Excambria is shipping Margin Maker v2.0, the industry`s new distribution and profitability product suite.

The patent-pending Margin Maker v2.0 family of products allows travel agents and corporate travel buyers to simultaneously access content through the legacy GDS’ such as Sabre and through the Internet, where travel suppliers are increasingly putting content that is not in the GDS. While the travel professional continues to work in his native GDS environment, Margin Maker v2.0 technology translates the GDS commands into Internet protocol and searches websites and other TCP/IP-connected data sources. The technology allows the travel professional to view on a single screen, with a single GDS command, content from the GDS, the Internet, and third-party databases. The inventory and fares are displayed side by side on a single screen, allowing travel professionals to select the inventory and price that create the maximum value for their clients and themselves.

“Travel professionals were constantly being blindsided by customers who had seen cheap fares on the Web,” said Excambria CEO Vajid Jafri. “The travel professionals` work environment is GDS-centric, and workflow is so tightly bound to their legacy global distribution system that inventory available on the Internet remained largely inaccessible to them.”

Margin Maker v2.0 products solve this problem by seamlessly integrating Internet inventory and resulting transactions into agency and corporate travel workflow, with no additional commands or separate searches required by users.

Travel agency owners report that a solution such as Margin Maker v2.0 had been the highest priority request from their reservation agents during the last twelve months. Yet GDSs are not eager to field such a technology, fearing it will divert transactions from their own systems.

Travel suppliers have welcomed Margin Maker v2.0 products, as a way to place their products onto the travel professional`s desktop without high GDS distribution costs. An estimated 80% of all travel sales occur on these desktops.

Travel agency owners also appreciate Margin Maker v2.0 features that allow them to seamlessly mark up low-cost Internet and net-basis fares. “Many of the fares are so low that our agents can add a $400 mark-up at time of sale, and it`s not visible to the customer,” said one agency owner who has used Margin Maker v2.0 in pre-release. “We continue to add our regular $20 service fee separately, but the real money is in those margins that we add. This technology allowed us to make the transition to merchant, and not a commissioned agent.”

 

www.excambria.com

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