TRAMS Announces Pow Wow Sessions at Summer Camp!

TRAMS Summer Camp
August 8-10, 2007
The Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort & Spa, Phoenix AZ
$75 per person

TRAMS Summer Camp will attract over 350 TRAMS subscribers to the Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort & Spa this year. To celebrate, we are featuring a NEW format in our Open Forum Advanced Classes called Pow Wows to fit the venue. You will sit facing your peers (think....Campfire!), so everyone can participate in an idea exchange for the following topics: ClientBase, TRAMS Back Office, TMA, Marketing, Interface and GDS Integration, Reports, & Tech Tips. You won't want to miss these sessions, as they always generate the most unique applications and memorable tips & tricks.

This conference has a loyal following of agents who love the relaxed atmosphere and a jam-packed schedule of ClientBase, TRAMS Back Office, and Marketing seminars. We also include study hall sessions, the most popular spot at Camp, where agents receive one-on-one assistance from our top ClientBase and TRAMS Back Office trainers.

ARC will be on hand again this year to provide agents with an opportunity to test for their ARC Specialist Certification. Details are coming soon!

Register today!

TRAMS Welcome New Employees

Melina Larson joins the ClientBase support desk with a varied work history that includes accounts payable, secretarial and admin work, and being the person inside a giant hotdog suit. She has always been the person co-workers call upon to explain how to do things with their computers, and is finally making a full-time job of it. She enjoys music, travel, and puns.

Jaime Conway joins TRAMS, Inc. as the Brand and Product Marketing Manager. She comes from a background in Graphic Design, and earned a dual MBA in Marketing, and Accounting and Finance -- while working as a marketing professional in the real estate and non-profit realms. Her interests include shopping and writing her humorous autobiography.

Alejandro Rodriquez comes from Uruguay, a small country in South America between Brazil and Argentina. He says, "I'll be working as a remote tester mainly for ClientBase Browser, although my background and job experience is more in the IT/Hardware Area. Testing is not a really new area for me because I'm still working on a Computer Science degree which includes lots of developing and testing. My hobbies are, of course, computers, and also listening to rock-and-roll music and going out with my friends."

Juan Pablo Gallino also lives in Montevideo, Uruguay and is a new remote tester for ClientBase Browser. He has a degree in Microbiology and enjoys being outdoors.

Grzegorz Budacz lives and works in Krakow, Poland (middle Europe) and joined the TRAMS Development team in February. Greg graduated from AGH University of Science and Technology and now works as Java Developer of ClientBase Browser. He likes reading science fiction books, watching Anime films (Japanese animation), and sailing from time to time.

Andrzej Graca joined TRAMS in January as a developer and hails from Krakow. He has an MS in Computer Science, but is new to the IT business (first job). Andrzej says, "I'm a real fan of Java and new technologies. I love music (rap, reggae, etc.) and enjoy snowboarding."

Przemyslaw Rumik is a Programmer/Analyst who also works in Krakow and has four years IT experience, with an MS in Technical Physics. Currently working on the TRAMS ClientBase Browser program, he is pursuing a PhD in Computer Science. Przemyslaw enjoys reading sci-fi books and attending sci-fi movies, and is a fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Przemyslaw Lagula is also a Krakow TRAMS developer working on the ClientBase Browser program. He has previous experience as a Java and SCADA programmer.

Peter Stevenson is our last new TRAMS developer and is working on a new XML Import/Export utility. He graduated from Northern Arizona University with a BS in Business Administration with an emphasis on web technology. In his spare time he enjoys on-line gaming and watching the Lakers, Angels and Dodgers.

Welcome all!

TMA Welcomes Pleasant Holidays
Lindsay Chromyn, Director TMA Operations

TRAMS Marketing Advantage (TMA) welcomes Pleasant Holidays as our newest marketing Partner, providing 3-4 promotions per month for TMA subscribers to send to their clients. This April, attendees of TRAMS Marketing and Technology University (TMU) enjoyed presentations from Carnival, Pleasant Holidays, Trafalgar Tours, and Insight Vacations about building closer relationships with your clients and taking advantage of marketing opportunities like TMA.

