New York, NY – September 20, 2011: Hickory Global Partners, the 37-year old consortium of business travel sellers relaunched under INTRAVEL ownership in May, has formed a strategic partnership with industry veteran Steve Reynolds. Reynolds is well known from his years as President of Travel Technologies Group (TTG) and its successor TRX and currently serves as the President of The R Group where he provides consulting services to top travel agencies. Reynolds was recently voted by readers of The Beat to deliver the keynote address at “The Beat Live” event this week in Las Vegas.
Reynolds joins the HICKORY management team as a strategic advisor and will lead the development of several new products for HICKORY Agency Partners, including a comprehensive operational review, a suite of agency fulfillment services and solutions, and an agency management consulting service.
According to Thomas Sparico, Senior Vice President, Corporate Development of INTRAVEL, “Hickory‘s mission is to help corporate travel agencies perform better. We identified a need to support Agency owners and managers with products and services designed to address the most pressing operational needs. Steve Reynolds has been a leading innovator in the agency space for many years, solving some of its most complex challenges. There is no one better suited to lead this effort.”
HICKORYBUSINESSREVIEW will provide agencies that are part of the Partner program with an expert assessment of their business. This includes an in-depth look at operations, marketing,technology, and supplier relations. The review includes a recommendation for which Hickory services Agencies should use to improve their business. Additional strategic consulting services will also be available to Agency Partners through this relationship.
Hickory’s agency fulfillment services, called HICKORYPLATFORM , will offer best of breed solutions including ticket fulfillment (a fully integrated end-to-end solution), ARC reporting, data consolidation and reporting, mid-office Q/C, documentation support and air commission reconciliation designed to streamline operations and reduce costs.
“Hickory is changing the agency and consortium relationship by providing services and solutions that have never been provided by a consortium in the past,” observed Reynolds. “Agencies of all sizes will have access to the latest technology, low cost fulfillment options, negotiated rates and fares, operational best practices and more. The services provided by Hickory today are only the beginning of a broad suite of solutions that will have a dramatic impact upon the corporate travel industry,” he said.
The new review services will be available beginning October 1 and the fulfillment platform in First Quarter, 2012. An announcement in August introduced other key program features:
HICKORYCOMMISSIONRECOVERY in partnership with eCommission Solutions, HICKORYBUSINESS INTELLIGENCE, a data consolidation and analytics tool, and the member extranet HICKORYPARTNERHQ.
Media Contact:
James R. Ferrara, Executive Vice President, INTRAVEL , 516.498.7765 Jferrara@TrainaCo.com
Why Choose HICKORY?
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HICKORY pays more. We drive more revenue to our agency/corporate travel department partners by matching existing booking behaviors with our preferred supplier relationships. It's simple, it's easy, and it works.
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We revenue manage, as any intermediary should, to benefit our agency/corporate travel department partners, identifying opportunities to drive incremental revenue through aggregated buying power supported by detailed micro-analysis.
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We provide comprehensive analysis and timely reporting using real time data
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We focus on delivering value to our partners. We succeed when you succeed.
- We guarantee ROI*
*Provisions apply.
