corporate

KDS Corporate

Tue, 05 Dec 2006 20:23:41 +0100

Teaser:

KDS Corporate is an On Demand Travel & Expense Solution providing a ‘one stop shop’ for corporate travel with support for low cost airlines, national rail, Eurostar, non GDS hotels and non GDS car rental. Content is delivered in an integrated display to assist travel managers and corporate travelers to see the total cost of travel and make a realistic assessment of alternative fares and modes of transport.

Description:

A market reference

KDS has monitored the many changes in the travel industry over the past 10 years and has built the KDS online travel booking and expense management solution to reflect the needs of the modern market. A benchmark global solution, KDS adds value to more than 5000 companies in 20 countries with its proven technology. The average global adoption rate reaches 67%, with many customers enjoying advantages as early as the mid-way point of implementation.

Global corporations such as Accenture, Airbus, Arcelor, BP, EADS, Henkel, ING, Shell, Yahoo!, Unilever and others are booking with the flexibility of KDS Corporate.

KDS Expense : KDS Corporate now provides a unique end-to-end solution that includes budget authorization, trip planning, expense reporting and business process management. Read more on KDS Expense

Empowering your strategy

KDS Corporate enables forward-thinking companies to implement their own procurement strategy by offering complete control over the system. The tool supports consistent travel policy enforcement, offers quick and powerful inventory search options, and provides customized configurations that simplify policy settings and reporting. Internally, companies can be certain their travel spend is being used wisely and, where necessary, can adjust KDS Corporate to optimize supplier relationships.

Work with external, cross-border partners is improved, as well, as KDS Corporate is built for the international environment. The multi-lingual solution allows ultimate control of supplier relationships, integrating with all the major GDSs and a wide variety of specialized and contract vendors. Such ease of use among partners translates into improved interactions and better, more dependable relationships.

Maximizing cost reduction

For many corporations, KDS Corporate serves as the keystone of a travel management strategy, supporting essential efforts to enforce travel policy, optimize supplier relations, and partner with the right travel management company. The reason is simple: KDS maximizes travel spend.
Driving costs down

Unilever NL estimates it saves an average in the last 3 years of €1 million per year on travel costs as a direct result of using the KDS booking solution. In this figure a reduction of the average ticket price of 15% is included, despite of the introduction (and constantly increase) of fuel surcharges, security taxes and airport taxes.
Airbus has reached an 80% adoption rate. The tool has also helped Airbus significantly drive bookings to the company's charter flights. Airbus has also seen a substantial reduction in average ticket prices. The vast majority of Airbus's travel is intra-European, and on these routes the company estimates it saves €50 per segment.

KDS online travel management and expense solutions leverage best practices to control corporations’ costs and reach budget optimization goals. This comes through an unmatched inventory including traditional airlines, low cost carriers and European railways, all displayed on the same screen for quick, accurate comparison. KDS’s powerful fare engine also presents travelers with availability and fares for every option so that the most cost- and time-efficient route can be identified.

Combining the industry’s most efficient fare engine, a highly customizable solution and powerful tracking and monitoring features enables smart cost avoidance techniques and – above all – enhances user adoption.

Influencing Usage and Cost Avoidance

KDS Corporate was developed for corporations – but with the traveler in mind. Cost-savings and policy enforcement are key, but if booking and traveling through the system is inconvenient or time consuming, travelers are likely to look out-of-policy for other solutions. In short, the final step in maximizing potential benefits is ensuring that the preferred online travel management solution is used internally.

That is why KDS goes further than anyone else in the market to help travelers enjoy a smooth and easy booking process. KDS guides customers from searching, to trip authorization, right through to submitting expense forms after a trip.

The KDS Corporate interface is a one-stop travel console where, depending on the configuration, users can manage their pre-trip authorizations, business trips and travel expense reports.

Expense Management

One Database, One Profile, Multiple Applications

Using a unified solution to manage travel and expenses help companies set consistent Policy for both T&E and Approval Workflow. Some of the Expense module features are:

Automated line creation;
Corporate card data loading;
Travel information track in the expense module;
Tracking and reporting across the whole process;
Full audit path for compliance purposes.

For corporations requiring pre-trip approval, KDS offers a unique workflow engine to expedite authorization. Approval can be linked to travel expenses and budget authorization and even use proxy approvals when necessary to ensure important trips take place unhindered.

Powerful Travel Management and Easy Integration with the TMC

KDS Corporate comes highly recommended by major Travel Management Companies for its front-end ease of use, effectiveness, and customer satisfaction. But the back-end is just as crucial, and TMCs also endorse KDS based on its seamless integration with back office systems.