Congratulations to the many agencies that are already signed up and using TRAMS Marketing Advantage (TMA). They are enjoying working with their TMA Marketing Manager and having professionally designed email promotions sent to their clients on a regular schedule. Getting their name in front of their clients on a consistent basis, agencies are finding they are receiving more communication from their clients and further building their relationship.

Agencies that are getting the best results, email open rates and click- thru's to their websites, are agencies that really use their data in their ClientBase for target marketing. They are not sending emails to all clients. Instead, they are creating targeted email lists with queries using Travel History and/or Res Cards, Marketing Codes, Special Dates, or Activities.

The differences between a mass email blast and a targeted email blast are very exciting! We are seeing a 70% higher open rate for agencies that use targeted email lists. One of the TMA subscribers sent 62 emails for a Princess Alaska Cruise promotion. Their query included past cruisers with a marketing code of interest in Alaska. Their open rate was 61%! The agency had a booking for a couple for an Alaskan cruise within 2 days. A great return on $20 marketing investment for the month!

There are lots of resources for agencies needing help with building marketing codes or learning how to query for the right target in your database.

• WebEx classes
• Starting with the Basics - Using Marketing Codes (Designed for Agents)
• Using Reports to Manage, Market, & Understand Your Database (Designed for Marketing Manager)
• Dailly ClientBase Q&A
• Recorded Webex
  • An Overview of Marketing Categories & Codes
• Your TMA Marketing Manager
• TRAMS support Desk

It is time to put your data to work for you and reap the benefits of marketing to the right targets. You will be amazed by the results!

TECHNOLOGY DRIVEN CHANGES
Lee Rosen, President, TRAMS, Inc.

We have been through lots of technology evolution and changes and fact is technology has enabled much of what we regularly do to earn our livings each day.

And, those that have understood what technology is coming, anticipated and planned to take advantage of that evolution, have been the biggest winners.

So here are four technology evolutions that I see currently under way - technology evolutions that I think will significantly impact and enable the services agents provide their clients as we move forward.

1. Synchronization: I describe this one as "separate but equal." Powered by the use of PDAs, synchronization, or "synch" for short, has and is evolving tremendously. Nowadays it is very do-able to have a database, make a copy of that database and work on either or both of those copies, and then have synch technology update both databases with the other's changes to make them equal or the same.
2. Synch Web Services: I describe this one as "effortless equality." The idea of synch web services is to initiate a program that then automatically does the synchs - every week, once a day or even as frequently as every 10 minutes - thus requiring no additional work for the synchs to be completed.
3. SANS: PCs' technology has evolved from desktop usage only, to local area networks, to wide area networks, and now to the next step in the evolution which I refer to as SANS, Storage Area Networks, that now allows PCs to basically work together sharing hard drives' space and resources and enabling mass processing to be done over the network of PCs sharing resources as best needed.
4. Web Reporting: Technology evolution has enabled reporting via the website across multiple databases far superior than what could have been done in the recent past.

These technologies have enabled our newest service which we call Databases Central:

As the graph shows, in Databases Central participants have all the benefits of their data running locally, but also have the option to having an updated copy of their database reside within the Database Central servers, located and controlled by TRAMS, Inc.

The benefit to Database Central participants is that they can participate in marketing that they control, but are outsourced or performed by marketing experts. And the promotions appear to have been sent by the agent and agency to their segmented client. Databases Central also enables marketing managers to work with and help agencies in their database management, marketing planning, and results reporting and management.

Questions and issues abound once Databases Central is understood. The first and key is that agencies that participate in Databases Central remain the sole owners of their data and have complete control of that data. What marketing programs, from which suppliers, to which clients and when, is totally owned and controlled by the agency. The benefit is that by working with centralized data, agency owners get the same benefits as the megas (Expedia, Orbitz, etc.) of professional marketing and reporting programs.

We have seen great benefits already as hundreds and hundreds of agencies are participating in Databases Central already and working with chosen suppliers and consortia for marketing programs and reporting with whole new levels of success.

