Technology and Marketing University 2008 will be held at the Rio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Tuesday, April 22nd through Thursday, April 25th. This year we are bigger and better than ever!!

While continuing to serve the travel industry as the best travel agent development and training conference, we have enhanced our products, services, and customer programs, so you have higher take-home value. We have aligned, and integrated, many of our travel technology products and marketing programs to work better together, thus providing end-to-end solutions for your agency’s management needs.

With over 65 interactive workshops and breakout sessions, over 50 travel companies and suppliers presenting, and over 600 travel professionals in attendance, the Technology and Marketing University has grown to be the best thing that happens in Vegas.

To add to the excitement, TMU has a new look! We promise to offer the best technology and marketing education, and our new look reflects our dedication to higher education.

For more information or to register, visit the TMU 2008 website at www.trams.com/tmu08.

Tom Milgate joins the TRAMS team as the Southern Regional Sales Manager. He is an accomplished travel industry professional with proven success in operations, strategic planning, sales and marketing. Tom also donates his time organizing the Tim Milgate Charity Golf Tournament which is an annual family effort devoted to making a difference for the Golisano Children’s Hospital at Strong in Rochester, New York. With over 30 years of experience as an agency owner and project manager, Tom is motivated to assist travel agencies in growing their businesses using TRAMS Back Office, ClientBase, and TMA.

Ysa Adams joins TMA as the Marketing Manager for the Southern Region. After a stint with the sending team, she says, "Operations provided a great introduction to the TRAMS suite of agency solutions." Previously, she has worked in both the hospitality and entertainment industries and counts her time spent as a volunteer with adult literacy programs and Habitat for Humanity as the "best training grounds for realizing my full potential as a human being." She enjoys driving fast, hiking, and has a rather strange sense of humor.

Camerin Bayless joins the TRAMS Marketing Alliance sending team as a proud parent of two beautiful girls, ages 10 and 2, and as someone who enjoys a good challenge and thrives in fast-paced environment. (Welcome to TRAMS!) She’s happy to be back at work after taking a couple years off to be a stay at home mom, and eventually plans to get her dream pet, an English bulldog.

Winston Lynch joins our TRAMS Support Staff in the Hardware Department. Winston comes to us with extensive experience as an IT/Computer professional helping non-technical clients find solutions to their problems at Belkin International and Motorola Paging Division. Winston holds a BS in Computer Science from CA State University, Dominguez Hills and a diploma in Computer Electronics Technology from the Computer Learning Center, CA.

Arlett Wills joins the TRAMS Marketing Alliance sending team. Arlett is a former insurance claims adjuster for the Auto Club of Southern California with over 20 years experience. She is the mother of two boys, Hunter, 3 years old, and Jazper, 19 months. She enjoys interior design and going on family outings.

Patty Alvizures joins the TRAMS Admin team as a Front Desk Receptionist and Accounting Clerk. She comes with 3 years of experience, having previously worked for Nix Check Cashing as a Senior Teller. Patty enjoys family time with her husband, Erick, and her three-old son, Nathan..

Brand new from TRAMS are virtual BASIC training programs for TRAMS Back Office and ClientBase users. Classes are typically six hours long– a four-hour commitment on Day One of training, and a two-hour commitment on Day Two. Class sizes are limited to six attendees. Although these classes do not give you the same overall instruction you can obtain in the two-day, hands-on classes conducted in Los Angeles and Chicago, virtual training may just be the key to get you up and running successfully. For more information, email training@trams.com.

Insurance agents call it their “Renewal Rate.” Banks use the term “Repeat Customer.” Pretty much every business has a name for it – except historically Travel Agencies and Travel Agents. The idea is what percent of your clients that booked a trip with you last year, have or will book a trip with you this year?

Surprisingly, many agencies do not know their “Repeat Business Rate.” To me that is a very, very important number. Fact is your Repeat Business Rate has a direct correlation on the success of your business.

Lisa Bauer, Executive Vice President of Royal Caribbean International, quotes that only 20% of consumers booking through agents use that same agent for their next trip. Yes, a Repeat Business rate of only 20% and meaning 80% of last year’s agency business does not come back this year – this is a very challenging and difficult way to build a business.

We have done analysis and while the rate we see is not as low as 20%, we do see an average of closer to 32%, which, frankly, leaves a lot of room for improvement!

The interesting part is that when questioned, the reason for consumers NOT coming back to travel agencies is not service-based – test after test shows service satisfaction is very high with only a few exceptions. Neither is the cause price. The reality is that the price is not higher by booking through a travel agent.

So if the low Repeat Business Rate is neither service nor price-based, then the question becomes what is the cause for such a low average industry rate? Especially when it is such a large determiner of agency success.

