BTU SELF-BOOKING TOOLS
BTU-cytric and AMA E-Travel Management
BTU offers two fully functional, high-quality self-booking engines on its web site. It is up to you and your company to decide which one you prefer to use. We'll be glad to provide any support necessary for this purpose.
Both BTU cytric and Amadeus E-Travel Management are highly practice-oriented solutions for companies which wish to reduce travel costs by booking online. The clear and simple user interface enables even inexperienced users to check prices and availability, then book flights, hotel rooms, rental cars and railway tickets.
Once entered, the bookings are generated automatically and transmitted to the team responsible at BTU, which ensures a maximum of convenience for travelers. A booking tool enforces each company's predefined settings and travel policies consistently and automatically.
In addition, both tools include extensive functions for travel management workflows, approval procedures, reporting and accounting.
BTU cytric is an e-procurement system for business travel management which offers virtually risk-free technology and extensive services. More than 1,600 companies worldwide actively use products based on cytric to reduce their business travel expenses.
AMA E-Travel is an Internet-based booking portal for business travel. It provides travelers and travel assistants with online access to all flight, hotel and rental car offers on the Amadeus platform. AMA E-Travel allows you to book flights and other services within the specific framework of your company's travel policy. This portal is already used by a number of well-known companies in Austria and had proven to be highly effective in practical use.
For BTU customers, both tools can be integrated into the company's internal network and adapted to suit each customer's specific needs. The hardware costs involved in integration are minimal.
How your company can benefit from self-booking:
Reduction of direct and indirect travel costs
Users have access to more than 700 airlines, 54,000 hotels and all of the major rental car companies. Travel bookings can be made via Intranet or Internet 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. At all times, the traveler has worldwide access to all the information relevant to the services used (e.g., departure terminals, weather forecasts, seating charts, city maps, and much more). This makes frequent phone calls and other communication a thing of the past.
In some cases, the rates and fares offered on the Internet (e.g. for rental cars) are substantially lower than those offered by conventional means.
As the arrangements made using the booking tool are transmitted to us automatically and this saves time and money compared to the conventional booking process, we also charge lower handling fees.
For certain flights, all available fares are shown in a clear overview, which at the same time provides answers to important questions: Can the ticket be changed? Can the ticket be refunded? If yes, what will it cost? Until what date is the fare available? The user can also read the exact fare terms and conditions online.
These two tools not only query offers from CRS, they can also display a summary of all Internet offers filtered according to each company's policies. The user is provided with access to over 100 airline and hotel operator web sites in order to check prices and availability and to book flights and hotel rooms.
Compliance with travel policies
Both tools support real-time changes in Travel Management System settings, thus ensuring that users always make purchasing decisions in full compliance with their company's travel guidelines.
All travel policies and guidelines are stored in the system, which makes it possible to save money on each booking.
Travel Management System (TMS)
Both tools provide data on travel bookings for bookkeeping, reporting and travel expense software programs and can be integrated into those systems easily. In this way, user and booking data can be received, changed and delivered in real time. In each case, the tool allows the travel manager to guide each traveler to those purchasing decisions which are in the best interest of the company.
Control of sourcing
Preferred service providers are clearly labeled and displayed to the user. This makes it possible to choose and display those providers which can be used for certain regions, countries or routes. At the same time, it is possible to rule out specific service providers by not displaying their offers. This strengthens the company's position in negotiations and can lead to substantial cost reductions.
Increasing traveler satisfaction
When travelers make purchase decisions, they want to know the available options. They also want to book when it is most convenient to them.
Self-booking tools provide the user with information on all options available in a precise and user-friendly manner. Thanks to 24-hour online access, the booking process is made as convenient as possible, which will also facilitate the rapid acceptance of booking tools.
Simplified travel approvals
Many internal approval procedures are still handled completely manually. Using a self-booking tool also makes it possible to implement an automated approval procedure which eliminates the need for manual processes and still ensures a comprehensive approval process. Automating the approval procedure is a highly effective means of reducing costs. Companies which require travel approvals can choose among various options, from the simplest of processes to a workflow-based system.