Marketing is no longer sending some type of promotion out and hoping for the best. With Databases Central marketing has detailed segment analysis; professional promotion creation and distribution; and total tracking and reporting. Indeed technology has enabled change yet again and those that take advantage of the change again are the biggest winners.

Thanks for reading,

Lee

Joan McLeod
Manager Business Operations & Planning

Our Support Staff has the opportunity to assist you with a wide variety of questions related to using our software which makes them uniquely qualified to see recurring themes in the questions posed to them. We asked each of our knowledgeable technicians to submit a "Helpful Hint" that may be useful to you in the use of our programs. I'm confident you will find many helpful hints in the following suggestions.

TRAMS BACK OFFICE HINTS

Helpful Hint from Alice
No need to get frustrated when trying to find the bank deposit linked to the payment you want to void. From the Payment Query Screen, right-click on the payment entry and click Query Bank Deposit.

Helpful Hint from Andre
Here's how to enter a cash payment from a customer when the agency is paying with an agency credit card. Create your invoice as normal and close the invoice with the agency credit card payment. When the payment is received from the client, select Payment|Received. Enter the amount of the client's payment with a Pay Method of cash or check. The Profile Type is Other and the name is the name of the client you will be receiving the money from. Note in the remarks field the invoice number that the client is paying. TRAMS prompts, Create a journal entry? Press Y for yes. Your journal entry will be:

Cash in Bank........................ Debit
Agency Credit Card Wash....Credit

When recording the monthly payment to your credit card agency company, select Payments|Made. Enter the amount you are paying the credit card company with a Pay Method of Check. The Profile Type is Other and the name is the name of the company you are paying the credit card bill. When prompted for a journal entry Press Y for yes. Create the journal entry as normal, offsetting the Agency Credit Card Wash account, as well as all the other expense accounts for the various items purchased on the card.
Cash in Bank............................Credit
Agency CC Wash....................Debit
Expense Account.....................Debit
Expense Account.....................Debit

Helpful Hint from Cindy
Go to Interface|Download and make a note of what is in the PNR filepath field. This way you will always know where your records are going in case you need to re-install or the field is blank.

Helpful Hint from Dana
Interface every hour. on the hour or at the same time every day. Do this by automating the Download and processing via the Windows Scheduler. Find the set up instructions in the TRAMS Help screen. Select Help|TRAMS Help|Interface Overview Download and Processing|Automatic Interface Download and Processing Set up with Windows Task Scheduler.

Helpful Hint from Dhel
If you get the error while backing up, Application Execution Failed, make sure you log in as SYSDBA.

Helpful Hint from Ebony
Double-click in any date field (queries or reports) to get a calendar.

Helpful Hint from Tracy
Automatic download option only works on Res Systems that produce multiple interface files.
This option does not work on Res Systems that produced single interface files.

Helpful Hint from Emmanuelle
Do you ever find yourself forgetting which eight reports are summarized on the End of Period Report? Or which Descriptor Code to enter into the accounting line? Why spend so much time constantly searching through the help files for the same information - make a cheat sheet! After clicking on Help|Trams Help (or pressing F1 on the keyboard) and finding the information you were searching for, don't waste paper printing it each time, save it! In the upper left corner, select the tab entitled Favorites and left-click on it. Then move down to the bottom and left-click on Add. As you find more things to add, your list will grow, and trust me, it will grow pretty fast.

Helpful Hint from Frank
Create a Run Book of all the reports you created or modified in the Report Generator. The run book is useful to your agents to run reports that were created by you. They are to see a sample of the report and the selection criteria needed to run the report correctly. In case of a disaster, you will have the information necessary to reconstruct reports that were lost. The Run Book may consist of the following items:

1 -Name of Report
(01_CL_Department.RPT - Customer List by Department)
2 -Print Report Definition Screen
Reports|Report Generator|Build Report
Click File and select Open
Select the report and click OK
Click the Print Report Definition button and print the report
3 -Run report and print Selection Criteria page.
When you run the report you can enter a check in the box titled, Print Selection Criteria.
4 -Print first and last page of report.
(If the report is larger than one page.
5 -Place all of the above information in a binder and place the Run Book in a common area for easy access.

