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Online players advance. (News Analysis).

Article Excerpt
The revelation last month that McDonald's Corp. is a customer of Orbitz surprised few insiders as both the airline-owned site and Expedia build out solutions that more comprehensively address managed travel. Meanwhile, their main corporate travel competitors, most of which offer booking technologies from Sabre's GetThere, have stepped up efforts to emphasize value they say the online players cannot or will not offer.

A McDonald's travel manager declined to elaborate on the company's small pilot test of Orbitz For Business, which was verified last month by an Orbitz executive at The Masters Program in Washington, D.C., as the two companies had agreed to keep the arrangement quiet. Rumors of the relationship, however, were passed around the industry for weeks as sources speculated on the size of the McDonald's program, how heavily it manages travel and whether Orbitz would replace or supplement the designated agency, Carlson Wagonlit Travel.

Although these and other questions certainly are relevant, no one needs the answers to understand that Expedia and Orbitz have the traditional travel management companies and their technology partners on the run.

"The concept of a $5 self-service portal solution is very attractive to many corporate accounts," said Navigant International chairman, president and CEO Ed Adams at a CIBC World Markets conference in New York last month. Adams, who in February...