CYTRIC R10 COMBINES FAST BOOKING OF BUSINESS TRIPS AT LOWEST COST WITH SIMPLE INTEGRATION INTO COMPANY IT.
Frankfurt, April 21, 2008. Travel expenses represent an important cost factor in corporations. These costs are boosted by the selection of wrong rates, non compliance with travel policies and complex administration procedures. The Business Travel eProcurement System cytric by i:FAO helps to reduce travel and administration costs and is used very simple as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).
cytric - risk-free technology and service optimizing business travel by providing more cost reduction, higher adoption, and finding better trips.
i:FAO's groundbreaking cytric R10 is the first business travel eProcurement solution that combines all the benefits of online applications with an open, enterprise-class infrastructure. cytric R10, which has already been put into production for all cytric customers, further advances i:FAO's strategy to offer a risk-free solution. This allows all customers to continually optimize their business travel management program. cytric customers save direct travel cost (on average 12%) and indirect travel cost (on average
55%) and improve travel information access, travel planning, travel changing, travel accounting, and travel management.
cytric R10 provides a fast and easy travel booking process, the industry's most functional travel management system, rapid and easy implementation, and quick return on investment. cytric R10 is set for high user adoption rates and provides for those it's secure infrastructure, based on the travel industry's most modern multi-tier architecture with scalability to more than 100,000 airline tickets per day. Because there is no hardware or software to install, cytric customers must not plan for technology implementation, rather can focus on customizing the cytric system to support their unique business processes.
cytric R10 represents a major advance for all cytric customers and our R10 user base, who get all this automatically and free. No upgrades, no new contracts, no hassles of any kind. With improvements in every major area, we continue to extend our technology leadership. cytric's functions and features include numerous industry firsts. At the same time competitors deliver software, which is several generations back.
Full content with cytric R10: The i:FAO Cube Channel™ Technology is helping cytric customers to procure air travel more efficiently, by enabling them to combine availability and pricing information from different distributions channels more easily than ever before. New is the Cube Channel™ Technology also for hotel bookings.
Important USP's of cytric R10:
GRID PRICING™
cytric replaces separate availability and price displays by using i:FAO's unique Grid Pricing™. Customers can book from availability showing lowest agency, corporate, net, and web fares in a single screen.
MULTI FARE DISPLAY
A feature of superior customer benefit in cytric is the Multi Fare Display.
Using the Multi Fare Display, cytric customers make certain that the best fare is booked with every air booking. Companies have comprehensive control over the shown fares, including several dynamic functions, which execute pre-set rules according to market conditions. In addition cytric automatically displays one-way fares, if a combination of these is cheaper than a round trip. Combinations between the options from network airlines and low fare airlines can easily be booked in a single booking.
CUBE CHANNEL™ TECHNOLOGY
i:FAO has developed its Cube Channel™ Technology, a new connectivity management software, that optimally prepares customers to meet complex demands regarding to airline and hotel connectivity and distribution channel selection. Cube Channel™ Technology is helping cytric customers to procure airline tickets and hotel bookings more efficiently, by enabling them to combine availability and pricing information from different distributions channels more easily than ever before. i:FAO's Cube Channel™ Technology uses unique algorithms to automate the retrieval of airline and hotel availability and prices across various distribution channels (GDS and
non-GDS) selectively set by the customers procurement policy.
PERSONAL PORTAL™
Book, change, inquire - all functions are organized on one page with easy access to the active bookings and favorites, as well as current worldwide weather, currency exchange rates, and maps from Google™ Maps including satellite images. Direct access to online check-in facilities of more than
45 airlines is included, as well as global passport, visa, and health regulations.
SPEEDBOOK™
SpeedBook™ allows booking of air or hotel with two clicks, always in less than 30 seconds.
ONCE MORE ENHANCED HOTEL BOOKING WITH STARBURST™ TECHNOLOGY The comprehensive hotel booking functionality in cytric, using a brochure-style user presentation using newest web 2.0 technology as well as interactive maps, results in a higher percentage of hotel bookings, when compared to other systems. This reduces cost for all parties involved, since the workflow becomes leaner, the usage of preferred hotels at special rates happens more frequently and any special offers of the hotels are used to the customers benefit. In addition cytric informs the user if preferred hotels are fully booked, or if the room rate changes during the desired stay.
Combined or instead of conventional booking channels, cytric can also access numerous hotel consolidators for an even more tailored procurement strategy for the customer.
TRAVEL MANAGER DASHBOARD™
The Travel Manager Dashboard™ is a comprehensive console specifically designed for travel managers. For a corporations cytric System it includes, among other functions, the real-time monitoring of bookings, as well up-to-date information on booking numbers with vendors.
CYTRIC VIRTUAL VIEW™
cytric Virtual View™ is showing current traveller locations on a satellite view or hybrid map and is easily accessible from cytric's Travel Manager Dashboard™. cytric customers can swiftly respond to any threat or incident, by being able to locate travellers globally.
TRAVEL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
The Travel Management System integrated with cytric offers more than 1.097 settings to customize cytric according to the requirements and policies of the customer without any additional programming.
TRAVEL ARRANGER DASHBOARD™
More than 40% of all cytric bookings are made by travel arrangers or secretaries. Using the Travel Arranger Dashboard™ this is done in half the time and is much easier to manage.