Helpful Hint from Karen
Remember to use the Help Files. All you need to do is use the Index field, type in a key word and view the topic.

Helpful Hint from Kris
When setting up the PNR file path for the first time, log in as SYSDBA and add the path. This will ensure that other users will not lose the path every time they try to interface.

Helpful Hint from Ramona
When backing up to a flash drive or USB device, create a back-up folder for an accurate back-up. Due to a change in the Backup utility the agency must create a folder or directory (example: E:\backup) on the USB device before they do a backup. This is actually to protect any data the agency might have on the USB device, as TRAMS deletes files when we replace the existing backup. Also, if the create the folder prior to the backup, it assures us that the backup media is formatted correctly.

Helpful Hint from Roberta
Adding a -NG to the options field in the interface download screen. Note: Automated hotels where the CC is used to guarantee the reservation, capture the Comm Track CC number in the Client Remarks field of the booking, with a message that says: Guaranteed to: VI ending in 5874. This is what shows for the Comm Track Booking when included on the Printed Invoice. If you do not want to capture the Comm Track CC Number, with the Guaranteed to: message in Client Remarks, add an -NG to the Options field on the TRAMS Download Screen. Adding -NG ignores the C/C Guarantee information on automated hotel bookings (Guaranteed To VI ending in 5874). The Comm Track Hotel CC number, with the Guaranteed to: message, will not appear on printed invoices, and the Comm Track CC Number will continue to be captured in the Comm Track CC No field on the Expanded Fare Tab of the Booking.

Helpful Hint from Sandy
If the check register does not agree with the trial balance figure and the GL reconciliation is not showing any errors, run a Receipts report and compare it to total deposits. You will likely find that a receipt has been attached to a deposit in a different period. The GL Reconciliation report will not show the difference between receipts and deposits that may have occurred, since the total of the receipts does agree with the total deposit, just not in the same period.

Helpful Hint from Shirley
ARC Settlement - We added the ability to click on IAR Reconciliation while you are in the ARC Settlement. This allows you to browse for the IAR file and if you have tickets where Net Remit Do Not Match, Ticket Is Voided in IAR but Not in TRAMS, or Missing IAR Ticket, click Find Ticket and your cursor lands on the appropriate ticket on the ARC Settlement screen so you can Edit the Invoice. If you have any tickets that are Voided In TRAMS but Not In IAR, click Find Ticket to go to the booking containing that voided ticket in TBO, then you can Un-void it, allowing the ticket to now show correctly on the ARC Settlement Screen. For any exceptions that are Missing Trams Ticket, click off the IAR Reconciliation screen and manually add the missing tickets.

ClientBase HINTS

Helpful Hint from Jeremiah
It's important to understand the way quantity is affected when pulling from the different categories of Inventory. When pulling Tour, Cruise and Hotel Inventory, they will all give you a fare based upon the pricing structure designed and the number of passengers on the reservation. In other words, it will only take 1 away from the quantity of available inventory. When pulling Air, Rail, or Miscellaneous, you will decrease the quantity by the number of passengers you have in your reservation.

Helpful Hint from Rebecca
If you've ever created a reservation for a client and found their credit card has expired, you know what a hassle it can be to call the client and ask for updated information. Avoid this situation by running a query that provides profiles with expired credit cards. You can narrow your list to include only profiles with recent travel history. Here is an example of what you could use:
*** Profile Level 3 Filter Number 1 _____________________
(Profile Type [Leisure,Corporate])
AND (Profile Status Is Equal to Active)
AND (Cards Filter Type: Does Have Card Records with the following criteria)
(Card Type Is Equal to Any Credit Card)
AND (Card Expire Date Is From to "=" [5/16/2007] (today's date)

AND (Travel History Filter Type: Does Have Travel History Records with the following criteria)
(Invoice Issue Date Is From "4/15/2007" to "5/15/2007")
This query will be especially helpful to update Corporate accounts that make frequent bookings.

