NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote
... have also been extended, with the new group having two advanced data centers, one located in Europe with the other in the U. S. Gradient's technologies provide tools for multi-language and multi-currency needs and offer the ability to connect to multiple global distribution systems.
In the B 2 B area Sabre completed the acquisition of Get There. Get There operates one of the world's largest Internet marketplaces focused on business-to-business travel services. Get There's systems are used to provide online travel procurement to employees at leading corporations such as Boeing, Chevron, Cisco, Cox Enterprises, Lucent, MetLife, Nike and Xerox. Get There also powers online travel sites for leading airlines, including Alitalia, All Nippon Airways, America West, British Airways, Northwest Airlines, TWA and United Airlines.
The vision of Sabre is to be the world leader in information technology for the travel and transportation industries. Sabre plans to continue being the standard bearer of customer reservation system technology. Sabre's recruitment brochure states that Sabre are "progressive technological thinkers, innovators of information technology for systems solutions and that Sabre is a leader in developing superior products and services that meet customer needs." Sabre is a technology company whose primary businesses are electronic travel distribution and information technology solutions. Being a technology company, Sabre must utilize the technology available to improve their processes and increase their market share. Managerial vision is an important aspect of continuing success. Responding to the mew market developments, such as the expansion of the Internet and e-commerce, are also critical to continuing success.
The CEO of Sabre, Bill Hannigan, stated in a Merrill Lynch Conference, the overall strategies of Sabre: satisfy customers and seize opportunities with speed and agility, grow the business, invest and innovate in new and existing products and technologies to win, leverage resources and synergies for greater profitability. These strategies can influence the future goal of Mr. Hannigan's Sabre and that is to create new best of breed products and expand presence in all transportation alliances. Travel is the largest category of e-commerce (Boston R 36).
Forrester research claims a $ 30 billion market by 2003 for online travel industries, which is a 25 % increase from 2000. Forrester also states that the total of worldwide growth by 2004 for North America is $ 6. 8 trillion for business-to-business and business-to-consumer industries. The possibilities and profitability is enormous. "Few innovations in human history encompass as many potential benefits as electronic commerce does. The global nature of the technology, low cost, opportunity to reach hundreds of millions of people, interactive nature, variety of possibilities and resourcefulness, and rapid growth of the supporting infrastructures results in many potential benefits to the organization, individuals, and society (Turban 16). Sabre currently holds a competitive lead in its industry and in the new online market share. Currently Sabre holds 38 % of the global share of travel agency business.
Its competitor Galileo holds the second position at 28 %. Sabre currently holds 60 % of the online market share in its industry. Worldspan, another competitor comes in second at 29 %. Sabre holds the complementary assets that will make its e-commerce ventures successful. In an executive presentation of New Frontiers in Travel Distribution, Mr. Hannigan stated "the new vertical e-marketplaces may be all the rage on Wall Street today but we " ve been doing e-commerce for 40 years in the travel business" Sabre has built up its company resources and competencies that it can compete with the new companies entering the industry and with current competitors trying to change their structure to compete online.
In a personal interview with Mr. Hannigan he explained that e-commerce would not change the way business is conducted. E-commerce will not make or break a current or new company (unless of course it is a pure-play e-commerce business). What is important is the viability of the business model that the company has.
E-commerce is a tool, which if used correctly can transform the industry. Bill Hannigan stated "I see opportunity in the form of a chance to revolutionize the way we do business, through the use of new technologies, business models and methods of travel marketing" (new frontiers). Sabre's goal is to use the new technologies to help improve their business process and not overhaul the Sabre business model. The goal is to "drive all of that technology forward, to be the change agent that helps keep the travel industry on the leading edge of the e-commerce revolution (Hannigan Ariba).
Sabre wants to continue to be the standard-bearer in the travel distribution industry and the Internet and e-commerce can facilitate that vision. Sabre's strategy, in e-commerce, is not limited to offering customers access to flight information. It is with partnering with companies to help distribute Sabre technology across business areas. The customer base for Sabre is not just travel agencies, but also airlines, airports, hotels, car rental companies, and tour operators. E-commerce also has facilitated the growth of the business-to-business reservation opportunities. Online corporate travel is seen as a critical new market and Sabre wants leadership in the business-to-business market.
Sabre's top management sees the potential impact of the Internet and e-commerce in increasing revenue dramatically in the corporate travel. In a personal interview with Bill Hannigan he discussed in the importance of recognizing all potential transportation customers, who direct Sabre's attention to the railway industry as a market to further, develop. The Internet and e-commerce are facilitators of the business process. It can help improve the way a business competes but it will not change the business commerce model. E-commerce and technology can help with the cost of business by reducing distribution costs, improving supplier behavior, and individualizing marketing effects. In a New Frontiers in Travel Distribution presentation, Bill Hannigan stated that the e-commerce strategy at Sabre is to use the new technology and the experience of Sabre in travel distribution "to make sure that the travel industry advances just as far, as fast, and as profitable as it can possibly can." Sabre will continue using the technology available to further dominate the industry and its competitors.
Sabre has had an aggressive history with its capabilities. In a 1997 Forbes article, the author stated "Sabre is embracing the web wholeheartedly for direct sales to travelers, while Galileo is limiting its involvement to suppliers to Internet travel sites" (Palmer). This statement is further validated by Sabre's 60 % market dominance on the online industry while Galileo holds only %. Sabre has taken advantage of Galileo's slow pace and established itself as leader with Travelocity in the business-to-consumer market and with Business Travel Solutions, Get There. com, and Virtually There.
com in the business-to-business market. Galileo has since increased its web presence. At a conference the CEO of Galileo, James Barrett stated "to take advantage of its market maker position, Galileo has been aggressively updating its network." The company has recently acquired Trip. com to compete in the business-to-business market. It has set up point and click access to cruises. Galileo is aggressively trying to penetrate the Internet market but it has not been aggressive enough to rank second in the online market.
