive. Often when a trip is planned, information gathered in the research and booking process will change the plan and the final trip will be a result of the initial intention, decisions made on the basis of what is available, and individual personal preferences uncovered in the research and booking stages. Because Voyager is real-time and interactive, this process of initial plan, research, modification of the plan, and implementation is fast, efficient and able to be executed by a untrained occasional user.
Unlike other systems, such as a "store-and-forward" type system designed to help individual corporate travelers book travel themselves, Voyager works the way the user is likely to work. Store-and-forward systems work on the premise that a travel request form can be filled out by the user and then submitted to an automated system which in turn finds the best travel options. Approximately 20 minutes after a travel form is filed, a set of options is returned, from which the traveler is to choose the best option. The problem of such systems is that they ignore the reality of the modification of the travel plans based on the information available. In real-life, untrained system users find that each travel interaction takes several rounds of research, decision making, additional research, additional decision making, and so on, before a final booking can be completed. After a few such experiences, the typical corporate traveler will quickly pick up the phone and call the corporate travel agent. This defeats the purpose of putting travel booking abilities on the desktop of corporate users. In contrast, Voyager's easy-to-use interactive user interface is economical in its demands on both user training and user time.
Integrated travel management systems will rapidly change how corporate travel is managed. From a loosely controlled, individually managed function that is time consuming and costly, travel management will become an on-line, easily implemented function that is also closely managed at the corporate level. Advanced systems such as TravelNet's Voyager are enabling this change by making it possible for corporations and agencies to implement guidelines and standards while simultaneously giving the individual user flexible control over arranging individual travel.
In Voyager, TravelNet has used its advanced technology to implement a flexible and powerful database design, an easily expandable system hardware and software architecture, and an easy-to-use graphical user interface, all with links to existing travel and corporate database infrastructures. As the first commercially available integrated travel management system, TravelNet Voyager has set a new benchmark in this emerging field.