SAS Launches WAP-Based Booking Service.Business Editors & Travel Writers STOCKHOLM, Sweden--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 14, 2000 SAS (1) (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, www.sas.com) A software company that specializes in data warehousing and decision support software based on the SAS System. Founded in 1976, SAS is one of the world's largest privately held software companies. See SAS System. has developed a new service enabling flight reservations to be made via a Wireless Applications Protocol (WAP (1) (Wireless Access Point) See access point. (2) (Wireless Application Protocol) A standard for providing cellular phones, pagers and other handheld devices with secure access to e-mail and text-based Web pages. )-based telephone system. A group of selected corporate customers has been chosen to test the new service during a trial period. The service also provides access to the SAS timetable, opportunities to check actual flight departure and arrival times for SAS aircraft, and details of customers' current EuroBonus points status. "We are probably the first airline in the world to provide such a service. Our goal is to make SAS optimally accessible and since we can now be reached via interactive voice-response systems, the Internet Internet Publicly accessible computer network connecting many smaller networks from around the world. It grew out of a U.S. Defense Department program called ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), established in 1969 with connections between computers at the and WAP-based telephone systems, our customers can today contact us from virtually any location," says Lennart Lof, Vice President, Marketing & Loyalty Management, SAS. The functionality of the WAP service is very similar to that of the Internet. Customers connect with the SAS system (1) Originally called the "Statistical Analysis System," it is an integrated set of data management and decision support tools from SAS that runs on platforms from PCs to mainframes. via telephone and can then make bookings and carry out other errands via easily viewed menus. A few clicks are all that is needed. During the trial period, the service will be confined con·fine v. con·fined, con·fin·ing, con·fines v.tr. 1. To keep within bounds; restrict: Please confine your remarks to the issues at hand. See Synonyms at limit. to the booking of ticketless air travel through SAS Travel Pass (prepaid pre·pay tr.v. pre·paid, pre·pay·ing, pre·pays To pay or pay for beforehand. pre·pay  ment n. travel system) and SAS Travel Pass Corporate (corporate business travel with invoice-based payments). Further ahead, it will be possible to book all types of travel. "We noted that our customers were very quick to adopt Talsvar (our voice- response system) as a method of handling their reservations. When we then made it possible to book tickets via the Internet, many of them opted to use this alternative, instead. Booking tickets via WAP telephone can thus be regarded as a natural extension of our reservation service," comments Lof. Although it is intended that the service content available via these various channels will ultimately be identical, certain functions, such as the checking of actual arrival and departure times, are currently only available via the WAP-based system. "We have elected to load the service offered via our WAP-based system with exclusively flight-related information, since we believe this is what our customers would prefer to have. In the future, this service will offer even greater potential, however. For example, it could be possible for passengers to receive information about delayed flights via the telephone. The bottleneck A lessening of throughput. It often refers to networks that are overloaded, which is caused by the inability of the hardware and transmission lines to support the traffic. It can also refer to a mismatch inside the computer where slower-speed peripheral buses and devices prevent the CPU at the present time is the physical shortage of WAP telephones in the market," concludes Lennart Lof. Note to Editors: Please visit http://www.bit.se for further information. The following files are available for download To receive a file transmitted over a network. In any communications session, "download" means receive, and "upload" means send. The download/upload often implies a big/little scenario, in which data is being downloaded from the "big" server into the "little" user's computer. : http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/01/14/20000114BIT00150/bit0001.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/01/14/20000114BIT00150/bit0002.pdf |
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