SUPPORT AGENT DASHBOARD™
The Support Agent Dashboard™ is a comprehensive console specifically designed for support agents. It provides access to all booking data stored in a corporation's cytric System and allows modifications of bookings also during a trip. Support agents can, for the first time, comprehensively support travelers already en route. The Support Agent Dashboard™ is based on i:FAO's next generation vegas technology and is and add-on to cytric TwinView™.
CYTRIC TWINVIEW™ TECHNOLOGY
cytric TwinView™ Technology is a co-browsing software enabling customer service agents to share screens with users until a cytric booking is completed. TwinView™ shows all TMS settings, user profiles, and GDS logs and is key for a 100% mandate.
i:FAO's PROPRIETARY DYNAWEB™ TECHNOLOGY
Directly within cytric use DynaWeb™ to access more than 100 web sites of low fare airlines to receive Internet availability and pricing and book immediately. Includes access to online check-in as well as pre-booking of baggage.
ERGONOMIC DESIGN
i:FAO is working consistently to keep the distinctive cytric “look and feel”
throughout changes in usability and presentation.
PERFECT PNR™ & PERFECT QUEUE™
These functions provide a wide range of options to generate bookings in complete compliance with the requirements of fulfillment centers for touch-free handling and reduced operational cost.
CYTRIC ENTERPRISE REPORTING
cytric Enterprise Reporting offers management reports containing and analyzing the entire travel data repository of cytric. The functionality includes a sophisticated report distribution concept and i:FAO's exclusive Advantage Reports™.
NINE NEW RELEASES IN 2008
i:FAO has already planned for additional significant enhancements throughout 2008. In total nine new releases of cytric will be deployed throughout the year. These will be put into production simultaneously for all customers. An emphasis will be placed on a broad variety of additional rail booking options for France and Sweden. These may, as an option, be completely integrated with the air booking process.
cytric is optimized to easily be integrated into any enterprise architecture by using open standards, not proprietary tools, and by leveraging pre-built connectors to a variety of software, including the cytric Companion for SAP®. cytric Release vegas has been certified as interface for SAP® Netweaver™.
cytric ENTERPRISE customers have access to a variety of additional services and Add-On's which include the cytric Web Services and the cytric
Companions:
Corporate Portal Integration - Customers can choose from a wide variety of options, which may be combined in any way desired: cytric Personal Portal™, cytric Public Portal™ (with optional guest access), cytric Network Portal™, cytric single sign on, employee portal integration, HR integration, LDAP, corporate directory, approval system and workflow, GDS profile synchronization, offline GDS booking import, FI/CO integration, expense management, Perfect PNR™, Perfect Queue™, and third party reporting applications. This allows our customers to design seamless end-to-end solutions, without having to do without the respective “best-in-class”
software. cytric Web Services enable an error-free interaction between cytric and external web sites (Intranet, Extranet, Portals) with additional and attractive functionality, far extending a Single SignOn. Besides cytric access, the cytric Web Services are available for the Personal Portal™, the display of existing bookings and the direct link into new bookings.
CYTRIC INSIGHT™ 3
As a support upgrade for high end customers, cytric Insight™ 3 provides fast lane access to cytric's production, support and development infrastructure.
Only cytric combines unparalleled functionality, ease of use and a robust and fast performance to create a fluid user experience, achieving the highest adoption rates in the industry. cytric is backed by i:FAO's operational excellence, using two entirely separate hosting locations, and by our global account management team. Ready for deployment and support in more than 80 countries, cytric will make certain that your company can optimize travel management risk-free, based on the most modern technology available.
cytric is available in three different functionality levels, always best meeting the needs of corporations and business travellers. cytric ONE, attractively priced, is designed for small corporations. cytric BUSINESS offers all the functionality a mid-size corporation needs, and more. Priced lower than cytric ENTERPRISE, cytric BUSINESS is the best choice for up to 1.000 travellers per company. cytric ENTERPRISE is the leading solution for large enterprises and global corporations, an unparalleled combination of rich functionality and superior performance, yet easy to manage and simple to deploy.
About i:FAO:
The i:FAO Group integrates diverse information technologies to establish leading global standards for business travel software. i:FAO is market leader for neutral, worldwide available standard software for Business Travel eProcurement.
i:FAO Group Compensates all CO2 Emissions and is Certified as "Climate Neutral"
Already in 2006 i:FAO has decided to entrust the Swiss myclimate foundation with the compensation of all harmful CO2 emissions coming from the entire business activities of the i:FAO Group, through carbon offset projects according to internationally recognised criteria. Only projects in the categories of renewable energies and energy efficiency in accordance with the Gold Standard and providing a positive contribution to sustainable on-site development are supported. With this investment in our mutual future i:FAO recognizes the special obligations coming from company activities in the areas of business travel and travel technology.
Case Studies:
i:FAO has started the periodical publication of case studies about companies of different types and sizes using cytric. The examples show how cytric contributes to a real expense cutting in practice, and how this contribution can be clearly measured. At this time 34 case studies are available, and new reports are continuously added. Please click on http://www.cytric.com/cytricCase/ to select from the case studies and download your choices.
Brochure:
i:FAO has created a comprehensive brochure to highlight the functionality and customer benefits of cytric. To order your free copy please click here.
Additional information, image files and pictures in high resolution are available in the press area of the i:FAO web site at www.ifao.net
