Sabre Travel Network unveiled its new graphical workflow within the Sabre Red Workspace to attendees at the 2011 Technology and Marketing University (TMU), an annual Sabre conference dedicated to travel agents, travel management companies and leisure operators.
Building on the existing graphical components of the award-winning Sabre Red Workspace, Sabre has simplified the shopping and booking process, allowing agents to book air, hotel, car and other suppliers using a fully-graphical workflow. Designed for both power users and novice agents, graphical view in the Sabre Red Workspace will save agents time and increase productivity by requiring fewer keystrokes and putting new tools at their fingertips.
“Graphical view gives agents another option within the Sabre Red Workspace to tailor their workflow based on their needs and preferences,” said Chris Kroeger, Senior Vice President of Marketing for Sabre Travel Network. “Because of the increased speed and additional capabilities of graphical view, it will allow agents to do more in less time, making it a valuable tool for seasoned agents and those who are just starting out.” Working in the graphical view of Sabre Red Workspace, agents will be able to:
• Shop and book air, hotel and car in a fully-graphical format
• Save time by using fewer keystrokes to complete a task
• Reduce training time for new agents from six weeks to two weeks
• Navigate graphical view from the keyboard, with a mouse or both
• Easily toggle back and forth between the classic ‘blue screen’ view and the new graphical view
As part of the educational and general sessions at TMU this week, agents were given a sneak peak of the new feature and how it will increase efficiency and productivity. "I have had an opportunity to see Sabre’s new graphical workflow and am anxious to introduce it to our agents later this year” said Randal Limbacher, COO of Canyon Creek Travel. “Sabre’s graphical view will help us work faster and smarter, which in turn saves time and money. Our experienced agents will like that it can be totally keyboard driven and blends with the emulator, plus the user friendly interface will help reduce start-up time for newer agents.”
Some of the unique and new capabilities in graphical view include:
• Calendar Shopping – agents can shop for air travel options using flexible dates
• Map-Based Shopping for Hotels – agents have the flexibility to search by zip code, address, neighborhood or point of interest and then click into the map for more information on the hotels or make a reservation
• Email During Shopping - allows agents to email travel options to clients during the shopping process
• More Low Fare Options - makes finding low fares easy by giving agents more low fare results
• Merchandising – graphical view makes it easier for agents to shop ancillaries and air extras
• Command Line – agents can use traditional commands within the graphical view
Sabre is currently expanding its beta-test of graphical view in the Red Workspace to more than 50 agencies around the world, with plans to begin its global market release later this year. The new graphical view will be available in multiple languages including English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian and Japanese. Further enhancements are planned for next year.
“When we announced Sabre Red in June last year, we promised customers we’d keep developing and delivering new and innovative tools to help them succeed and stay ahead of the market. Graphical view is just one example of how Sabre continues to offer industry leading technology to all of our customer segments,” said Kroeger.
Graphical view builds upon and expands the initial graphical capabilities launched within the Sabre Red Workspace in July 2010. Since July, Sabre has upgraded more than 120,000 agents in more than 110 countries to the Red Workspace.
Visit www.sabretravelnetwork.com.