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ARC Corporate Communications
4100 N. Fairfax Drive, Suite 600
Arlington, VA 22203-1629
703 816-8525
Fax: 703 816-8168
corpcom@arccorp.com
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About ARC
ARC is the premier financial transaction processing and settlement corporation that facilitates the distribution of travel products and related information in the United States, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. There are nearly 30,000 ARC accredited travel agency locations and approximately 130 participating airlines and railroads in ARC's settlement system. Using increasingly sophisticated electronic means for ticket distribution, reporting, and remittance, these points of sale are responsible for air and rail sales of nearly $65 billion a year. For more information about ARC, please visit www.arccorp.com.
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| ARC BOARD BRIEFED ON CONTINUED ENHANCEMENT
OF ARC'S ELECTRONIC SERVICES TO THE INDUSTRY
Arlington, VA, June 19, 2003 -
At yesterday's semi-annual meeting of ARC's Board of Directors, ARC management briefed
the Board on several current initiatives, including improvements to the ARC COMPASSSM line
of products and the reduction of the void window.
The Board expressed full support for two initiatives to enhance the ARC COMPASSSM range
of services in order to position travel agents, corporate travel departments (CTD)
and airlines to cut paper storage costs and reduce research time and expense.
The first enhancement, made in response to requests from the travel agency community,
expands the ARC COMPASSSM database
to 39 months of processed transaction data - up from 27 months of data (see April 3, 2003 press release).
The second enhancement, announced today, adds ten new data fields and a new ticket detail window to the ARC
Document Retrieval Service, giving travel agents, CTDs and carriers access to ticket
records, itinerary and fare data with an unprecedented level of detail and clarity. This
service remains free of charge to travel agents, CTDs and carriers.
Travel agents had indicated that they were unable to cease production and storage of the
agent coupon because they did not have access to data for a long enough period or to
sufficient detail through the ARC Document Retrieval Service. This latest improvement
to the ARC Document Retrieval Service allows agencies to avoid the cost of storing the agent coupon.
David Collins, CTC, ARC President & CEO called the enhancements "an example of
ARC resources being focused in areas where significant value added can be created for
the broadest of stakeholder constituencies. The ARC Document Retrieval Service is a
great example of a win-win solution to costly exception processing and the opportunity to
eliminate outdated paper processes."
The Directors were also briefed on the recent implementation of the ARC initiative to
reduce the window during which travel agencies and CTDs can void ticket transactions
- Phase I of the Business Process Improvement Initiative (BPI).
David Collins noted the value of the five-month dialogue process that led to this month's
BPI launch. "By engaging representatives of all those affected by ARC's business process
improvement effort in a consultative fashion, ARC was able to deliver a better product
for our stakeholders," said Collins.
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