What's New at TRAMS

Summer Camp 2005

This is a HOT event you won't want to miss! The 9th annual Summer Camp is being held this year at the Arizona Biltmore Spa & Resort in Phoenix, Arizona on August 3 - 5, 2005. Registration ends July 25th!
Read more >>>>.

See you there!

Technology University 2005

Amazingly, Tech U celebrated 10 years at Caesar's Palace, Las Vegas in March.
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Latest Versions
If you have not already upgraded, our latest software versions are:

ClientBase Plus 3.00.01

This version includes: Res Card PNR Import from Worldspan, Default Field Values for Invoices, ClientBase Database Synchronization Utility (designed to synchronize a Primary database with ONE remote (copy) location, and much more!

TRAMS Back Office Version 2.07.01

This version includes: Batch Reports scheduling using Windows Task Scheduler, Global Modify for UDID's, voiding an invoice with multiple credit card payments, expanded options for 'Included Items' on the Canadian BSP report, and much more!

TRAMS Support Resources

We've worked hard to provide a variety of support options and invite you to print out our Support Resource Card as a quick reference. Also included is a list of TRAMS Technologies.

Employee News

We welcome two new employees to our support team this quarter. Benson Pontawe and Michael Nsien joined our general support team specializing in our ClientBase product.

Benson is a native Californian with a degree in Computer Information Systems from DeVry University. When he isn't helping customers he describes himself as a sports fanatic, especially enjoying basketball.

Michael comes to us from Tulsa, Oklahoma, with a degree in Communications and Business Management from the University of Ohio. Michael is a talented soccer player earning several awards, including being named to the Nigerian Olympic Soccer Team in 2003. He shares his soccer enthusiasm with underprivileged children by organizing events and raising money for scholarships. We are extremely pleased to have both Benson and Michael on our Support Team.

It is with great sadness that we learned of the death of one of our TRAMS' family members, Paul Sonenshine, who succumbed to a long illness on May 3, 2005. Paul was a member of our Support Team for eight years and will be remembered for his courage as he faced his illness, for his love of our ClientBase program, the support of our clients and his sense of humor. We miss Paul.

Clarity in the Integration Age

Fortunately, things have cleared quite a bit and while all is not set in concrete, there are many points we can rely on:

• No one company will do all the technology for us - we need to choose the pieces that work best for us and work best together.
• The GDS's are re-inventing themselves and will have a different role going forward than they did in the past. Count on them to power many booking engines, but don't count on them as the single solution for everyone.
• Agents will book using websites - suppliers are just making it too attractive not to.
• Integration systems - ClientBase's Live Connect that integrates your processing systems with web-based booking engines make business more efficient and better.
• Agencies must market - and while there are great content and technology allies to help, agents must learn the role of CRM and establish unique relationships with their clients.

Best-of-Breed - Integrated Solutions

For example, supplier Web sites designed for agent bookings that are not integrated, require agents to type all log in, agent and then client and passenger data into the booking engine. And then, worst of all upon completion, manually enter the information in something as clumsy as a GDS passive segment in order to manage and account for the reservation. Websites integrating or using Live Connect are getting much greater agent participation as it is faster, easier and more efficient to use such an integrated website.

Another example is integration with marketing content. Agents today know they must reach out and market to their clients. Several Web sites exist with great marketing content or promotions that agents can send to their segmented clients. And, having the electronic integration between the database system and the marketing content Web site makes it as simple as pressing a button to actually send out the selected personalized promotion individually to targeted clients.

Future

Thanks for reading.

Lee

We are extremely pleased to announce the newest member of the TRAMS, Inc. team, Bruce Rosenberg.

Bruce started in early July in the capacity of TRAMS Vice President, and President of TMA (Travel Marketing Associates), a TRAMS division. Bruce brings senior level executive experience to his new positions. He formerly served at Hilton Hotels as Senior Vice President of Distribution/eBusiness, at Hotels.com/Expedia as Vice President of Product Development, and at Hospitality Marketing Concepts as Executive Vice President of Marketing.

TMA provides direct marketing services, e-mail and direct mail services to travel agencies, consortia and for suppliers. TMA has sophisticated software and a professional services group that allows all parties to work together to develop marketing campaigns that are directed at consumers through travel agents, as well as completely track results.

TMA enables travel agencies need to combine Customer Relationship Management CRM), i.e. personal knowledge of a customer's buying habits, with regular promotional communications to drive business. The combination of CRM and sending regular communication insure that travel agencies stay in "top of mind awareness" with customers throughout the buying process.