Profiles: Can be continuously synchronized between the TMC and the corporation;
PNR: KDS Corporate enables users to add notifications for the TMC directly on the PNR;
Arranger assignment: Company-specific groupings can be assigned to a dedicated arranger;
Guest users: Arrangers can quickly create a new profile for a non-employee;
Travel policy management: Travel policies are inherited throughout an organization. The travel manager can stop or reactivate the inheritance as required. Moreover, with KDS Corporate, policy rules can be modified for a part of the company only. Corporations can require the use of an e-ticket and request that users enter a reason when refusing an e-ticket.
Interface Customization: Booking fields can be created and customized, users can modify the interface language and customize its preferences.

Providing value added services to the travelers

KDS leads the market with traveler-oriented features providing real added value to users:

Inventory Display: Unmatched inventory provides travelers with comprehensive schedule and fare information for available flights and trains. The integrated display shows railways and airlines (including low cost carriers) on the same screen.
Booking Guidance: With the KDS Lost Savings feature, Travel Managers can influence buying behavior, highlighting price comparison with the best corporate negotiated fare, the lowest refundable fare, the least expensive low cost or rail option, etc.
Car Delivery and Collection: Users can have their rental cars delivered or collected from their office or another address.
Seat Map: Travelers can see where colleagues are seated before booking their flight.
Full Flight Display: The interface can display flights even when full so that travelers will no longer need to call TMCs to find out why their usual flight is not shown.
Personal Preferences: KDS remembers traveler preferences, offering previously selected options as defaults (seat location, hotel room or car model).

Attached Documents:

KDS Corporate

KDS Corporate uk res

Ergonomics

KDS announces the UK introduction of KDS Corporate V6.0 On-Demand Travel & Expense to Be Demonstrated at Seminar on November 10t

vgalibert@kds.com — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 19:11:48 +0200

26/10/2006

London, 26 October 2006 - KDS, European leader in on demand travel & expense, announced today the company will host a seminar to officially introduce in the UK KDS Corporate 6.0 -- previously code-named Magellan, the first designed end to end T&E solution.

The UK seminar follows on from KDS’ event held in Paris earlier in the month. More than 230 Business Travel professionals from 12 different countries, representing 113 companies, attended the launch event for KDS Corporate Version 6.

“The interest in on demand travel and expense is very high and can best be demonstrated by the number of attendees to our launch event for KDS Corporate V6. At the UK KDS seminar, corporates will gain a valuable insight into the significant benefits that can be derived from greater management control over the entire travel and expense management process,” said Yves Weisselberger, CEO of KDS. “At KDS, we are pleased to be leading the industry in end to end travel and expense by delivering a solution that is truly revolutionary.”

KDS Corporate V6 will be available in all markets starting from mid November. Developed on Microsoft .Net, KDS Corporate V6 has been certified by the Microsoft Technology Center.

The KDS UK Seminar will be held in London on November the 10th at the Novotel London Euston Hotel, starting at 10.00 am. To register, please contact Nick Blanks on +44 (0)1753 272 103 , via email at nblanks@kds.com or online at http://www.kds.com/eng/newsevents/

About KDS
KDS on demand travel & expense offers a completely integrated solution for travel and expense management, addressing essential needs ranging from travel policy definition and enforcement, to online travel self-booking, to automated travel expense processing and beyond. Every critical procedure can be completed through the KDS ASP offering, resulting in greater efficiencies and associated financial benefits. In addition, KDS offers the most extensive back-end connectivity to airline, car, rail and hotel providers in the industry, ensuring optimized pricing and up-to-the-minute inventory control. For more information, visit www.kds.com .

The New KDS Corporate Version: Rich and Powerful!

vgalibert@kds.com — Tue, 01 Feb 2005 12:09:04 +0100

01/02/2005

London, Business Travel Show - February 1st, 2005 –KDS, the leading provider of online business travel management solutions, today announces its latest version of KDS Corporate, deliverable to customers and partners in March 2005. KDS’s complete solution for automated and integrated travel and expense management takes a new significant step forward and delivers a major new look & feel, richer content, new direct access to travel sources, and increased control over management and operations.

The latest version of KDS Corporate delivers a brand new look and feel, richer content & numerous direct accesses to major travel supplier sources. This new version provides more power to manage T&E efficiently for both large Corporations and Travel Management Companies.

With this newest version, KDS Corporate includes more than 100 new or updated features and functions to maximise corporate travel savings and T&E-related cost reductions. KDS pushes innovation limits even further, while meeting both suppliers’ ongoing evolution and customers’ business demands.

