800 Agencies in 50 Countries See Immediate Benefits following Upgrade; New Capabilities in Store for Customers
SOUTHLAKE,Texas, Aug. 4– Sabre Travel Network, the leading provider of high performance solutions for the travel industry, has begun its global rollout of Sabre Red Workspace, a unique new agent platform at the heart of its newly announced Sabre Red total travel solution.
Built on a future ready, open platform, the Sabre Red Workspace provides agencies with faster start up times, high performance even in low bandwidth areas, rock solid stability and quick and easy access to content, resulting in increased productivity and efficiency.
“This is an exciting week for us as we officially upgrade 800 agencies around the world to the new Sabre Red Workspace,” said Greg Webb, president of Sabre Travel Network. “The Workspace is a brand new concept, unlike any other solution in the market. It’s fast, intuitive and provides agents with quick and easy access to content, and all the tools needed to seamlessly manage a traveler’s requirements from start to finish.
In addition, we will be rolling out newly-developed capabilities that have previously never been available to the market such as integrated mobile services, new air pricing tools to manage airline ancillary services, and sophisticated reporting and efficiency tools. I know our agency customers are excited about this and I’m confident it will result in improved performance and service for them. These are very exciting times for us,” said Webb.
The Workspace sits at the heart of Sabre Red, an innovative total travel solution designed to help agencies drive customer loyalty and enhance business performance. It features a portfolio of new capabilities and applications to help agencies manage their entire business from shopping and booking travel, to serving customers throughout their trip, to using business intelligence for insight and continuous improvement.
Many of Sabre’s customers have been beta testing the Red Workspace for some time, assessing usability, providing feedback on new capabilities, and helping the company bring to market a unique agent workspace that works with any GDS and which truly differentiates Sabre in the market. The company expects to upgrade all customers to the Sabre Red Workspace by the end of the year.
Webb said feedback so far has been extremely positive with both corporate and leisure agents praising the seamless transition, and enhanced performance and efficiency.
Mick Gibbs, chief executive officer of Norad Travel Management, a UK corporate and leisure travel agency said: “The newly-enabled Workspace is quicker, more flexible, more versatile, and the next step in our vision to have a one-stop-shop travel solution. The Sabre Red portfolio is an awesome asset to any TMC’s arsenal of service solutions, and delivers truly unique capabilities not offered by anyone else on the market. I’m confident this will help us differentiate our service and get ahead of the curve to meet the growth in appetite for mobile and ancillary services.”
Michael Retsina, partner of WRR Travel Partners, a U.S. corporate and leisure travel and entertainment company in association with Altour said: “The installation process was very quick and very easy to follow. Each time I open Sabre Red Workspace, the application remembers my settings, my agent location and identity, and it loads very quickly. I love the new layout, it really works well for me, and I like the design and the accessibility of all the features.”
Ajay Mathew, Reservations and Ticketing Manager for Bahrain leisure agency Al Gosaibi Travel said: “If I were to describe Sabre Red in one word it would be “Efficient” – efficient in design, efficient in usability and an extremely efficient customer service tool. The new solution helped me increase the number of customers I can now service in a day and is tremendously adept in displaying the most competitive fare, helping me make money and save money at the same time.”
Brenda Morin, director of operations for Travizon, a U.S. corporate travel agency said: “As advertised, the Sabre Red Workspace is quicker to start-up and we experienced faster response times to data queries.”
Sabre will continue to add new capabilities to its Sabre Red portfolio, starting with the introduction of new Business Intelligence capabilities and the much anticipated Air Total Pricing capability which allows agents to shop and view the total price of air travel including applicable ancillary fees.
“Through the Workspace, agencies will be able to access these innovative new capabilities to meet emerging needs. Air Total Pricing in particular will help lift the veil on the sometimes obscure ancillary fees, and help consumers shop with full knowledge of, and confidence in, the total costs of travel. They should know what to expect when they’re buying, and this is a key enabler of that,” said Webb.
About Sabre Travel Network
Sabre Travel Network, a Sabre Holdings company, provides the most comprehensive end-to-end solutions for corporate and leisure travel. The Sabre GDS is the foundation for these solutions, providing a ready-built efficient marketplace that connects travel suppliers, including hundreds of airlines and thousands of hotels, with more than 50,000 travel agency locations. Currently, Sabre collectively handles over 70 percent of the BTN 100 bookings.
Sabre Holdings connects people with the world’s greatest travel possibilities by retailing travel products and providing distribution and technology solutions for the travel industry. For more information about Sabre Holdings, visit www.sabre-holdings.com.
Media Contact:
Pam Wong
Corporate Communications, Sabre Holdings<
pam.wong@sabre.com
Tel +44 (0) 208 538 8653
Mob: +44 (0)7 968 902 626