TMA is being integrated into the TRAMS suite of agency productivity tools. Providing direct marketing support via TMA plus making sure information is shared with ClientBase and TRAMS Back Office. The objective is to increase productivity and provide the data that allows travel agents to provide excellent service to customers.

Bruce's goal is to grow the TMA business. We are currently expanding the number of supplier relationships and consortia partnerships while growing the number of agencies participating in the program.

On a personal note, Bruce and his wife Michelle have been married for almost 10 years. They have two rabble rousing boys ages 5 and 7 that are always getting into some kind of mischief. Bruce and the family live in Oak Park in Southern California and looks forward to the maturing of the TMA services we offer.

TRAMS Inc. welcomes Bruce.

Learn dozens of strategies to help you save time, increase sales and improve customer relationships! Plan to join us at the beautiful Arizona Biltmore Resort and Spa on August 3-5, 2005 for this unique training opportunity. You'll join 350 of your peers for 3 days of networking, exchanging ideas and learning all that is new with ClientBase Plus and TRAMS Back Office!

A few of this year's HOT new classes include:

Hot New Classes:
TRAMS Back Office: Payments & Cleaning Up Balances
TRAMS Back Office: General Ledger and End of Month
ClientBase Plus: Getting Your Agents To Close More Sales
Time Saving Tips & Auto Procedures for TRAMS Back Office & ClientBase Plus
. . . . and much more

Also, these Mini Sessions:
Data Hosting,
E-mail Marketing,
Credit Card Processing & Ticketmaster,
and ARC's Big Three: IAR 2.0, Travel Agency Service Fees & Leveraging ARC Data

One of the new things this year was our Live Connect Pavilion where 18 of our Live Connect Partners - those who have a booking engine that connects with ClientBase - demonstrated how you can pass agency, login, client and passenger data from ClientBase to them, book a reservation and import reservation details back into ClientBase Plus. Some of these Partners are new and all are very excited to be working with you. The same room housed our study sessions, Internet Caf?, and Marketing content providers. Many took advantage of the Pavilion for one on one review and discussion.

There were several 3rd Party session options as well. ARC and World Leading Cruise Lines, had some heavily attend sessions as well. There were technical classes, marketing classes and other classes on booking engines like Princess Polar.

We offered more classes than ever at Tech U this year and are listening for input on length of classes in the future. The open forums for TRAMS Back Office and ClientBase were very well attended - everyone enjoyed sharing and learning from their peers' discussions about how they use the products.

Summer Camp is much more casual. We will have a packed schedule of things to do. No fancy meals, just a lot of fun at the Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix first week in August. Click here for more details and make your reservation.

Top 10 Creative "Saved Queries"

With all the available filters in Level 1, 2 and 3 queries, ClientBase Plus allows you to view your database inside out, upside down or in just about any subset you desire. Some people call this "mining your data". We call it "querying" your database. In the end the objective is to better understand your customer base and maximize your marketing and service efforts with your clients. So in our opinion, the more you query your database, the more successful you will be. To help you with those queries that you want to often run, we suggest you save the query filters after setting them up. This is called 'Saving a Query' to a folder. One click on a saved query folder, and the query filters are completed automatically. What a time saver! With this in mind, we thought you might be interested in seeing how other agencies have become creative with their saved queries and listed the "Top 10" below. This newsletter's focus is on Profile Manager and we'll continue with sample saved queries for the Activity and Res Card Managers in future newsletters. Enjoy!

"Top 10" Profile Manager Saved Queries

#1. "New Customers Last 7 Days"
Level 2 Query
*** General Info ____________________________________________
Profile Type Is Equal to [Leisure/Corporate]
Profile Create Date Between "=-7,0,0" And "="
Profile Status Is Equal to Active
*** Marketing ______________________________________________
Client Status
New Customer

#2. "Passports Are Expiring Within the Quarter"
Level 2 Query
*** General Info ____________________________________________
Profile Status Is Equal to Active
*** Family/Employee _________________________________________
Passport Expiration Between "=" And "=0,+3,0"

#3. "Clients We Can Market to Via E-mail"
*** Profile Level 3 Filter Number 1 _____________________________
(Profile Type [Leisure,Corporate])
AND (Profile Status Is Equal to Active)
AND (Communication Filter Type: Does Have Communication Records with the following criteria)
(Communication Type Is Equal to E-mail)
AND (Marketing Permission Is Equal to Y)

