If you believe in the common philosophy of "being too busy to become smarter" then you might as well stop reading now. The following content focuses on how to get away from that very mindset as fast as possible.
If your daytime job somehow involves performing some, or all, of the items on the endless list of tasks related to corporate travel management then this article will probably highlight some familiar challenges. But hopefully it will also provide some fresh thinking around how to take advantage of new technologies and services with the potential to make your life a lot easier.
Everything was easier in the old days
For about 15 years there were very few options available for how to define and manage a corporate travel programme. Since the arrival of the first online booking engines in the late nineties the main decisions have been which centered around choice of TMC, booking engine, expense reporting and general reporting.
However, during the past five years a range of new services have arrived — typically developed by start-ups you have never heard about. Each of them is designed to deliver dramatic improvements for a relatively "narrow" area of requirements; a product philosophy generally described as a microservice architecture. There are too many of these new services to name them all here but areas such as the below are all knocking on travel managers' doors and are typically met with the classic statement of "I am in the middle of my hotel RFP or TMC selection so please contact me next year".
- Duty of care
- Booking leakage data capture
- Fare and rate scanners
- Meeting planning and booking
- Intelligent reporting
- Chatbots
- Traveller well-being
- Robotic process automation
- Itinerary and journey management
The bad news for the travel manager is that this list only will become longer as more start-ups are arriving each month with new products and services. And they are increasingly going directly to the traveller because they have heard that is the fastest way to adoption in the corporate segment.
So what are your options?
The best solution would obviously be to get more resources allocated to the travel management programme but that option is only realistic for a few very lucky travel managers. So the time has come for alternative thinking — here a few possible ways of improving your ability to take advantage of new technology
Option A: Let the TMC manage EVERYTHING for you
This option is risky as it means you have to change ALL systems when you potentially change TMC one day. This also means you are going against your procurement instincts which wants to keep alternative options open and relatively easy to access.
Option B: Carve out a portion of your time to focus on innovation
This option is the best compromise as it keeps you in charge of the programme using existing capabilities but with a clear agreement from your boss to allocate a day per week (anything less is not really a commitment) to look at new technologies and services which can improve the overall value of the corporate travel programme. If you get a push back when you suggest this model then respond by asking if finance or marketing are using the same tools today as they did 15 years ago — that typically gets a positive response!
Option C: Create a new position dedicated for travel technology innovation
This option is the most ambitious as it effectively allocates capital in the form of a new headcount. This person would create a permanent process of identifying, selecting and implementing new technology and services capable of delivering a relevant return on investment, regardless of the current or future TMC partner.
Which model is right for you?
While most of the new services are designed to work for both small and large customers alike, there are a few indicators which can be used to determine which option would be the most suitable one for you. There is room for hybrid solutions combining two or even all three options.
Option A is probably best suited for corporate travel programmes with relatively little flexibility (meaning old-fashioned travel policy rules and procurement principles) as these programmes tend to follow a principle of "lowest common denominator". The TMCs are certainly capable of providing customised services but in general their model is designed around a "same for all" service configuration with a limited number of external services included. But if you want to avoid getting your hands dirty with evaluation and selection of new services then the TMC is your best friend.
Option B is well suited for a newer travel manager who has taken over an old programme and realised how static it is. Rather than accepting the status quo this is the perfect opportunity to quickly react and demand the ability to invest meaningful time into a redesign of the travel programme which then will be considered your achievement. As the new programme becomes a success you are also more likely to graduate to model C with a dedicated position for innovation.
Option C is perfect for the travel manager who has limited travel industry experience and therefore is more focused on the traveller experience than the procurement process. While this probably sounds outright dangerous for a traditional corporate travel procurement specialist there are a growing number of companies who are selecting individuals without travel industry experience to manage the travel programme — and these programmes are generally the most innovative and traveler-friendly programmes out there.
How do you measure success in innovation?
Depending on your own mindset and mentality there a few possible ways of measuring how successful you are in introducing new technology into your travel programme. As always direct cost is the most visible indicator, so start out by creating some clear metrics such as
- The ratio of travel programme staff cost (yourself plus any other relevant resources) against the annual travel spend
- The total average cost per travel day (total travel expense amount divided by total number of travel days)
- The traveller satisfaction score measured on a given percentage of equal trips over time (could be an NPS model)
Once you have defined your baseline for measurement it is time to define what the innovation goals are — and again there are multiple ways to look at this such as
- Define a goal of implementing one (or more) new services each year
- Improve one of the above described metrics by a given amount
- Reach a certain level of traveller satisfaction
Is this relevant for you?
If you have reached this far then congratulations on having taken the first step towards becoming the 'travel innovation manager' in your company.
In most jobs the number of possible tasks is much bigger than what is possible to complete. Therefore the challenge is to determine which ones are most important; ask yourself which of the tasks you currently complete are best suited to be dropped, or in other words has the least value to your travel programme. Then decide to replace that task with a new service with a higher value, and suddenly you will start looking at the positive opportunity of improving your operational efficiency by implementing relevant innovation on an ongoing basis
Good luck with your switch from an operations manager to innovation manager!