Industry's Only Environmentally Responsible Personal Assistant Helps
Companies Save Money while Providing a Total Green Travel Experience for
Users with Intelligent Carbon Calculator, Hybrid Cars and Web/Audio
Conferencing
FOSTER CITY, Calif., Feb. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Rearden Commerce, creator
of the first on-demand personal assistant and the first on-demand platform
for services, today unveiled the new green-focused Rearden Personal
Assistant to provide business travelers and organizations a first-of-its
kind Total Green Travel Experience when booking travel and related
services. With its new eco-friendly features and functionality including an
intelligent Carbon Calculator, hybrid car services, and Web and audio
conferencing, the Rearden Personal Assistant becomes the industry's first
and only environmentally responsible personal assistant that helps
employees save time and make wise travel choices. The Rearden Personal
Assistant is also the only corporate booking tool that saves companies
money on green travel alternatives by enabling users to take advantage of
negotiated discounts on both conferencing and hybrid car services.
(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080226/AQTU190)
The latest Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE)-KDS survey
of business travelers and travel managers around the globe, conducted from
November 2007 through January 2008, shows an increasingly eco-friendly
stance in travel procurement behavior. According to the survey, 36 percent
of respondents said they reduced company travel as a measure for supporting
sustainability, up from 23 percent a year earlier. Additionally, nearly
half of the respondents indicated that a sense of "guilt" about their
travel choices influenced individuals' travel purchase decisions. ACTE-KDS
says adjusting travel patterns and behavior is closely linked to the
availability of environmentally friendly alternatives. The Rearden Personal
Assistant is the first to conveniently recommend intelligent green
alternatives to today's business traveler.
"The Rearden Personal Assistant has always saved people time and their
companies, money. Now, it's doing its part to save the environment by
minimizing the impact of business travel," said Patrick Grady, Founder and
CEO, Rearden Commerce. "'Visual guilt' has already proven transformative in
helping users make financially responsible decisions for their companies
and now we have the opportunity to guide over a million business travelers
toward environmentally responsible choices for their planet."
The Rearden Personal Assistant's New Carbon Calculator
The Rearden Personal Assistant helps travelers better assess the
environmental impact of air transportation via an Intelligent Carbon
Calculator that highlights data-driven benefits of more eco-friendly travel
choices, such as opting for conferencing rather than air travel.
The Carbon Calculator shows users at the point of purchase a "Did You
Know" factoid on the amount of emissions produced by a flight they're
booking. On that same booking location, the Rearden Personal Assistant
offers users the convenient and eco-friendly option of booking a web or
audio conference instead. Users simply click on the link provided and are
instantly taken to the Conferencing page, where the Rearden Personal
Assistant helps them schedule a conference. Depending on the number of
conferencing participants and their locations, the Carbon Calculator
automatically highlights the number of pounds of carbon dioxide that have
been saved from entering the atmosphere.
Because Rearden Commerce offers all these options in a unique one-stop
shop for business services, users can make intelligent and convenient
trade-offs that balance business, financial and environmental
responsibilities. The Rearden Personal Assistant helps users quickly book
and manage their web and audio conferences without having to remember
access codes, can issue invitations to conference attendees directly from
users' address books, and have reservation details automatically inserted
into their calendars. The Rearden Personal Assistant supports all leading
conferencing providers and offers special negotiated discounts through
preferred providers WebEx and PremiereGlobal.
The Rearden Personal Assistant's New Hybrid Car Service
As part of its Total Green Travel Experience, the Rearden Personal
Assistant will guide users to an expanded ecosystem of car service
providers across the United States offering gasoline-saving hybrid
vehicles. Rearden Commerce's new car service partners include A First
Choice Limo (Atlanta), Arrow Transportation (New York City), Executive
Charge (New York City) and PlanetTran (Boston and San Francisco). Rearden
Commerce customers benefit from pre-negotiated discounts with these
providers.
"We're tremendously excited about the interest we're seeing in our
hybrid-only fleet from our customers on both the East and West Coasts,"
commented Seth Riney, Founder and President of PlanetTran. "Our hybrid
vehicle offering is a perfect complement to the Rearden Personal
Assistant's efforts to highlight greener travel options that adhere to
corporate compliance guidelines. We're delighted to be joining forces with
Rearden Commerce to give their customers even more choice and flexibility
in how they travel."
Rearden Commerce(TM)
Rearden Commerce makes life simpler by delivering an on-demand Personal
Assistant that intuitively manages the everyday details of business and
personal life. Just like a seasoned executive assistant, the Rearden
Personal Assistant handles an impressive array of tasks and services, and
delights users by considering their unique needs and personal preferences.
The Rearden Personal Assistant is built on the Rearden Commerce Platform,
which supports the world's largest ecosystem of more than 137,000 trusted
merchants and third-party applications providers. Today, more than one
million contracted users at organizations ranging from the Fortune 500 to
small/medium enterprises, including ConAgra Foods, Glaxo Smith Kline and
JDSU, rely on the recommendations and assistance of the Rearden Personal
Assistant to save time and be more efficient, while saving their companies
money. Rearden Commerce is headquartered in Foster City, CA. For more
information, visit http://www.reardencommerce.com.
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