Each fulfillment pack is tailor-made to the caller's personal needs. Moreover, ATC can now directly increase revenues from list rental by interrogating the data for partners who want highly targeted selections from the database. In the first three months of using the Rapidus tool, Innes has seen a 10 percent increase in the number of list rental inquiries. As ATC's business development executives see such possibilities, Innes notes, they are becoming more interested in using the data, and will ultimately be given direct access to the system from their desktops. He's found that in other European countries, the high cost of the limited data available precludes much profiling at this point.
Measurement presents another challenge.
Innes notes that ATC still cannot gauge how many of the 180,000 inquirers handled in the past 12 months go on to purchase a long-haul trip. As with other organizations that rely on channels to sell the product, ATC has no direct access to the sales information from the travel agents, tour operators, and partners who ultimately sell the travel services. At best, Innes can do sampling to get this information. The organization is considering various techniques for getting direct access to consumer expenditure data. Until then, said Innes, he can only measure success through aggregate trends.