KDS improves its comprehensive online solution on four major dimensions:

New Look & Feel + Greater User Experience: KDS Corporate now offers a softer colour palette and newly designed graphic interface. It brings greater usability with more content for users at the time of booking and a new online help function for easy-to-use guidance.
Richer Content & Direct Accesses to major travel supplier sources: KDS has integrated new Direct Links to major business travel suppliers in North America and EMEA, and has updated its existing links to the latest XML standards available from the suppliers. This version includes new links to car rental providers - Avis, Budget and Europcar - and to the UK Rail with TheTrainLine. It also includes updated links to major train providers - SNCF, Eurostar, and Deutsche Bahn - to Hertz car rental and to large hotel sources like HRS (more than 150 000 hotels) and CWT HARP (more than 125 000 hotels). Car pick-up and delivery is now available, based on car rental companies existing online services.
Increased Management Power at Corporate fingertips: Cost savings are directly related to the management control and flexibility of online booking solutions. The air faring engine is the cornerstone of online booking solutions; KDS has been awarded the title of “best in class” solution both in North America and Europe by independent Topaz studies (2004). KDS Corporate further benchmarked and improved its faring engine for this version. KDS also brings greater flexibility in travel policy management by adding carrier-specific cabin classes, as well as associated travel policy rules and compliance criteria. KDS enhances its “unique integrated content management & display” function to push more information toward travellers at the time of booking. This delivers greater and more efficient change management at corporations.
Streamlined Operations for efficiency at Travel Management Companies: the ultimate goal for all is to reach 100% touchless operations. KDS goes further along that path, by adding new features for Travel Management Companies in order to optimise their operations for Corporations: more flexible file finishing options, controlled use of passive segments for Direct Link bookings, highlighted comments in the GDS, etc.

“With this latest version of KDS Corporate, KDS continues to lead the way on three major objectives in the ongoing development plans for our state-of-the-art KDS Corporate online booking solution:

the look & feel and ergonomics, which are key for self-learning and quick deployment with better & quicker adoption rates,
the richness of direct access sources, to suppress useless intermediary costs in the buying process,
and the power of management and operations, to streamline Corporations’ T&E costs best ” states Moncef Khanfir KDS COO.

KDS Corporate is the only fully integrated application that seamlessly automates both travel booking and expense reporting online. It provides a true end-to-end control frame over the T&E business process to corporate executives. In addition, using the same tool to book trips and fill expense reports accelerates T&E cost reductions.

Corporations Take Full Control of their T&E Spending with KDS Corporate’s Latest Version

vgalibert@kds.com — Tue, 03 Feb 2004 13:19:20 +0100

03/02/2004

February 3, 2004 – KDS, the leading provider of online business travel management solutions, today announces the release of KDS Corporate Version 5.6. KDS’s complete solution for automated and integrated travel and expense management delivers to decision-makers a comprehensive real-time MIS reporting and analysis of all travel and expense (T&E) spending, whether business trips are booked through KDS Corporate or via a travel management company.

KDS’s New Powerful Web Reporting Features Empower of Unified Online and Offline T&E Data

With Version 5.6, KDS Corporate has been further enhanced to maximise corporate travel savings and T&E-related cost reductions. KDS reinforces its market leadership with new innovative travel and expense features meeting both suppliers’ ongoing evolution and customers’ business demands.

Firstly, KDS powers its unique and comprehensive online solution with two key modules that enhance existing reporting and synchronization features:

KDS MIS Reporting: a powerful tool for generating in-depth travel and expense data web reports which facilitate decision-makers’ control and ongoing optimisation of the company’s T&E spending,
KDS PNR Sync: an innovative engine that synchronizes both online reservations (pre-trip data) and offline booking information captured from the travel agency data in order to deliver a global view of all the company’s travel bookings.

"Gathering complete online and offline travel information is a long and arduous process for corporations. As a result, financial and purchasing management often have a blurry image of their T&E related costs. Only the best online travel and expense management solutions, offering both extended financial reporting features and travel costs easy aggregation tools, will enable corporations to take back control over their T&E spending and their suppliers," said Herman Mensink Business Travel Management Expert and Associate Professor Business Travel & Airline Economics at the NHTV BREDA University in the Netherlands.

Secondly, KDS has enriched its solution with new Travel and Expense features. Users will enjoy a more intuitive navigation throughout the whole T&E process; from travel planning, approval and online booking to capture and reimbursement of related expense reports. A set of leading-edge features for PNR management (the Passenger Name Record is the booking’s reference) delivers travel agents a fully automated reservation (“Touchless”) that doesn’t need any extra work and enables travellers to modify any travel information in their bookings, themselves.

