Sabre Unveils Replacement for MySabre

Sabre Travel Network unveiled the Sabre Red Workspace, a new “total solution” for travel agencies.

Sabre Red, which has been in beta testing for six months with 250 agencies representing “a broad range” of agency types around the world, will replace MySabre, the Web-based agency portal. Upgrades will begin in mid-July, and Sabre expects to retire MySabre in 2011.

Sabre Red shares several elements with its competitors in the agency desktop field: Amadeus One, currently in beta with Travel Leaders and San Diego-based Balboa Travel, Travelport’s Universal Desktop, slated for a third-quarter debut, and Farelogix’ SPRK, a graphical user interface with multi-GDS capability and the ability to process sales of ancillary services.

Sabre Red’s GUI (graphical user interface) does not require the use of cryptic commands. Brian Houser, vice president of customer marketing, noted that this will enable agencies to hire employees with good retail sales skills from outside the travel industry, widening the labor pool. Training time and keystrokes can be cut in half, he said.

Houser added that experienced agents can continue to use keyboard commands.

Instead of starting the day with a blank blue screen containing a flashing cursor, agents will log on to a GUI with its sections for important messages; queue tracking; the agent’s statistics and comparable figures for the entire agency; client service reminders, and client e-mails. 

Some features of Red will be available from the outset; others will be rolled out in early 2011, Houser said.

Sabre Red’s capabilities are divided into four “suites”:

• Value, incorporating the basic shopping paths;
• Service, including customer profiles, web and mobile features and security tools;
• Revenue, including Preferred Supplier Optimization and Marketing Services; and
• Efficiency, including private fare integration, business intelligence and other tools.

The basic Red Workspace is free to all Sabre agents, but some additional features will require an added fee or subscription. For example, Preferred Supplier Optimization, which combines business intelligence and a sophisticated rules engine to increase preferred supplier sales, will incur additional costs.

Houser said the beta agencies increased preferred supplier sales by up to 20% using the product.

Mick Gibbs, who owns Norad Travel, a mid-sized, primarily corporate agency based in Liss, U.K., has been testing the Red Workspace for several months. “The beauty of it is that it assists my agents in delivering service excellence,” he said. “It ensures the productivity of the team, because they are servicing client requests rather than working through technology issues.

Gibbs said Red is much more interactive than traditional GDS desktops. And with all the challenges that agencies face with airlines’ quest for ancillary revenues, the new system’s ability to manage ancillary purchases “gives us a leading edge.”

Sabre Red also will have the ability to integrate approved third-party developer tools. A new “missed ticket capability” will identify unticketed transactions. Houser said a large travel management company tested the tool and was “effectively able to eliminate nearly 100% of missed tickets,” representing a potential savings of $1 million annually.

The multi-GDS capability would require the agency to reach an agreement with the GDS company in question. For example, if a Sabre agency has a corporate client that prefers to use Worldspan, the agency would have to have Travelport’s permission to access Worldspan through the Sabre Red environment.

Sabre Red will connect to some suppliers via XML, providing new content and capabilities such as the integration of air and hotel merchandising initiatives in a graphical workflow.

It has the “built-in” capability to support merchandising initiatives by airlines that already are working with Sabre, such as United, Midwest and WestJet, Houser said.

Sabre will take advantage of new technology standards developed by the Air Tariff Publishing Co. to incorporate additional airline merchandising initiatives, he said.  Eventually, agents will be able to shop and book travel by the total price, including selected ancillary fees.

Sabre Red also will provide a set of Web and mobile self-service functions for travelers, enabling clients to purchase and manage ancillary services, upgrade registration and check in for flights, among other things.