Sabre Airline Solutions helps airlines better market, sell, serve, and operate─from planning through execution─by providing the airline industry with products and services, reservations and departure control, and consulting services.

The Airline Products and Services organization within Sabre Airline Solutions is comprised of 14 distinct product areas with more than 70 project managers. To provide world-class services, they needed to perform as one organization with a consistent approach to service delivery. Sabre Airline project managers negotiate and deliver on service contracts with their airline industry customers. The success of these engagements was dependent on its project managers' ability to become effective communicators and negotiators as well as to deliver these solutions in a consistent manner.

Sabre Airline Solutions had a general knowledge base and online training skills repository already in place. Employees were able to take online, pre-packaged classes. What did not exist was a formalized classroom-like training environment with project management classes that were tailored to the unique needs of Sabre Airline Solutions. According to Russ Renfro, Director of Professional Services, there was a real need for a "PMI®--based, formalized classroom training environment, on-site at Sabre Airline Solutions, where 20 to 30 people could be trained at the same time."

Sabre Airline Solutions had several training vendors to choose from, but decided to work with Global Knowledge.

Renfro was sold on our "willingness to work with me and my team, and to customize the training content so that it was Sabre Airline Solutions specific, while still remaining PMI-based. For us, it was really finding a company that would partner with us."

We worked with Sabre Airline Solutions to prepare two project management courses: Communication and Negotiation Skills and Customer Expectations Management. Seventy-five percent of the pre-existing business case studies, used during the class, were changed to be better aligned with situations the project managers at Sabre Airline Solutions face. To further customize the course, the length was condensed from three days to two. Customer Expectations Management was a new course created specifically for Sabre Airline Solutions that helped project managers learn to set better customer expectations upfront and then follow through on those expectations.

After taking the courses with us, project managers at Sabre Airline Solutions were better able to set clear expectations with customers and deliver numerous project requirements.

Now negotiations between Sabre Airline Solutions and its customers have "expectations that are set properly upfront so we avoid difficult situations later in a project," Renfro said.

He also recognizes that there is definite value in having all project managers at Sabre Airline Solutions communicating consistently with customers. The success of its partnership with us means that Sabre Airline Solutions will continue to expand the audience to include product managers and sales representatives.