Helpful Hint from Robert
Have all your agents use a reminder system (such as ClientBase Reminders or MS Outlook's Calendar (if you don't have ClientBase) that includes the important activities and appointments they have scheduled each week or month. This should include recurring activities like reports that need to be run on a certain day, and project due dates. When the agent is out of the office, the office manager should be able to access this data and make sure the key items are assigned to someone.

Helpful Hint from Susan
Are your agents entering new clients without adding an interface ID? Are they using the same Interface ID for multiple clients? You can ensure that each new client has the unique interface ID of their phone number. Simply go to Global Defaults|Default Field Values for New Profiles. Click on the Interface ID tab. Choose from the drop-down, and check Require Unique, Non Blank I/F On New Profiles. When a new profile is entered manually, the phone number is automatically entered into the Interface ID field, and duplicate Interface IDs are not allowed.

Contact Support

TRAMS Back Office 310 641-8726 Press 1
ClientBase 310 641-8726 Press 2
support@trams.com
Interface@trams.com
hardware@trams.com
accounting@trams.com

Sharon Meyer, ClientBase Product Manager

If you haven't been to a TMU or Summer Camp conference recently you should consider it. We are constantly adding new classes and subjects and put a great emphasis on the practical application of our software. Most recently we have started a line of training classes called Peer-to-Peer Training. These classes are actually taught by fellow ClientBase users. Who better to learn from than other agencies who are out there in the real world and have success stories they are willing to share!

Last month at our annual TMU conference, we were extremely lucky to have one of our ClientBase agency subscribers teach a class called Going Paperless. Nick Mageloff owns an agency in Florida called GRX and with the help of ClientBase and our Attachment feature has come up with a pretty amazing system that greatly reduces their dependency on printed documents. Below is an overview to his strategy and the benefits.

Going Paperless by Nick Mageloff

Are you tapping all you can from ClientBase? If you are not using attachments regularly, this one feature will save you your monthly cost of TRAMS! Do you think that sounds lofty? As a travel professional in the Orlando area using ClientBase and attachments I can say this with authority.

Costs in paper and ink from printing e-mail confirmations and faxes can be huge for even the smallest office. Worst yet, time required to file all these confirmations, invoices and faxes costs us our greatest commodity - time. Then, should you need a client's file, you often have to track down who has the file - so instead of travel professional, you play Sherlock Holmes!

Many times you'll read suggestions from TRAMS about ideas that are 1-2 steps and they save you time. This concept will be a little different. Look carefully at the instructions below. Read them over a number of times and let it digest. Try attaching a file or two in ClientBase. To properly implement this concept you will need to understand this completely to have your comfort level in the right place.

Client Booking and Confirmation Information
So what do I do? Each time you book a trip, request an e-mail confirmation. For those Suppliers that still only send faxed confirmations use a digital fax service (we use jConnect.com) to turn the faxes into electronic files. For those Suppliers that only mail printed confirmations use a scanner to turn the paper into electronic files. (A basic scanner is $50 up to a nice HP with a sheet feeder at Comp USA is $300.) Now that everything is in the digital format on your computer what do you do with them? Attach these files to your ResCards or Profiles in ClientBase.

When you need to reference something about a client's trip, just go to the Client's Profile! Sound really simple? That's because it is! Now anyone in the office (with the correct permissions in ClientBase) can access the attachments and see all the "paperwork" that has come in for a client's trip.

Naming your files make all the difference for future look-ups. To make this process simple, we use this format:

(Trip Date YY-MM-DD) Vendor Name (Notice Date YY-MM-DD) Client Name

Example: Client John Smith books on Royal Caribbean sailing June 1, 2007, confirmation dated November 3, 2006 name it as follows:

07-06-01 Royal Caribbean 06-11-03 Smith John

Financial and Tax Related Records
Every month we all get invoices and statements from the companies we do business with and it generates a lot of paper we call Tax Records. This same principle applies. Scan these records and attach them to the appropriate Other Profiles. Now when you need to look for a past phone bill, go to the Other Profile for your phone company - and there is each invoice under Attachments!

