FORT WORTH, Texas -- When Sabre announced it would purchase GetThere.com for
$757 million and meld its corporate self-booking tool -- Sabre BTS
-- into GetThere's, two competitors in the market didn't exactly
sound the bell of doom.
TRX and e-Travel said their businesses will improve because some
concerned customers of Sabre BTS and GetThere will look elsewhere
for business-to-business, self-booking solutions.
TRX, the former technology arm of WorldTravel Partners that spun
off to form an independent company in 1997, said it expects an
increase in the sale of ResAssist, TRX's on-line travel booking
application.
Steve Reynolds, executive vice president and chief technology
officer at the Atlanta-based company, said he already has received
a few phone calls from wary Sabre BTS customers.
Reynolds said he believes integrating two solutions into one is
a difficult process rife with technological hassles that will
inevitably inconvenience customers.
"You've got two very large code bases developed on different
platforms," said Reynolds. "One product is in one language and
another in a different language. You have to pick one."
Because Sabre will market the new product with the GetThere
label, Reynolds speculates that "what you get is a GetThere.com
version with some added BTS features."
In GetThere, Sabre acquires a technology company that espouses
the supplier-direct model -- booking business travel directly from
suppliers, bypassing the intermediaries -- the travel agent and the
CRS.
GetThere hasn't established any direct links as of this
publishing, but said it has concrete plans to do so with several
suppliers by the end of 2000.
TRX, through its latest project called the XML Distribution
System, is developing technology that will enable customers to
connect directly with suppliers and the CRS companies through a
travel portal.
Paying $757 million means Sabre doesn't have to develop that
technology itself.
"GetThere is headed on the supplier-direct path," said Reynolds.
"If I'm a [CRS like Sabre] and see that's the way the market is
going and my marketplace is eroding because of it, I either build
[a supplier-direct model] or go buy it."
E-Travel, the Waltham, Mass.-based company that already has set
up direct links to suppliers for its customers (including
Continental, Delta and Hertz), said customers of GetThere and Sabre
BTS contacted e-Travel, voicing concerns about the acquisition.
"Also, we've had employees from both companies contact us about
job opportunities," said Rob Wald, director of product marketing
for e-Travel.
"This type of transaction can be very disruptive," Wald
continued. "For people who work for BTS in Dallas, who knows what
they may be thinking at this time?"
Similarly, Reynolds said Sabre BTS and GetThere employees have
called TRX with similar inquiries.
Wald also said if he were a Sabre BTS customer, he'd be
concerned the product he was using is "going away." In addition, he
wondered what significant returns Sabre would get for $757
million.
"I'm struggling to determine what Sabre gets that it didn't have
already," said Wald. "They get [CRS] independence. That's about
it."
Wald is referring to the capability of GetThere's solution to
connect with all four CRSs. Travel bookings made on Sabre BTS are
drawn from inventories on Sabre's CRS.