Anyone who uses technology at work knows that the five most frightening words in the English language are: “We are upgrading your system.” So it’s not surprising that some travel agents look upon Sabre’s plan to replace MySabre with a new platform called Sabre Red Workspace with some trepidation.

For some agents, it’s the “G” in GUI – graphical user interface – that is the most troubling element of the switch. The green screen emulator is often perceived by new entrants into the industry who have grown up with the consumer-friendly, point-and-click interfaces of online travel agencies and supplier sites, as an anachronism, a vestige of legacy systems.

But few existing GUIs can accomplish the kind of sorting and filtering of information that an agent can perform easily on a green screen. In addition, the pay-for-placement practice of some online agencies does not inspire confidence in an agent looking for unadulterated information.

Lucy Hirleman, president of Berkshire Travel in Newfoundland, N.J., explains that the strings of commands and the order in which they are strung together can deliver just the information she wants, much as a Google search can be fine-tuned by the use (or elimination) of certain terms and by the order in which they are presented.  “When you do a Google search, you don’t just put in ‘sheets.’ You put in ‘purple sheets, 300-thread-count, extra long.’ So if I want to see just what Delta is doing on a route, or just nonstops, or just connections through Heathrow, I can do it based on how I string it.”

The method is “succinct and quick, and it filters out a lot of stuff,” she said. “You can string a lot of things, not just flight requests.”

Hirleman said experienced agents can manipulate the searches and dig down into the information in a way that gives them a high degree of control. It is that element that she fears will be lost in a move to a graphical environment.

She’s not opposed to a graphical user interface on principle, but she wants to see what it can do before she passes judgment.

Mick Gibbs, owner of Norad Travel in Liss, U.K., an agency that participated in the beta testing of Sabre Red, believes the GUI will boost productivity.

“Agents will be servicing client requests rather than working through technology issues,” he said.

In addition, he said, Sabre Red is “much more interactive” than traditional GDS desktops.

Brian Houser, Sabre Travel Network’s vice president of customer marketing, stressed that agents can continue to use the green screen emulator and cryptic commands after the transition to Sabre Red. The new platform was not designed to render experienced agents’ skills useless.

Rather, he said, it was designed in part to widen the labor pool from which agency owner managers can draw new talent.  A new agent may not be able to manipulate the emulator, but he or she might have excellent sales and service skills.

But Houser urges experienced agents to give the GUI a try. It is not a dumbed-down consumer-style version, he said. While there are some elements of point-and-click technology, “it was designed to be keyboard-driven.”

Experienced agents were, in fact, the “benchmark” by which the system was designed, and “we have taken into account their key work flows.”

Houser also noted that systems must adapt to changing circumstances, such as airlines’ ancillary services. “We are bringing some cool new capabilities into the market,” he said. “We are doing work to accommodate the sales of ancillary services. It starts to get messy in a linear command environment. As the world gets more complicated, you need more flexibility.”