"Data is the new oil" proclaimed Elyes Mrad, managing director international at Amex GBT on the ITM (Institute of Travel Management) stage last week as the TMC, among others, continues to focus on aggregating not only content but data.
But we know that working with data requires more than just having the numbers. Later in the day Donna Fitzgerald, business development director at Capita used a case study to remind buyers why it's important to have full visibility. She explained that one company put out a travel ban and initially it looked good; the overall spend on fares went down. However it was later, when going through a different data source in expenses that the firm found mileage claims had gone up. So the company had not only just moved some of the spend elsewhere but also had an increased duty of care issue around driving and long days, and the travelling community were feeling frustrated too.
It became clear in other discussions that speed of access to data must be considered from all angles.
Catherine Swan, commercial finance director of Kerry Group said "When driving an initiative it's about…it's about speed of turnaround of data; it needs to be at our fingertips." Mark Ruttledge, director at 7r Group agreed but said much of the pain around collecting data and creating visual dashboards that knit together have now been built. However speed is as much about the traveller experience as well as strategy. "Users [travellers] need itinerary information at least in real time…consider that as different to invoicing information so that can be monitored in real time," he explained.
This demand for speed is also affecting travel companies like Travelport. Stephen Shurrock, EVP and CCO said "the number of searches has exploded so we need to [work quickly and efficiently] to get the relevant results to people."
Outside of the conference centre in Scotland several were reading and reacting to the story that factors such as what smartphone you use and how you enter a website could, one day, affect whether you can get a loan.
The article describes a digital footprint that is common on company websites including travel. It is a way of automation and personalisation in some cases although this is not always a good idea as outlined in the article. Some of the tactics can be applied to business travel programmes and are probably already being used by online booking tools and TMCs, but could be pushed further with AI-controlled data analytics and spotting behavioural patterns. For example Ryan Ferros, senior data analyst travel management at UBS said the company focuses on pre-trip data such as costs, who travellers, advance purchases and why people travel at weekends to predict and prevent.