Listening to presentations about technology fascinate me but it's often hard to know how it all fits into our personal or working lives. When new services come on the radar we often get caught up in trying to understand how it works when really what we want to know what it means moving forward.
So while listening to SAP's Johnny Thorsen at Business Travel Show (slides here) it was interesting to hear how blockchain, the Internet of Things, data analytics and so-called 'micro services' could combine to make managing negotiations and payment simpler for both the travel manager and traveller.
Many in the audience were intrigued by the concept of 'smart contracts' which Thorsen thinks will "dramatically change the procurement world" through "self-thinking and self-regulating…logical parameters."
Smart contracts are essentially the conditions of contracts in computer code that contain rules to apply the terms, benefits and penalties that have been negotiated. These rules are programmed to act on real-time information which prompts an action, such as a payment.
"Imagine for hotel room contracts, if after the first 500 rooms you know that the next will be 10% cheaper," Thorsen explained. "The contract regulates itself; it just needs transactional data and the rules to know when to transact and why."
The 'when' is where travellers would see a smoother process. An instant digital payment could be made when a traveller opens a hotel room door because the technology within the door could tell the hotel when someone has checked in and entered. It may also detect what's been bought or used around the hotel so a payment is instantly made on check-out — effectively eliminating expense reports.
Thorsen believes travel managers should be knocking on their CFO's door and asking to trial smart contracts in travel. But buyers listening said that while they found the information interesting they aren't sure if their companies are ready yet.
There's certainly already been development for seamless payment and billing on the supplier side; several of our Experts including AirPlus's Patrick Diemer have written about invisible payments and part of Uber's success has been down to easy pay. The below is an excerpt from an email I received recently from Uber showing it is also starting to use some form of logic in its code.
