Sabre has linked up with TRX to offer Sabre Red subscribers what it claims is the first business intelligence tool of its kind in the market.
Sabre adds business intelligence tool to Red
Sabre has linked up with TRX to offer Sabre Red subscribers what it claims is the first business intelligence tool of its kind in the market.
Martin Cowley, senior VP for Sabre Travel Network EMEA, told Travolution that TRX’s TravelTrax product would interpret data from Sabre’s warehouse and present the information in a graphical and user-friendly way for agency and corporate customers.
Sabre’s data warehouse includes real-time prices, as well as historical price trends dating back three years. Agencies’ customers can use the data to enhance and benchmark not only their own productivity but also the service they offer to clients, while corporate can use the data for compliance, carbon and expense management, among other things.
Cowley said: “We have a vast amount of data which we are sharing so that that agencies and corporations can compare their own performance against industry benchmarks and use the data to identify their individual strengths and weaknesses.”
The tool can be adapted by users to their own needs, so that the benchmarking is relevant to their local market.
Cowley added that the link-up with TRX typified the Sabre Red approach. It is open-source, making it easier for Sabre to incorporate third-party products into Red.
Sabre Red launched only a month or so ago and now has around 1,000 users in 50 countries. Around 100 agencies in the UK have signed up. Cowley said that Red was viewed internally as a significant upgrade to the MySabre tool. He added that the upgrade include new technologies which helped the system in terms of its reliability.
“We’re finding that in areas with low bandwidth – such as many parts of the Middle East – the speed and stability of Red is winning us business,” he said.
In terms of the overall business travel market, Cowley said that Sabre’s experience reflected recent soundings from the airline sector. “There is an improvement, but it seems as if business travellers are travelling in economy. The ongoing challenge for airlines is whether premium class travel will return.”
