Software so simple
anyone can build it
Continued from Page 50
“This isn’t brain surgery,” he said.
“It’s Betty Crocker design with ingredients that everybody has or can buy.
Putting a link to talk into a Web page
is everyday stuff in online retailing.
But nobody thought of adding it to a
travel reservation.”
INTO THE FUTURE
Although Atlas’ CRM system was
designed to manage business trav-
el, it manages leisure travel just as
effectively.
More importantly, CRM helps
agents cross-sell corporate and leisure
clients. Once a business traveler profile is on record, it is easy to generate
a leisure-travel profile to guide Atlas’
automated e-mail marketing program. About 15% of corporate travelers also use Atlas for leisure travel.
The same logic works in reverse.
Since leisure profiles typically include
job-related data, agents can pitch
business travel services to corporate
decision-makers.
What’s next for Atlas? Blanco has
a prototype dashboard that displays
travel information the way existing
business dashboards display sales,
profits and other up-to-the-minute
operating parameters.
“The dashboard is the next frontier
in management reporting,” he said.
“We are getting away from traditional
reports and into useful information.”
Next up is Infotriever, a program
that automatically updates a traveler’s
PDA when an invoice or an itinerary
is changed. Like click-to-talk, automated synch is new to travel but familiar in other settings.
“Because of technology available
outside travel, Atlas can look a lot
bigger, and I can steer the ship more
effectively,” Blanco said. “It all has to
do with being responsive to your customers’ wants.”
