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Atlas Asks: What's your Travel GPA?

MILFORD, Mass., July 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Atlas Travel International, a leading Travel Management Company (TMC), announces the launch of their industry benchmarking service, Travel GPA. Headed by industry veteran and Atlas Travel International Chief Technology Officer, Rock Blanco, Travel GPA offers real-time industry benchmarking utilizing advanced patent pending algorithms to produce a travel report card based on pre-defined goals and metrics.

"For years, Atlas has been leading the way in terms of technology innovation and great professional advice. Today, Travel GPA makes those technology and information resources available to other TMCs and corporate travel buyers," states Blanco. "The strategy is to build the world's largest benchmarking database so all TMCs and their clients can have a diverse travel database available for generating their own report cards on how well their travel program and their TMC is performing."

What is Your Travel GPA?

For the first time, companies can immediately identify how their travel program measures up against other companies in the market place. Travel GPA Report Card provides a real-time analysis of a company's travel program versus others based on similar spend, similar region, or similar industry in one easy to read, consolidated report. Report Card provides three grades to measure performance; Goal Metrics GPA, Industry Benchmark GPA and an overall Travel GPA. "Report Card presents a 360 degree analysis of a company's travel performance based on user defined goals, statistical benchmarks against peers, including air, car rental, and hotel average cost expenditures, and top airline markets and carrier comparisons, to arrive at an overall grade point average," stated Blanco. "In the end you are given a rating in each category that ranges from 'Needs Improvement' to 'Excellent' -- giving you exact knowledge of how you stack up against your peers."

Building the Largest Benchmarking Database

Utilizing real-time data from TMCs around the globe, Report Card provides an up to the moment picture of how well your travel program is being managed and how you rate nationally and globally. At initial launch, seven major TMCs will be participating in the benchmarking process. In total this represents nearly $1 billion in annual travel transaction data with corporate spend ranging in size from $100,000 to more than $30 million. "With Report Card's richly detailed reports, Casto Travel will be able to provide first class account management services to our customers," states Marc Casto, president of Casto Travel. "We believe that Report Card will further demonstrate to our customers the value we provide as their TMC."

Travel GPA is slated for release to all TMCs in late summer 2007. Initially, TMCs will need to subscribe to Cornerstone's iBank Travel Management System. According to Blanco, "Cornerstone is an excellent partner for us to work with. We use the data distribution capability in their iBank reporting and analysis application to quickly aggregate massive amounts of travel data and deliver a much-needed service to the TMC community and the companies that they service. We are able to leverage years of industry knowledge and transaction data in just seconds."

"Travel GPA is a great service that fills a significant need in the industry and that is to better understand and evaluate a travel program," stated Mat Orrego, president and CEO of Cornerstone Information Systems. "By leveraging both companies' technology and travel expertise, Travel GPA quickly provides a solution to the market that's both cost effective and innovative."

For TMCs and Corporate Travel Managers

Travel GPA will provide Report Card services to both TMCs and corporate travel managers. Travel GPA is available through an annual subscription service that includes unlimited report cards for unlimited end users. An additional service option will be available to allow TMCs to generate report cards for individual accounts on an ad-hoc basis. "Our philosophy is simple; companies should keep their travel agency, but get the best advice they can. That is where Travel GPA comes in," says Elaine Osgood, president of Atlas Travel. "For TMCs that are doing a great job with a customer, this is a way to re-assure them of that fact. Report Card is an unvarnished, third party review of how you are doing and it gives corporate customers a real measuring stick of their performance."

About Atlas Travel & Travel GPA

Celebrating more than 20 years in business, Atlas Travel International is one of the largest travel management companies in the United States serving more than 500 corporate customers. Honored as a leader in the travel industry, founder Elaine Osgood was the 2006 New England Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year and named one of the "100 Most Powerful Women in Travel" by Travel Agent Magazine. Travel GPA leverages two of the Atlas' broad strengths; Technology and Information Management. Industry technology veteran, Rock Blanco leads this talented group and works with each customer to find solutions that are built around what they need, when they need it and how they will use it.

For more information on Atlas Travel or Travel GPA:

http://www.atlastravel.com/http://www.travelgpa.com/

First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact:

Source: Atlas Travel International

CONTACT: Jeni Miller of K Squared Communications, Inc., +1-847-401-0479,
jkaiser@ksqrd.com, for Atlas Travel International

Web site:

http://www.atlastravel.com/
http://www.travelgpa.com/

NOTE TO EDITORS: Interviews and demos with Rock Blanco are available

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Profile: Media News