#4. "Clients with Completed Address Info"
*** Profile Level 3 Filter Number 1 _____________________________
(Profile Type [Leisure])
AND (Address Line 1 Is NOT BLANK)
AND (Zip Code Is NOT BLANK)
AND (City Is NOT BLANK)
AND (State Is NOT BLANK)
AND (Profile Status Is Equal to Active)

#5. "Past Cruisers"
Level 2 Query
*** General Info ___________________________________________
Profile Type Is Equal to [Leisure/Corporate]
Profile Status Is Equal to Active
*** Travel History _________________________________________
Travel Categories Is Equal to [Cruise]

6. "Clients Who Have Booked This Week"
Level 2 Query
*** General Info ______________________________________________
Profile Type Is Equal to [Leisure]
Profile Status Is Equal to Active
*** ResCards ______________________________________________
... ResCard Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
ResCard Status Is Equal to Active
... Reservation Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Booking Status Is Equal to Confirmed
Date Reserved Between "=-7,0,0" [4/12/2005] And "=" [4/19/2005]

#7. "Customers with No Bookings 1 Year
*** Profile Level 3 Filter Number 1 ___________________________
(Profile Type [Leisure,Corporate])
AND (Profile Status Is Equal to Active)
AND (Travel History Type: Does NOT Have Any Travel History Records with the following criteria)
(Invoice Issue Date Is From "=0,0,-1" [4/19/2004] to "=" [4/19/2005])

#8. "Top 200 Clients Based on Past Purchases"
Level 2 Query
*** General Info ______________________________________________
Profile Type Is Equal to [Leisure/Corporate]
Profile Status Is Equal to Active
*** Travel History ______________________________________________
Top X Client Sales (X=200)

#9. "Bought > $10,000 in Travel Last Year"
Level 2 Query
*** General Info ______________________________________________
Profile Type Is Equal to [Leisure/Corporate]
Profile Status Is Equal to Active
*** Travel History ______________________________________________
Client Sales:Sales Total Between 10,000.00 And 999,999.00 FOR ONLY (Invoice Issue Dates Between "=0,0,-1" And "=" )

#10. "Booked in Past but No Trips Yet for Next 6 mos."
*** Profile Level 3 Filter Number 1 _____________________
(Profile Type [Leisure])
AND (Profile Status Is Equal to Active)
AND (ResCards Filter Type: Does NOT Have Any ResCard Records with the following criteria)
(ResCard Trip Start Date Is From "=" to "=0,+6,0")
AND (Travel History Filter Type: Does Have Travel History Records)
Bonus: "Clients Sent no Marketing in Last 3 Weeks"
*** Profile Level 3 Filter Number 1 _____________________
(Profile Type [Leisure])
AND (Profile Status Is Equal to Active)
AND (Activity Filter Type: Does NOT Have Any Activity Records with the following criteria)
(Mailers (All))
AND (Activity Date Is From "=-21,0,0" [3/30/2005] to "=" [4/20/2005])

Steps to Saving a Query as a Folder

Just to refresh your memory, here are steps for saving a query as a folder:

1) Using Level 1, 2, or 3 query, enter your query filters and run your query. (Use date formulas as described below if applicable.)

2) To customize the columns used in the query, click the Columns button at the top right corner next to the Count button. To change a column, move the highlighted column over to the other side by using the > or < arrow. By using the shift key and mouse, select as many consecutive entries as you want to move and use the > or < arrows. By using the control key and your mouse, you can select non-consecutive entries to move. Use U and D to order the selections. To sort up to 3 columns in ascending or descending order, click Sort by Columns. You can also arrange size and sort the columns in the query on the result screen by inserting the mouse between the column headers (see a bi-directional arrow), holding down the left-mouse button, and pulling the columns to the new size. Pull any column to a new location by using the mouse. To sort, hold down Shift and click a column header one time for ascending order and once again for descending order.

3) When satisfied with the query results, go to File | Save Query As. This screen appears:

4) From the drop-down Level menu, choose whether you want the query to be Personal (for your own use only), or Global (for the use of everyone in the agency).

5) Name the query.

6) Click OK. The new query folder is located on the left hand side of the Manager screen:

Note: ClientBase saves the filters and results layout, not the query results. The next time you use the saved query, any new data that has been added since it was created is included in the new query.

Using Date Formulas in Queries

Since queries can be saved and retrieved for frequent use, the date fields in all queries allow for date formulas. This means any field that has a date, can also contain a formula for that date. The date formula function allows you to create a query without identifying a specific month, day and year in the From and To date fields. Instead, the query is processed with a formula for the month, day, day of the week, and year based upon the date the report is processed.

Remember: Make sure system date and time are correct.