The answer is really basic. Most agencies have not aligned themselves to insure that good marketing programs are driving those past clients back to the agency – to then book the next trip. Fact is we cannot wait around for last year’s clients to come back to us to ask us about this year’s trip. There are just too many influences, too many options, and too many good marketing companies that will take our business if we do not actively and aggressively pursue it.

The good news is today there are great opportunities for marketing programs leveraging supplier relationships and providing you with professional marketing programs. Imagine for $20 a month having a better, more professional, more organized, and better reporting marketing program than any major online player (Orbitz, Expedia, etc.) and all with your personal touch.

It works. We see agencies regularly with “Repeat Business Rates” or 80% and more – those that are doing the professional marketing and follow through.

Is this a push towards agencies doing a better job of marketing? Absolutely. In fact I believe the single biggest evolution that we are in the middle of is agencies having successful marketing programs.

At TRAMS we offer TMA – TRAMS Marketing Alliance – as your marketing solution. If we can be of help, let us know and we are happy to discuss your marketing program and what can drive your “Repeat Business Rate” dramatically higher.

Joining Forces for an Even Better TMA
Lindsay Chomyn, Director TMA Operations

TMA would like to welcome Silversea as our newest TMA supplier partner. Log into the TMA web site to see the beautiful email templates provided to you and select Silversea as a preferred supplier. Silversea offers the intimate ambiance preferred by discerning travelers and found only aboard the luxurious ships of Silversea. You’ll find more information about Silversea including virtual voyages at www.silversea.com.

In September, TRAMS Marketing Advantage (TMA) started working closely with Jurni, another Sabre company. Jurni has been providing award-winning direct mail marketing for agencies, while TMA has focused on email marketing. Moving into 2008 we see great benefits to combining these programs to provide you with the best multimedia marketing for travel agencies.

It is with great excitement that we build an even better TMA – TRAMS Marketing Alliance. In addition to the great emails templates from our supplier partners you will also see the following great marketing opportunities in 2008:

Journeys Monthly “Ezine” (Electronic Magazine) - Featuring articles, facts, and travel trips about new destinations each month.
Themed campaigns – Professionally designed direct mail and email marketing pieces built with emotional hooks to appeal to your customers' interests.
Single Supplier Pieces – Exclusive Suppliers mailings.
Cruise and Vacations Lifestyles Magazine – Published 3 times a year.

How do get the most out of TRAMS Marketing Alliance? As always, we are committed to helping you get the most out of your marketing dollars through helping get the right promotion to the right client. This customer centric marketing strategy means your lists/profiles need to store as much information on the client you want to market to as possible. Our Marketing Managers will continue working with you to help you build and segment your data. As mentioned in the last newsletter the agencies that are seeing the greatest return are those agencies that they are creating targeted mailing lists with queries using Travel History and/or Res Cards, Marketing Codes, Special Dates, or Activities.

As we move closer to 2008, you will hear us talk more about selecting primary supplier partners. This helps you align yourself with the brands that support your agency’s strategic plan. You and the supplier partner commit to growing business together.

You will soon see a new logo and an updated web site. We are working hard with existing TMA suppliers and new suppliers for commitments for 2008. We know you will love the benefits of merging the best of our organizations and we look forward to helping you market and grow your business even more!

New Value Features
(in soon to be released 3.00.00)
Lloyd West, TBO Product Manager

In this new version of TBO a number of changes have been made to the Canadian and other International versions in the way we capture GST and VAT taxes in the program. Our goal was one of consistency among all the GST/VAT versions. The basic functionality on how the taxes are calculated and what is saved has not changed. What has changed to one degree or another are the setup for capturing these taxes and the fields that they are captured in. Nothing has been taken away from what was in earlier versions. Here are some of the highlights, but be sure to read the 3.00.00 version release notes for more details.

Added a "GST/VAT" tax code field to Utilities|Setup|Global Defaults|Tax Related Tab for designating the tax codes for GST and VAT. The 'Download.exe/ file was also modified to use the "GST/VAT" tax code field to determine which taxes are for GST/VAT.

The 'Tax Related' tab in Utilities|Global Default for all BSP versions has been modified to allow for VAT/GST tax to be applied to any of the Tax 1 thru Tax 4 fields, as contained in previous Australian versions.

Client GST/VAT is now captured separately from other taxes, in its own field on the "More Taxes" Tab of the Booking screen, in all BSP versions.

The descriptions for the GST/VAT fields on the "More Taxes" Tab of the 'Booking' screen have been changed to "Comm GST" or "Comm VAT" to distinguish from Client GST/VAT.

When updating your database using the new TFWUP in the 3.00.00 version, Client GST/VAT amounts will be moved from the previously designated tax field to the new Client GST/VAT Amt fields. For UK, & AMEA versions, the tax field was always tax 4; for Canada, Australia and other BSP countries, the tax field is the one designated with a tax code of XG.

