ATLANTA -- Amadeus and Galileo are aggressively moving into
corporate self-booking systems, and both announced acquisitions at
the National Business Travel Association's convention and trade
show here.
Amadeus acquired e-Travel, the Waltham, Mass.-based firm, from
Oracle Corp., and Galileo disclosed plans to acquire Highwire, a
Seattle-based company that offers a corporate booking product
called Travelport.
Both CRS firms already had corporate booking products, and both
said the new acquisitions are part of a strategy to offer different
tools to a broad spectrum of customers.
For e-Travel, the arrangement with Amadeus also means broader
distribution.
Scott Gutz, who will remain chief executive officer of e-Travel,
said, "We truly hope to leverage Amadeus' travel agency
relationships [to distribute] e-Travel."
Ian Wheeler, vice president of corporate partners for Amadeus,
said e-Travel will remain CRS-independent, meaning that e-Travel
can integrate with any of the four CRSs.
Amadeus already offers two self-booking tools for corporations:
Corporate Traveller and another product tailored to integrate with
the SAP platform. SAP is a German company that, like Oracle,
provides computer software solutions for companies.
Wheeler said 100 customers use Corporate Traveller, mostly in
Europe, Latin America and Australia. The solution is built on
Amadeus' CRS.
Amadeus will continue to offer all self-booking products.
As for Galileo, the CRS company already held a 16% stake in
Highwire, and Galileo said this was the "next logical step."
Galileo expects the sale to become final by mid-September.
In addition to announcing its intention to buy Highwire, Galileo
launched its own online solution, Corporate Travelpoint 2.0. IBM
and Visa are the first two companies to roll out the product, said
John Hach, vice president of corporate and consumer sales.
Travelport and Corporate Travelpoint 2.0 are built on Galileo's
CRS. Within the next 18 months, Hach said Galileo will make
Corporate Travelpoint 2.0 compatible with other CRSs. IBM wants
that functionality, he said.
Galileo intends to sell Corporate Travelpoint 2.0 and Travelport
as distinct products. Hach said the solutions have subtle
differences and that the marketplace wants choices.
Highwire landed two very large accounts earlier this year --
Microsoft and Deloitte & Touche. Microsoft mandated the use of
Travelport for domestic travel.
Highwire launched in 1999 as a subsidiary of Metropolitan
Travel, a Seattle-based travel agency. Marka Jenkins, chief
executive officer of Highwire, retains her position.