Amadeus, a travel industry technology provider and leading global distribution system (GDS), today announced that it has signed an agreement with Airbus Industrie, a world leader in the civil air transport marketplace, to implement the SAP Travel Management solution as the core system for the Airbus e-business initiative.
Under the terms of the deal, Amadeus together with SAP, is working in close partnership with Airbus and its Consulting and Travel Agency partners to deliver Amadeus SAP Travel Management - the world`s first fully integrated, end-to-end travel planning and accounting solution - to around 2,500 users in Airbus Industrie headquarters in Toulouse, France. Amadeus, with its business partners, is also responsible for the full implementation of the solution.
A key component of the Airbus online initiative - the company`s search for an integrated online booking tool and expenses management system - was that the solution should be fully browser-based and fully integrated with the Airbus AOLS (Airbus On-Line Services) system. This would make it faster and simpler to deploy, and easier and quicker for Airbus employees to learn to use and adopt. Airbus found that Amadeus SAP Travel Management fulfils all their requirements. Amadeus SAP Travel Management is a fully integrated solution covering all the travel processes - planning, booking, expenses, and reporting - and is also multi-language and multi-currency enabled.
Bernard Pain, Manager Logistics & Services, Airbus Industrie said: “Amadeus SAP Travel Management provides the level of integration we needed to really streamline our booking and planning processes and help us control costs. It is compatible with our AOLS environment, and, as a SAP module, it works seamlessly with our other accounting and financial applications, reducing duplication and improving efficiency.”
When fully operational by third quarter 2001, the Amadeus SAP Travel Management solution will process the 30,000 bookings and expenses handled by Airbus Industrie every year and together with its business partners, Amadeus will coordinate the twelve-week implementation period of the Corporate Travel Management solution.
Amadeus SAP Travel Management was developed through a partnership between Amadeus and SAP, the world`s Number One ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) solution. Amadeus SAP Travel Management automates and accelerates the planning and processing of employee travel reservations, putting the power of the Amadeus real time travel and reservations engine into the company`s core business processes.
Enterprises build their travel policy rules and negotiated fares into the package, allowing the automatic enforcement of corporate policies and ensuring that employees self-book with preferred suppliers. The result is that companies reduce both processing and travel costs, while employees have the speed and convenience of a user-friendly self-booking process. Major companies using Amadeus SAP Travel Management solution include Bayer, Merck, Kommunedata and Deutsche Bank.
Ian Wheeler, responsible for Amadeus` relations with multinational travel agency chains and corporations said: “Corporate travel is commonly the third or even the second in direct manageable expense facing business today. Increasingly, companies are looking for manageable ways to control this cost and ensure they obtain maximum value from every dollar they spend.
With business travel so fundamental in the day-to-day success of the Airbus consortium, Amadeus SAP Travel Management will bring real benefits in terms of efficiency and cost effectiveness.”
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