Worldspan ranks second with 29 % of the online market. The e-commerce and Internet marketplace is a key component of Worldspan's tactic. The senior vice-president, Sue Powers stated "Worldspan has leverage the concept of e-commerce as the basis for strategies that have propelled the company to the business forefront. Worldspan claims 50 %of all online travel bookings. To further press its aggressiveness, Worldspan has combined forces with ByeByeNow. com to penetrate the business-to-business market.
Worldspan has also partnered with Expedia on a new pricing engine for Internet travel reservation. Worldspan can become a serious competitor by partnering with technology rich companies and transportation industries. It cannot be denied that the Internet and e-commerce has changed the travel distribution industry. It has created more information hungry consumers and faster responding companies. The first step in incorporating the new trend and technology is the managerial vision of Sabre's executive. The vision will drive the company and its employees.
Sabre needs to insure that they take advantage of all its capabilities and aggressively use the technology to insure dominance and deter new competitors. So what is on the horizon for Sabre? As one would assume, Sabre is always at the mercy of an ever-changing technological environment. With competitors at its heals on a daily basis, Sabre must keep its sights fixed on the future in order to excel in the present.
So whether the company's strategy involves new products, business alliances or strategic acquisitions, one thing is for sure - Sabre will not survive sitting still. The company has already taken great strides to distance itself even further from its competitors. In July of 2000, the company launched a reservations system for mobile phones and devices using Wireless Application Protocol (WAP). According to Scott W. Smith, senior vice president and general manager of Sabre BTS, this technology allows customers to create, access and change flight, car and hotel reservations using WAP-enabled mobile phones offered by Nokia, Sprint PCS or AT&T Wireless, or WAP-enabled personal digital assistants (PDAs). Sabre is also introducing wireless viewing capability to its Sabre Virtually There web site customers, giving travelers mobile access to travel itineraries, flight details, gate information and weather forecasts using the wireless device of their choice.
Another recent development in the online travel industry that will serve as a crucial survival technique for years to come is business alliances. Sabre's most recent agreement involved ILOG, the world's leading supplier of software components. Through this relationship, Sabre gained access to embeddable optimization, visualization and business rule components that dramatically shorten the development time of enterprise applications in the supply chain, telecommunications, transportation and financial services industries (ILOG). This partnership gives Sabre a very valuable stake in the future of technology in the online travel industry. It allows for the integration of ILOG's product suites of optimization, graphical user interface and business rule engine software into existing and future Sabre airline and online products.
Alliances such as this will not only become more common, but they will become a requirement for companies such as Sabre looking to compete in a highly saturated industry. Regulation will also be a major component to Sabre's long term goals. In the 1980 s, the U. S.
Department of Transportation (DOT) devised rules for computer reservations systems after receiving complaints about biased displays from travel agencies and airlines. Today, DOT is debating whether to have an even stronger regulatory stance. Stronger regulation may interfere with the fast-paced, rapid-growth environment of the online travel industry, but Jim Marsicano, Travelocity's executive vice president of sales and services, doesn't see it that way. He says, "It wouldn't bother us at all to have the same rules applied to the Internet. " But history has shown us that anytime the government expands their presence, industry changes will be imminent. Also, U. S.
computer reservations systems have faced persistent trade barriers in their efforts to establish a market presence in certain countries. Several foreign air carriers and transportation providers, and the CRS's they own or market, have deliberately withheld fare and schedule information and other enhancements from U. S. CRS's. At the same time, the foreign CRS receives full functionality.
Such discrimination is illegal. The foreign airlines and foreign CRS's that discriminate against us have unrestricted access to the U. S. market and receive the full protection of the U. S. Department of Transportation rules ensuring fair treatment of all airlines and CRS's.
This double standard has proven to impede the expansion of Sabre's presence in foreign markets. If this problem persists, Sabre will be at a huge disadvantage to its competitors overseas. Another possible consideration for Sabre in the long run is labor force issues. A shortage of qualified employees is already infiltrating the IT industry. Sabre's web site had this to say about the problem: Sabre's business success depends on the ability to hire highly skilled technology workers such as computer scientists, mathematicians and industrial engineers who provide the technical expertise to serve Sabre customers. The supply of this labor in the U.
S. has not kept pace with the demand. Sabre is working with the government to reach both long term and short term solutions to this critical workforce problem. As one can see, there is room for concern regarding this issue. Sabre still relies on skilled employees to power the company, no matter how technologically enhanced it becomes.
With new competitors rapidly entering the industry, the ability to hire qualified workers may just be the deciding factor in Sabre's success. The rise of e-business is putting pressure on vendors to accelerate the evolution of predictive analysis tools. Nowhere is this pressure felt more than at Sabre. So in order to work through the complex task of modeling the future, Sabre has implemented BMC's Patrol predictive analysis and capacity planning software.
According to Mike Nelson, senior vice president and general manager for global infrastructure at Sabre Holdings, tools that do a better job of predicting how potential spikes in traffic will impact IT performance will be vital. Sabre handles more than 1 billion hits monthly on 700 -plus Web sites it hosts as an ASP and its Travelocity reservation system. So if the company can adequately predict and prepare for that enormous wave of traffic, it will keep business processes flowing as efficiently as possible. As one can see, the future presents numerous obstacles and issues for Sabre. The company will most likely continue expansion as an application service provider and develop strategic partnerships and alliances in order to circumvent overseas resist Bibliography:
Free research essays on topics related to: business to business, senior vice president, rapid growth, internet and e commerce, u s department
Research essay sample on Senior Vice President U S Department