Moreover, KDS has added new travel sources to provide even more choices to users, such as train and low-costs carriers, as well as access to more ticketing options. KDS brings a new type of travel policy rules to adapt to suppliers’ ever-changing pricing. Finally, KDS has developed a dedicated engine to seamlessly and flexibly manage accounting and reimbursement rules within KDS Corporate in accordance with American, British and German legislations.

KDS Corporate Version 5.6 also brings specific answers to UK corporate travellers’ requirements:

A reporting feature to facilitate P11D fulfilment, P11D is a statement of employee benefits paid within the financial year requested by British Inland Revenue regulations.
A new partnership has been signed with The Trainline to plan and book UK rail tickets (For more information, please read the KDS and trainline.com press release).
A new direct link to Eurostar, KDS Direct Link for Eurostar, developed in cooperation with Eurostar and SNCF teams. The solution performs online booking directly for Eurostar trains on the Eurostar/SNCF CRS system and fulfilment with the ELGAR system.
KDS Corporate Version 5.6 supports the booking of British Airways’ new cabin class: Premier Economy.
KDS Corporate now provides extended abilities to support ticketless airlines and low-costs carriers via GDSs. This concerns companies like bmibaby, Virgin Express, Volareweb.com, Hapag-Lloyd, Germanwings, etc.

“With the latest version of KDS Corporate, KDS continues to meet corporations’ growing demand for total transparency over their T&E spending,” said Yves Weisselberger KDS CEO. “KDS Corporate gives both CFOs and purchasing managers a clear dashboard to monitor and control what is spent in Travel and Expense, both via their online tool and through their travel agency.”

KDS Corporate is the only fully integrated application that seamlessly automates both travel booking and expense reporting online. It provides a true end-to-end control frame over the T&E business process to corporate executives. In addition, using the same tool to book trips and fill expense reporting accelerates T&E costs reductions.

KDS Corporate Version 5.6 is available this spring 2004.

About KDS
KDS is a leading provider of online business travel management solutions. In order to dramatically reduce travel cost, KDS provides corporations with a unique online solution to optimise and automate travel procurement and expense management. KDS Corporate is the first software to integrate expense reporting to business travel management in a single automated information system. KDS’s flagship product deals with all processes related to business travel and expenses from budget authorization, travel planning and booking to expense reporting. KDS customers include Accenture, Alstom, Autodesk, BP, Caterpillar, Galileo, Gray Dawes, Novartis, Shell, Veolia Environnement. Founded in 1994, KDS maintains offices in the US, UK, France and Germany.

KDS Corporate Version 5.6

Technical information on new modules and features:

KDS MIS Reporting provides numerous reports on the T&E data and processes for executive and operational managers (financial, accounting, purchasing and travel departments). Today, KDS provides KDS MIS Reporting with 35 key reports. Added features and extra reports will be available with future versions of KDS Corporate.

The current reports offer management the capability to track the relevant information for their follow-up and control activities:

Example of reports for CFO and accountants:

Totals of pending expense reports for accountants to forecast accruals,
VAT spending by country for optimised VAT recovery
Total spending by expense type (transportations, lodging, meals…), cost centre, period and geographical area.

Examples of reports for purchasing and travel managers:

Online travel tool penetration: Global adoption rate of online versus offline bookings (with KDS PNR Sync), Average fare by booking mode, online or offline
Travel policy enforcement ratio: Compliancy rate, Lost savings due to non-compliant travel choices
Spending per suppliers

KDS PNR Sync captures travel data generated outside KDS Corporate - offline bookings such as those made over the phone by travel agents - and aggregates them with the online travel information. In other words, KDS Corporate gathers all the Passenger Name Record (PNR) information into a single database, whatever their origin. This new module provides a complete analysis of T&E spending so that KDS’s customers visualize its global picture and monitor it in consequence.

With Version 5.6, KDS also provides more efficiency for travellers with improved ergonomics. KDS has now added:

Intuitive navigation for the travellers: the travellers are driven throughout the same interface from travel planning and booking to the associated expenses to facilitate expense report completion and save the time-consuming administrative tasks related to business travel.
Easier, quicker and more informed car booking process: The car booking process has been fully reviewed and optimised for ease and speed of use as well as to maintain a consistent booking approach with transport (air/train): one-step one-click booking process, display of various car types and rental suppliers based on travel policy and user preferences, quick choice for pick-up location via a drop down menu option.

