TQ3 Maritz, i:FAO offer corporate travel services

DEARBORN, Mich. -- TQ3 Maritz Travel Solutions and the i:FAO Group have formed an alliance to market cytric, i:FAO's business travel eProcurement software. TQ3 Maritz will immediately begin offering cytric to their corporate customers, the companies said.

Recent airline commission changes have motivated corporations more than ever to switch to eProcurement in order to reduce business travel expenses, company announcements said, and cytric will be marketed as a "risk-free" solution to reduce travel process and procurement costs. TQ3 Maritz is adding cytric to the products and services it provides to its clients.

"i:FAO is very pleased with this new alliance agreement, which bundles our software with the superior fulfillment, service and, implementation capabilities of TQ3 Maritz, for the benefit of corporations all over North America," said Louis Arnitz, i:FAO's Chief Executive. "TQ3 Maritz has impressed us with their attention to detail and quality throughout the contract negotiations and due diligence on our product."

Negotiated rates

When using cytric, TQ3 Maritz' customers are directed to the purchasing decision that is in their best interest and in compliance with the travel policy set in the system. Negotiated air, car and hotel rates provided by TQ3 Maritz are automatically used by cytric for further savings.

"We are pleased to be able to add cytric to our suite of online booking tools that we offer to clients as a way to reduce their overall travel costs," said Richard Spradling, CIO of TQ3 Maritz Travel Solutions. "As corporations move to consolidate their global travel operations, cytric has a definite advantage because it is available in many languages, on the major GDSs, and has a broad customer base with many existing TQ3 Travel Solutions' clients in Europe." 

The Internet based eProcurement software for business travel management includes the entire "supply chain management" for organizing business travel. Cytric allows direct access to real-time availabilities for 700 airlines, more than 54,000 hotels and all major car rental agencies. As a travel management system, cytric has more than 900 functions, covering a wide range business travel eProcurement, including purchasing control. For travelers, cytric can be used to book travel, using any Internet-PC and also including wireless devices, such as Palm PDA's.

Maritz and Preussag

TQ3 Travel Solutions provides travel expense management solutions to companies worldwide. With annual sales in excess of $9 billion USD, TQ3 Travel Solutions employs 12,700 people at 1,700 locations in 70 countries. TQ3 Travel Solutions is owned equally by Maritz, Inc. of St. Louis, Missouri, a leading source of integrated client services, and by Preussag AG/World of TUI based in Hanover, Germany, the world's largest travel and tourism company.

The publicly listed i:FAO integrates diverse information technologies to establish leading global standards for business travel software. i:FAO is market leader for neutral, worldwide available standard software for business travel eProcurement. More than 1,200 companies worldwide use i:FAO business travel eProcurement software.