KDS, the European leader for business travel
e-procurement solutions, today launched KDS Corporate 4.0, which adds
intelligence and flexibility to its global e-booking solution.
Its most
significant innovation is KDS`s smart booking feature, which remembers
travelers` reservation patterns to ease and quicken booking, and its unique
workflow engine that manages trip approvals, booking process and PNR format.

Built to respond to extensive customer research and feedback, KDS Corporate
4.0 enables global travel managers to set multi-level pre-trip authorization
procedures, allows users to dynamically modify online itineraries, and
dramatically speeds up the booking process. This upgrade will immediately
benefit more than 300 corporations currently using KDS Corporate.

As the deployment of self-booking tools accelerates at an ever-increasing
rate, worldwide users are demanding more intuitive and smarter travel
booking solutions to increase user adoption. By 2003, 31.8 million corporate
travel transactions will take place online, according to PhoCusWright
, an
independent research firm specializing in online travel. Self-booking tools
are fast becoming the answer to skyrocketing Travel & Expenses (T&E) costs,
which are usually a company`s second highest expense after payroll. However,
self-booking alone optimizes just part of the travel procurement process.
That is why KDS Corporate 4.0 not only streamlines the booking experience,
but also ensures purchasing compliance, provides added collaboration
features and delivers needed information to travelers.

Alstom
, the leading provider of energy and transport infrastructure, is one of the early
users of KDS Corporate 4.0. “At Alstom, travelers want self-booking tools to
be smart, user-friendly and powerful. Our travel managers want solutions
that respect real-world situations, so these systems must be fully
customizable. The features of the new KDS Corporate 4.0 will no doubt boost
our adoption rates and will provide a solution that is flexible enough to
meet all of our users` needs,” said Claire Leimgruber, Alstom Global
Commodity Manager. 

Smarter Application for Faster Booking
Among the most notable technological breakthroughs of KDS Corporate 4.0 are
the intelligent agents added into the planning and booking process. The
application`s new engine is now able to determine a traveler`s own
preferences from previous bookings. This functionality allows the system to
pre-select the traveler`s preferred hotels, and suggest the most convenient
car rental locations according to previous itineraries. Furthermore, the new
version enables users to select hotels directly from a destination map,
detailing both company preferred properties as well as surrounding hotels.

www.kdsinternational.com

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