New KDS Corporate 4.0 Empowers Travelers and Travel Managers With Unprecedented Smart Booking and Workflow Features

vgalibert@kds.com — Thu, 07 Mar 2002 13:52:25 +0100

07/03/2002

PARIS, France – March 7, 2002 – KDS, a leading global provider of business travel e-procurement solutions, today launched KDS Corporate 4.0, which adds intelligence and flexibility to its global e-booking solution. Its most significant innovation is KDS’s smart booking feature, which remembers travelers’ reservation patterns to ease and quicken booking, and its unique workflow engine that manages trip approvals, booking process and PNR format.

Unique, new features help companies increase adoption rates while reducing direct and in-direct travel costs

Built to respond to extensive customer research and feedback, KDS Corporate 4.0 enables global travel managers to set multi-level pre-trip authorization procedures, allows users to dynamically modify online itineraries, and dramatically speeds up the booking process. This upgrade will immediately benefit more than 300 corporations currently using KDS Corporate.

As the deployment of self-booking tools accelerates at an ever-increasing rate, worldwide users are demanding more intuitive and smarter travel booking solutions to increase user adoption. By 2003, 31.8 million corporate travel transactions will take place online, according to PhoCusWright, an independent research firm specializing in online travel. Self-booking tools are fast becoming the answer to skyrocketing Travel & Expenses (T&E) costs, which are usually a company’s second highest expense after payroll. However, self-booking alone optimizes just part of the travel procurement process. That is why KDS Corporate 4.0 not only streamlines the booking experience, but also ensures purchasing compliance, provides added collaboration features and delivers needed information to travelers.

Alstom, the leading provider of energy and transport infrastructure employing more than 120,000 people in over 70 countries, is one of the early users of KDS Corporate 4.0. "At Alstom, travelers want self-booking tools to be smart, user-friendly and powerful. Our travel managers want solutions that respect real-world situations, so these systems must be fully customizable. The features of the new KDS Corporate 4.0 will no doubt boost our adoption rates and will provide a solution that is flexible enough to meet all of our users' needs," said Claire Leimgruber, Alstom Global Commodity Manager.

Smarter Application for Faster Booking
Among the most notable technological breakthroughs of KDS Corporate 4.0 are the intelligent agents added into the planning and booking process. The application’s new engine is now able to determine a traveler’s own preferences from previous bookings. This functionality allows the system to pre-select the traveler’s preferred hotels, and suggest the most convenient car rental locations according to previous itineraries. Furthermore, the new version enables users to select hotels directly from a destination map, detailing both company preferred properties as well as surrounding hotels.

Greater Flexibility for Corporate Traveler
With the growing complexity of corporate travel, improving the ability to modify a booking is a major goal for companies using an online travel solution. KDS Corporate 4.0 now allows users to update a reservation (PNR), changing or cancelling one or more segments of the itinerary even after it has been queued to the agency or fulfillment center.

Better Management of Business Processes
Pre-trip authorization is essential to efficient travel management. KDS has developed advanced business practices to better manage pre-trip authorization and complex workflow processes. Travel managers can now trigger the use of a pre-trip authorization or expense authorization form based upon defined corporate policies. They can also configure the trip validation process to include multiple validation possibilities (via email and other communication devices) to obtain maximum validation efficiency.

Greater Independence to Supplier Information
KDS developed the first online solution that connected all GDSs. Now the company is building on this foundation to provide corporations with more direct connection services to suppliers. With links to Hertz, Pegasus, Virtual Hotels, the French railway SNCF, and soon to other travel service providers, KDS customers enjoy the benefits that only a truly independent platform can offer. Proven Technology
In recognition for KDS’s impact on the travel industry, KDS was recently rewarded with the Business Travel Development Award by the UK magazine, Business Travel World, and a prestigious committee of industry professionals.

KDS Corporate 4.0 is available as an upgrade for existing customers at no additional charge.

About KDS
KDS is a leading global provider of business travel e-procurement solutions. KDS delivers solutions based on ASP technology that optimize and automate travel purchasing in order to reduce costs. KDS Solutions enable large enterprises and business travel professionals to easily book trips on the Internet while respecting company travel policy. KDS Solutions have the proven technology to provide direct links to several GDSs as well as suppliers (airlines, car rentals, hotels, trains). Founded in 1994, KDS is based in Paris, has subsidiaries in the U.S.A. (offices in Boston, New York, and San Francisco) as well as in Germany and the U.K.. Additional information about KDS can be found on the Web at www.kds.com.