Benefit: When entering a date formula, the system converts it to the intended time period to run queries and/or save them for future use without the need to modify dates.

Example: The following tables contain sample formulas for specifying dates. Mix and match the absolute and relative parameters in the function. The first number specifies the day of the month, the second number specifies the month, and the third number specifies the year. So if you only have the first number filled in, this means you intend this report to reoccur on this day every month, in every year.

Date Formulas:

If You Want This Enter This:	Enter This
1st day of this month:	=1,0,0
Last day of this month:	=31,0,0
1st day of this year:	=1,1,0
Last day of this year:	=31,12,0
Seven days from now:	=+7,0,0
Last Monday (will show today if today is Monday)	=Mon
A week from last Monday	=Mon-1
Next Monday	=Mon+1
Three months from now	=0,+3,0
Six months ago:	=0,-6,0
One year from now	=0,0,+1

Value Feature # 1:
Receipts can now be linked to a deposit entry. On the new "Deposit" screen under Payments, you can query for receipts to be included for a specific deposit and when included, are linked to the deposit entry created.

A 'Deposit Slip' can also be printed from the new deposit screen if you choose to include and link your receipts to your deposit.

The "Deposit Slip" printed contains your Bank Name, the Routing Number and Account Number. The totals for Cash and Checks are displayed at the bottom of the report with the Deposit Total. Most banks will accept this Deposit Slip Report along with a copy of your normal bank deposit slip with only totals for Cash, Checks and Total Deposit completed. Since the TBO Deposit Slip will not have the Routing/Account Numbers in the magnetic ink required for bank scanners, the original slip will still be required. You just won't have to list all the checks, saving considerable time, if you are entering your receipts into Back Office before making your bank deposits.

Value Feature # 2:
When processing Interface Records, do you ever have a record stop processing, when it can't find an agent "2V" and you need to know who 2V really is? You can view the PNR data in the interface record using the "View Source" Button on the Interface Processing Screen. You will see the information that is located under the RecLoc "Button" of the Invoice before the invoice is created, allowing you to process the record to the correct agent.

Value Feature # 3:
Do you ever need to work with your G/L Account History in another program like Excel? Just select the "Mail Merge" option in the report, export the G/L Account History Report to Excel or other software.

Value Feature # 4:
Ever need to query for a ticket number, whether it is an ARC/BSP ticket or a Non ARC/BSP "Supplier" ticket? There is a field on the General tab of the Invoice query screen called "Ticket/Confirm No Ref" that searches the Ticket No., Original Ticket No. and Confirmation No. fields for the specified value.

Value Feature # 5:
When a customer wants all their invoices e-mailed to them as a single PDF file, you can select an option on the "Invoice Printing" screen to "Print Multiple Invoices As One Job". When checked, all the invoices displayed for the criteria selected will be part of a single file for either printing, e-mailing, faxing or saving. The recipient only needs to click open the 'single' pdf file and then scroll through or print the multiple invoices contained in the file, instead of having to open multiple .pdf files.

Value Feature # 6:
Need to clean up your Group ID's to insure that all the appropriate Individual Profiles are properly coded? Check that the "Group" field is displayed on the Profile Query Screen. If not, click on the "Columns" Button and move the field to the "Displayed Fields" Window and click "Save Settings". Now you are able to see which profiles have a Group ID and which ones need to have a Group ID added.

Value Feature # 7:
Need to track any voided payment regardless of payment method? Check that the "Always Track Voided Payments" box is checked in Utilities | Setup | Global Defaults | Prompt Tab. When checked, all payments both received and made, whether they directly affect a bank account or not, are tracked.

Value Feature # 8:
Want to change the order that "Batched" Reports are printed after loading? Just highlight the report you want to move to a different print position by clicking the "Move Up" or "Move Down" Buttons on the Batch Report Screen.

Value Feature # 9:
When your access to TBO is about to expire, the prompt screen, 'Access Will Expire in XX Days' now has a myTRAMS link, that when clicked takes you to your myTRAMS page on our Web site, so you can obtain your access code without having to call TRAMS.

Value Feature # 10:
Want to insure that all the new profiles created during Interface Processing, through ClientBase Plus, or manually, has a unique Interface ID? There is a checkbox for "Require Unique, Non Blank I/F ID On New Profiles" in Utilities | Setup | Global Defaults | Prompt Tab. If this box is checked, you will NOT be able to create a 'New' profile in Back Office, if the Interface ID field of the profile being created is either blank or is an Interface ID that has already been used for an existing profile in the system. This only affects the creation of "New" profiles.