The format of naming is easy, we use this format:

Company Name (Invoice Date YY-MM-DD)

Example: A Bell Telephone invoice dated November 2, 2006 name it as follows:

Bell Telephone 06-11-02

File Naming Your Attachments
You will notice your date portions of the file names are year, month, day which allow the computer to sort the files into an easy to find order. It also allows you to quickly find what you are looking for in your Client's Profiles. If for some reason you have two different confirmations for the same trip and date, just add an 'a' , 'b' or 'c' to the end as needed.

Go Paperless, You'll be Glad You Did
We have been paperless now since 2003 and it would not be possible to organize with such ease without ClientBase. Like with anything new or different, being paperless does have some getting used to, but it is so worth it! The greatest hurdle to face is fear - fear of losing information, fear of not being able to get to the information when you need it. To overcome this ourselves we save every attachment on one of our servers after we attach it in ClientBase. This way we can always find a file because of the naming methods. Furthermore, our Attachments Folder and our ClientBase data is backed up to a DVD and an online internet based backup company (iBackup.com) every single night, and best yet, it is automatic.

Lloyd West, TRAMS Back Office Product Manager

Value Feature # 1:
Agent Payments are now linked to the Agent Bookings Cleared when using the Agent Reconciliation. If you query for the payment made to the agent on the Payment Query Screen, and right-click the payment to Query All Invoices, the invoices cleared and paid to the agent when using the Agent Reconciliation will be displayed. A View Pymt button has also been added to the Agent Tab of the Booking Screen that also links to the Agent Payment.

Value Feature # 2:
CSI (Card Services International) has been implemented & turned on as a new CC Merchant Processor under Utilities|Setup|CC Processors and as a new CC Processor on the CC Merchant Reconciliation Screen. For information and signup procedures go to the TRAMS Website at www.trams.com/prCcm/index.thtml.

Value Feature # 3:
Support has been added for UATP cards using Pinnacle Payment Solutions. Add UATP as a new card if you are processing through Pinnacle, under Utilities|Setup|CC Processors. The UATP CC Merchant Payment is created the same as any other CC you are going to process. When going to the CC Merchant Reconciliation Screen, you can select only UATP as the Included Card and process those transactions as long as the processor you select is Pinnacle. Both charges and refunds may be processed.

Value Feature # 4:
Now you have a cleared status option on the CC Merchant Reconciliation screen. You can display only items that have not been processed to prevent accidentally processing an already processed item a second time.

Value Feature # 5:
You can now run the Vendor Statement Report with an Invoice Type of Incoming or Outgoing. You are able to separate invoices by those that the agency owes to the Vendor, a true payable, vs. those receivables the agency is owed by the Vendor.

Value Feature # 6:
The Income Statement report now has a 3rd and 4th column date option. They are available for both a printed report and a mail merge export format. The report automatically suppresses the printing of ALL percentage columns when a 3rd or 4th date range field is selected, and the report automatically prints in Landscape like it now does when Portrait won't fit all the columns. Suppressing the percentage columns only when selecting a 3rd or 4th date range, allows the report to show the percentage columns for those agencies wanting and needing to see that data, as is currently shown. When the report is run for 3 columns of data, a 4th blank column is also be displayed by design.

Value Feature # 7:
The Vendor Date Payable from the General Tab of the Booking Screen is now a field under Reports|Report Generator|Build Reports. Now you can create a report showing the vendor date payable and be able to do a sort by the date payable.

Value Feature # 8:
The PRISM Export now includes an option to include Service Fee bookings. Both ARC/BSP & Non ARC/BSP service fee bookings are included.

Value Feature # 9:
The PRISM Export now has a checkbox for Don't Include Commission Amounts. When this box is checked, the commission amount fields in the exported files show as "0.00". So if the party that you are sending the exported files to does not require commission information, you now have a way to prevent that information from being shipped.

Value Feature # 10:
The TBO User Login Screen has been changed to be like the ClientBase User Login Screen. Now there is only a default checkbox for Remember Password, and the Alias and UserName fields are remembered from those last used for login.