HRG believes the world is changing and has set out its vision of a future where it is omni-channel and offers rich content through GDS but also as a direct connect aggregator.
In line with this strategy, the company has announced the acquisition of German online business travel company eWings, which focuses on the small business sector.
The company added "eWings.com has the same omni-channel capability being developed by HRG for its global corporate clients and there will be both technology advantages and synergies which will flow easily between the teams."
Commenting on the acquisition Bill Brindle, CIO of Hogg Robinson Group, said: "eWings.com provides us with a developed solution as well as some great new technology which is highly complementary to our own proprietary technology and will fit perfectly with our platform. In addition to being an exciting new approach to fast and easy business travel, eWings.com gives us a speed to market advantage in the small business space and means we can accelerate our new distribution strategy across the whole market."
The strategy comes as the travel management company announced its preliminary results for the year ended 31 March 2017 .
The results show that while group revenues have increased by £16.8 million to £335.1 million for the full year, client travel spend in Europe was down 8% in real terms and travel activity was 6% lower. In North America, spend was down 12% in constant currency terms and activity 8% lower. Operating profits have nevertheless improved, up 3.5% in constant currency terms to £37.4 million.
Its view of the changing world, shown below, was presented in an investor presentation.
HRG has already successfully implemented airline direct connect solutions for Volkswagen and "sees further demand for these solutions going forward".
It says it has started work on an enhanced Direct Connect Platform which it hopes "will enable HRG to remain the market leader as we enter the next phase of travel distribution".
Consumerisation is also at the heart of the TMC's strategy.
The company has set up a team with HRG called hrgtec to focus on the transformation of its digital customer experience.
It said in its statement, "Due to the rapidly changing market place in business travel, with product consumerisation and the need to evolve our offering, the development focus of our team is on a 'mobile first' strategy, reflecting the change away from classic desktop-based enterprise systems."
Other TMCs might well look at HRG as a way to deal with a fast-changing landscape.