MINNEAPOLIS -- In a business travel world filling up with dot-coms
similar to a Wild West gold rush town being overrun by would-be
prospectors, it's getting tough to stand out.
One way to stand out is to have an unusual name. One of the
newest arrivals, Yatra, a company that aims to provide a travel
management environment for small to midsize companies, has a name
with nary an "e" or a dot-com.
"Yatra" means "journey" or "trip" in Sanskrit, an ancient Indian
language (some of the Minneapolis-based firm's founders are of
Indian origin.)
Three of the founders also have backgrounds in the travel
industry.
Mukul Saklani, president and chief executive officer, was
president of Invotech Systems and also spent 15 years with Sperry
Univac, where he designed airline reservations systems.
Frank Hicks, vice president of managing client services, was a
vice president at Carlson Wagonlit. He was also general manager of
the General Electric travel center in Phoenix.
Vince Cook, vice president of alliances and supplier services,
came to Yatra from Carlson Wagonlit, where he was vice president in
the industry relations group.
Yatra's funding was provided by a venture capital firm from
California's Silicon Valley, and the fledgling company has been
working on its systems for nearly two years.
The start-up phase will soon be over, as Yatra will begin
beta-testing with a small group of customers starting on May
27.
According to Cook, the initial group consists of five companies,
and the beta-test will cover about 50 travelers total.
Assuming all goes well, Cook said the firm will broaden its
delivery to more than 600 travelers in those five companies
starting in July, and will add new corporate customers.
Cook didn't provide names of customers, but, as Yatra is
focusing on midsize companies, he said the names probably wouldn't
be recognizable anyway.
"There are some start-ups, and we have some technology
companies," said Cook. "We will focus on small to medium-size
companies that will have a propensity to use the Web for booking
and travel administration. Companies without a lot of laptop-using
employees wouldn't be a target for our service."
Target company travel volume ranges from about $500,000 a year
to upward of $10 million a year, though Cook said the latter figure
is definitely pushing the boundaries. Yatra estimated there are
about 35,000 companies in that range.
Cook said the firm is working on deals for more corporate
customers; the company said it hoped to have about $100 million in
air volume by the end of the year.
Yatra's focus will be on Internet delivery, but the company also
will have a call service.
Yatra reaches supplier inventories through Amadeus, and the firm
is in talks with "major suppliers," according to Cook.
The company is marketing its product through a small sales
force. In addition to the stand-alone firms, the company is
targeting what Cook called "pre-aggregators" of these types of
companies. These include venture capital firms that support a
variety of small or start-up companies and are looking for a travel
solution to help with their costs, as well as larger corporations
that have a large group of suppliers.
Yatra is part booking tool and part travel manager. Indeed, the
company is more the latter, as its revenues are a monthly per
person fee from the customers. Supplier commissions are sent on to
the customer.
In short, customers "pay for the environment, not the
transaction," said Cook.
The system is accessed through the Yatra home page, and
customers can reach personalized subsites that come in two
flavors.
Managers can access a page that details travel expenses and
allows tinkering of corporate travel policies. Travelers can book
and manage their own profile in another page.
The system has a subprogram called Cognizer that adheres to
corporate travel policies and travel preferences while examining
supplier prices, among other things.
Cognizer considers more than 50 factors at the point of purchase
and gives the booker a list of itineraries, based on policies,
preferences and supplier offerings. The program then comes back to
the buyer with a recommendation.
Cook said Yatra will benefit companies because sourcing costs
will decrease -- about 70% less than through usual means, according
to his figures.
Because Yatra will act as an aggregator for its members, and its
customers will have more leverage in getting lower rates.
Furthermore, the company thinks suppliers will be very interested
in trying to win these customers.
"Finding these customers is hard to do for suppliers, especially
in a nonhub market," said Cook. "With smaller client sizes, it
becomes expensive to sell to them."
Cook said Yatra also was looking to make deals with travel
agencies who serve these small- to midsized companies.
Yatra is putting the finishing touches on an agreement with one
agency, the idea being that Yatra can provide the agency's
customers with a managed Internet solution.
Yatra and the agencies would have a revenue-sharing system. Cook
said this would be beneficial to agencies that wanted to "leapfrog
into a Web management environment" for their corporate
customers.