Value Feature # 2:

Changed the look and layout for printing of a Client Voucher & Vendor Voucher to include an “amount” for the voucher of the (+/-) payments on the Voucher and the "Balance" of the Voucher.

The invoice type now reads Client Voucher or Vendor Voucher.
The payment information now has a column header and the booking header is disabled for vouchers.
Vendor payments are listed for Vendor Vouchers.
Vendor name and address info is displayed for Vendor Vouchers.
Columns have been added for Pay Method & Payment Type (received/made) in the payment summary section.

Value Feature # 3:

Added a third option for a new "American Express KR-1022" file format for the  AMEX CC Reconciliation under Reports|Payment.

This newer .CSV file format can be readily downloaded by the AMEX user from their web site. You don't have to wait for a disk or e-mail file to be sent to you.

Value Feature # 4:

Added a new Payroll Import for Oryel payroll software, under Payments|Payroll Import|Import Oryel Payroll.

Note: The old KIS Payroll option has been replaced with the Oryel option. Both the KIS and Oryel payroll import files will work using the "Import Oryel Payroll" option.

Added a new 'Pinnacle PPS' selection to both the 'Setup CC Merchant Processors' Screen under Utilities|Setup|CC Processors and on the 'CC Merchant Reconciliation' Screen under Payments|Reconciliations to accommodate a new Pinnacle processing solution for UATP & Non-UATP Credit Cards.

The older selections for both "PRI" and "Pinnacle" have been phased out, so if using Pinnacle for your merchant processing, you would need to upgrade to an existing 3.00.00 beta version or the general release. Contact Pinnacle for further details on switching to the new "Pinnacle PPS" option.

Value Feature # 6:

Added 'Travel Type' as a column to be displayed under the "Columns" button on the Agent Reconciliation Screen under Payments|Reconciliation|Agent Reconciliation.

This will allow a user to sort by travel type so they can run one query for one agent for all travel types, sort by Travel Type and easily use the "Global Modify" button to adjust commission rates & amounts for a specific travel type

Value Feature # 7:

You can now create payments for multiple agents when saving the Agent Reconciliation.

When "Enter Agent Payment" is checked on the Agent Reconciliation screen under Payments|Reconciliation, and more than one agent is being reconciled, multiple agent payments, one for each agent reconciled as part of an 'Agent Group', can be created.

Value Feature # 8:

Added a "Group" drop-down field to the Create Agent Adjustment Screen. You can now add an Agent Adjustment 'Category' or 'Description' and save for later use.

You can now more consistently associate the agent adjustment with the particular expense it is for. It will standardize the allocation of the agent expenses to a consistent category that can then be more easily sorted and reported on than using the adjustment remarks field

The Agent Adjustment "Group" field has been added to the bottom of the Agent Statement so a user can consistently display Agent Adjustments grouped together by standard categories:

If a "Group" category is entered, then items of the same "Group" will be displayed together and subtotaled for each "Group."

During Interface processing, single payments are now created for each booking in the PNR Invoice being processed even if the CC No. is the same.

We now match Non-ARC/BSP airline bookings to any vendor profile with a matching interface ID. So a ticket sold on United Airlines, but not processed through ARC/BSP, can be added to a single United Airlines Vendor Profile if the Interface ID matches.

Added a new calculated field for 'Number of Room Nights' to Report Generator Build Reports.

Before this field was added, if there is a booking for a hotel and it is for 4 nights and for 4 rooms, the Report Generator report showed this as 4 room nights...not 16

This new 'Number of Room Nights' field takes the number of days from the 'Depart Date', 'Return Date' calculation X the 'No of Rooms' field on the Expanded Fare Tab, to correctly calculate the total number of room nights booked.

Modified the "Payment Method" field on the Report Generator Print Report 'General' Tab to be bracketed [ ] so that multiple forms of payment can be selected instead of just one. Now you are able to view all Credit Card payments and all CC Merchant payments on one report.

Added "Total Fare", "Commission Amount" & "Agent Name" as fields to select under Utilities|Setup|Checks (Check Writer) in all versions.

The check signing person in an agency will be better able to determine if the check going out to a vendor is correct or not with the additions of the Total Fare & Commission Amount fields printed on the check. If there is an issue with the check, having the Agent Name will speed up resolution of any check issues

Added an option in Global Defaults|Interface Mailmerge Prompt to "Ignore GST/VAT for Int'l BSP Air." When the box is checked GST/VAT on International Air will be automatically ignored via Interface and not applied to the booking.

The PNR History records stored in the database under the RECLOC Button on the Invoice Screen are now compressed to save space in the database.

