TRX, COA Solutions Card Management Services for Airlines
TRX and COA Solutions Ltd have announced the launch of a joint Card Management Services solution for airlines desiring to lower their distribution costs and credit card fees. According to the two companies, "the solution supports the airlines' corporate direct invoicing and payment solutions as well as the Universal Air Travel Plan (UATP) network. In production since October 2007, the system is already processing approximately $600 million on an annualized basis in UATP and various payment products for a major North American airline."
COA and TRX's hosted solution makes it easy for airlines to run their own payment and UATP programs through an outsourced transaction processing and business intelligence platform. The hosted card management solution, which also provides industry-leading business intelligence and ERP integration, helps reduce carriers' operating costs, increase service to corporate customers, improve customer loyalty, increase market share, and reduce credit card fees.
The corporate travel arena has recently started to focus on the cost savings opportunities related to payment processing fees for corporate travel expenses. According to Pascal Burg, Edgar Dunn & Company, airline ticket purchases by credit card include fees amounting to 2.5% or more of the cost of the ticket. The UATP corporate travel payment network offers airlines a low- cost payment option, better enabling them to pass savings along to corporate travelers.
Said TRX President & CEO Trip Davis, "While helping carriers reduce distribution costs and increase service to their corporate customers, COA and TRX's Card Management Services help airlines provide corporations better data, better reporting, and better economics. We are very excited to expand our travel and financial data expertise to the airlines in partnership with COA. We are looking forward to demonstrating the value of our integrated and hosted card management and business intelligence platform to our airline clients and their corporate customers."
COA and TRX have integrated key components of their technology suites - the COA e5 Card Management software and TRX's DATATRAX file delivery and business intelligence platforms - to create end-to-end corporate Card Management Services. TRX is hosting the platform, building on its 20-year history of data consolidation, warehousing, and business intelligence for the travel and financial services arenas. In addition to leading edge technology from COA and TRX, the scalable solution provides proven data security and business continuity, freeing airlines to focus on their core business.
Mark Thompson, Managing Director, COA, said, "All service industries like the airline market have a real opportunity to increase profitability and customer experience by outsourcing and improving the management of their core business processes. The COA platform, coupled with TRX's expertise in hosted financial applications, offers the global airlines an immediate opportunity to realize these benefits."
The TRX/COA Card Management Services package offers airlines the following features and benefits:
- Manages corporate discounts and rebates per client, per route
- Bills in any local currency
- Support direct debits
- Stores two years of data allowing for year-over-year reporting
- Emails statements directly to corporations
- Provides corporations with online reporting and business intelligence
- Issuer and corporate access to a library of standard card-based reports
- "Power users" can create ad-hoc reports at no additional expense
- Reporting User Interface supports 10 languages and two dialects of English and Chinese
- GSA SmartPay complaint reporting
- Ability to send ERP and Expense Management files directly to the corporate accounts
- Integrates currently with all UATP systems
- Includes a Continuity of Business site and 24x7 application monitoring
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