PART.ONE for CWT Eastern Europe

Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT), as a leading corporate travel provider, introduces international software solutions for both inputting and processing travel data within Eastern Europe, together with both leading IT service providers: Lufthansa Systems and Partners Software. CWT agencies in Poland, Hungary, Russia, Ukraine as well as the Czech Republic, which previously held different systems, will in the future use uniform standards for both workflow optimisation and quality assurance.

Via new technology, CWT is diligently pursuing its goal of generating meaningful data worldwide in uniform quality for its clients. This integrated solution within the database-management sector, as well as accounting and controlling, unites the individual countries' various systems and adjusts these to international standards. Optimised and extensively automated workflows enable both quickly and economically inputting travel-relevant data, for enabling thoroughly informing clients at any time about both travel transactions and outputs.

The newly launched project is currently running in its beta version within Poland and will be extended to five countries by the summer of 2007. Via its “PART.ONE” mid-office solution, Partners Software offers extensive workflow-process optimisation within CWT agencies.

Via “SAP Business One”, Lufthansa Systems processes the data generated by the mid-office system for accounting, so that uniform standards apply within all countries. Both Partners Software and Lufthansa Systems will execute the country-specific adjustments as well as data migration. User training for applications via this SAP solution will be conducted by Lufthansa Systems.

CWT with Partners Software is already successfully co-developing the “CWT Web Fares” booking system, an adapted version of Partners' "LOW.FARE" technology. Via this booking platform for discounted Internet fares, low-cost carriers can—similarly to scheduled airlines—be both reserved and booked via one single Web interface, whereby time-consuming and separately searching low-cost carriers’ websites becomes superfluous.

Stefan Maucher, CWT’s Chief Financial Officer for Central & Eastern Europe, explains the decision: “Both Lufthansa Systems and Partners Software represent two competent partners, who best understand our branch-specific demands and are ideally prepared for international projects."

In addition, Bernd Appel, Industry Solutions Director of Lufthansa Systems' business division, reaffirms: “Worldwide operating companies are increasingly implementing standardised IT solutions, for both internationally displaying and optimising workflows. As an SAP partner, we ourselves are capable of offering such projects to clients like Carlson Wagonlit Travel. In this case, we rely upon our year-long experience as an internationally present IT service provider."

Wolfgang Brinker, one of Partners Software’s managing shareholders, emphasises the cooperation’s strategic meaning: “Our mid-office solution, PART.ONE, has thereby definitively proven that it is also totally implementable within the corporate travel business sector. The international project with CWT is a first step towards marketing PART.ONE even more intensively abroad,” adds Mr Brinker.

Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT) is a global leader specializing in business travel management. Present in nearly 150 countries, CWT serves companies of all sizes, as well as government institutions and non-governmental organizations. By leveraging both the expertise of its people and leading-edge technology, CWT helps clients derive the greatest value from their travel program in terms of savings, service and security, and provides best-in-class service and assistance to travelers. CWT services and solutions comprise four lines of business: Traveler & Transaction Services, Program Optimization, Safety & Security, and Meetings & Events. CWT has 22,000 employees worldwide.

In 2006, pro-forma sales value for wholly owned operations and joint ventures totaled US$20.5 billion. For more information, please visit www.carlsonwagonlit.com