ClientBase
ClientBase Version 3.03

Sharon Meyer, ClientBase Product Manager

It’s that time again. Over the last 10 months we have been diligently working on taking your input, feedback and suggestions and implementing them into a new release of ClientBase. You’ve come up with some really great ideas and we want to give you a sneak peek of what will be announced by early November. Below are just 10 reasons why agencies can’t wait for the next ClientBase release, version 3.03, to be announced! (There’s much, much more than 10 enhancements in 3.03, but maybe this will whet your appetite!)

#1: Do you have clients that speak Spanish or French? We’ve added the ability to print an invoice from the ClientBase Res Card in French, Spanish or English. Also, for those of you in the Canadian market with French speaking agents, we’ve created a version of ClientBase that’s completely in French. (A shortcut to the French version will get automatically installed on each workstation in the Canadian market.)

#2: Do your agents sometimes make embarrassing spelling errors? We know we do, so we added a Spell Check feature to ClientBase. Now as your agents work with Document Templates, Merge to Email or Profile Remarks, the system will automatically underline misspelled words and offer corrections; therefore, minimizing embarrassing mistakes on client communications.

#3: Our Dupe Check feature has always been popular, but believe it or not, we’ve made it even better. Now the Profile Dupe Check feature allows you to merge more profile data when using the Merge to Master feature and it includes the ability to mass merge all of your duplicate profiles at one time if desired.

#4: When it comes to strengthening customer relationships, knowing whether to refer to someone as Ken or Kenneth can make all the difference in the world. In 3.03 we added a new field to the Family Member/Employee record called Salutation/Nickname.

#5: Keeping daily to-do lists current can be a challenge so we added the ability to Global Modify Activities (Reminders, Notes and Mailers). Use Global Modify to mark old, outdated Reminders Completed, or to update their dates all at one time. Move an agent’s list of Activities to a new agent that has taken her place with just a couple clicks.

#6: Moving a client seamlessly through the sales process is a key to agent success. Now your agents can move from making a booking to collecting payment more easily by using the new Res Card "Trip Proposal" feature. This new feature gives your agents the ability to generate a document that is formatted much like an invoice, but can be provided to your clients as a way of requesting payment on a new booking without actually generating the invoice until payment is received.

#7: Customizing Invoices with Vendor specific, Agent specific and Client specific remarks just got easier! We added the ability to store, select and print Invoice, Itinerary, Trip Proposal and Trip Statement REMARKS at the Vendor, Client and Agent profile level in addition to the current Branch level.

#8: Do you want to call it a Service Charge, Consulting Fee, Professional Fee or something other than a Service Fee? We added a new Invoice format setting allowing you to customize how Service Fees are labeled on your Invoices. Now you can call it anything you desire. We also added a new Invoice format setting called "Print Service Fee as Invoice Total Line Item" giving you greater flexibility in customizing the print out of an invoice with Service Fees.

#9: Bridal Events have become a great source for travel leads and being able to store and track the wedding date is a big advantage. So, we updated the ASCII Profile Import Utility to include the ability to import “Special Dates” along with other profile data.

#10: Sometimes it’s the smallest gestures that get the biggest response. We’ve heard some of our drop- down fields are too narrow and therefore make it difficult to read all the choices in the list to select from. So, we enhanced the User Defined Drop Down fields so that upon clicking the arrow to view the listing, the drop down box dynamically expands to the width of the longest entry.

We hope these enhancements, along with the many others that have been included in this next update, help your agency become that much more successful with ClientBase. Look for an email announcing this new release and the complete listing of New Features and Enhancements shortly. If you have ClientBase enhancement ideas, please feel free to share them by emailing me at sharon.meyer@trams.com.

SUPPORT HELPFUL HINTS

Did Your Sync Stop?
Susan Skinner, Senior Support Specialist

Many agencies are taking advantage of our TRAMS Marketing Alliance (TMA) product to provide the best possible marketing program for their agency. A synchronization process between your agency database and a server here at TRAMS provides a gateway for easy marketing to your clients and communication with TMA.

During the sync installation process, a Windows scheduled task is created to send up-dated information to TRAMS on a regular basis. There are various reasons that the scheduled task may stop running. The following are some common reasons the sync process may stop:

Changing the SYSDBA password.
Changing the alias path.
Changing the Windows password.
Changing or reformatting the hard drive of the TRAMS server.
Moving the TRAMS server to another computer.
Installing an antivirus program which disables or removes the scheduled task.
Turning off the server during the time scheduled for the task.

TRAMS monitors the synchronization process and if for any reason your synchronization stops, someone from our Support Team will contact you to arrange a time to help resolve the issue. Most issues are simple to resolve and should only take a few minutes of your time. It is important that you work with our support staff to get the sync working again so that you can reap the benefits of TMA.

Please email us at sync@trams.com if you have any questions or need to restart the synchronize process. We are here to help you.

Thanks for being a TRAMS customer.