Sabre Travel Network will launch the first Enterprise 2.0 community, designed specifically with business travellers in mind, known as ”cubeless”
The platform - to be launched in mid-2008 in conjunction with American Express Business Travel - will make it simple for companies' employees across the globe to share information and advice about travel and will be offered as a bolt-on module to Sabre's GetThere booking system.
”Cubeless allows you to connect and benefit from the collective experience and expertise of your fellow travellers or colleagues,” said Sabre Holdings executive vice president Tom Klein. ”For those folks for whom the road is as much their office as where their desk is, getting information they know they can trust is just invaluable.
”This facilitates collaboration so the road warrior business traveller can quickly, easily, and even automatically, get advice from people within their company that do what they do, have the same travel policies, and have been in the same locations. It can be anything from finding out about what nearby restaurants are opened all night, to verifying that a hotel they want to stay in has dependable, fast wireless internet access and a gym that is open early in the morning.”
Sabre believes web 2.0 - which has powered social phenomenona such as Facebook and MySpace which so thoroughly pervade public life - is on the brink of proving its worth in the business environment, and has the potential to help companies save money.
”Once employees know they are travelling to the same location, they can arrange to share ground transportation, for example,” said head of Sabre Travel Studios at Sabre Holdings, John Samuel. ”It really is a case of the more you use it, the more ways you find to benefit.”
Sabre launched its own employee version of cubeless last year, and says this has been valuable in teaching the company what additional capabilities it can usefully provide. It plans to develop more community products and offer them to other segments of the travel marketplace throughout 2008.