From the rise in millennial travellers and the increasing importance of digital and the trend of carriers unbundling their fares to offer ancillary services; there's no doubt that travel management programmes and procurement practices are facing some dramatic challenges. Today's 'always on' business travellers have adopted consumer-like attitudes and expectations towards business travel and these evolving expectations, and multiple device types, have all contributed to changing the way business travel is now sold and consumed.
They also represent opportunities and challenges for TMCs and corporations. The introduction of ancillary services has added to the balancing act travel managers already face when needing to satisfy their travellers' requirements while delivering the company's travel objectives. As the effective travel manager moves towards focusing more on the needs and wants of the corporate traveller in an effort to provide employees with more flexibility in how they book, the traveller becomes "happier" and more productive on business trips.
However, the increasing pressure to satisfy the requirements of the corporate traveller while also delivering against the company's travel objectives means travel managers are now dealing with a vast range of data sources. As corporate travel retail goes omni-channel with an increased emphasis on personalisation, it's not just the volume of data, but also the time and cost of collating and interpreting it that's dramatically increasing. The rise in mobile bookings can also increase the risks of travel managers losing control of travellers and their preferred suppliers, causing threats to duty of care and policy compliancy.
Another challenge is that the TMC obviously wants to continue to enhance its service by using its understanding of a traveller's travel patterns and personal travel preferences to offer a customised traveller-centric service that helps them build loyalty. It can be a fine balance; the travel manager needs to empower the traveller in a controlled environment in order to provide the most choice to the traveller while making sure they stay compliant to travel programmes. However, ancillary services can help provide additional data points that enables agents to breakdown exactly what's included in flight fares and offer travel managers more choice and cost visibility.
Transforming data into actionable information
For a TMC, data has a vital role to play in creating a competitive advantage. For the travel manager, it can help provide visual business intelligence to help very quickly understand where they need to focus and act on their travel programme to manage compliance, unlock savings, create value and minimise risk. The combination of Big Data and machine-based learning can not only help solve these types of challenges but also enable buyers to pre-empt traveller needs.
Smart systems can help spot savings opportunities and ways to ease the travel process ©enot-poloskum/istockWhen travel managers, TMC owners and stakeholders are provided with access to near real-time actionable information compiled from the vast range of data sources it empowers them to spend their time acting on the insights rather than creating them.
Data can be analysed by leveraging tools and technology that can combine artificial intelligence, engrained algorithms and predictive analysis. This can not only help predict future travel and provide alerts but also identify policy compliancy threats. It can also help suggest possible travel programme savings and provide traveller stress analysis based on bookings to improve productivity from each trip.
For example, data could show a buyer or TMC which travellers will be most affected by travel "friction" based on the previous nine months of travel and future travel booked. Not only does this help travel managers focus their activities on those most at risk of travel stress but can be the start of setting multiple-level travel policies or changing a particular policy for certain travellers based on their actual travel experience rather than just frequency of travel.
Utilising data for personalisation
As today's travellers become more connected they increasingly expect an end-to-end travel experience. Travel managers and TMCs service a wide range of travellers requiring multiple services so it's important to tailor the trip to their needs and requirements while being able to keep track of extra expenses involved. Ancillary services offer many opportunities in terms of data and analytics to help corporate travel managers control and report costs and even intelligently processes and predict previous traveller behavioural data to enhance the traveller profile. The data associated with ancillary service preferences can enable the travel manager to better understand the traveller's requirements and package up a complete profile of each corporate traveller based on previous bookings. Combining the right technology with business intelligence solutions can not only help to make "traveller fulfilment" a reality, it can also provide a more dynamic booking platform.
The 'day of travel' can be frustrating even for frequent business travellers. Fears about getting to the airport on time, lengthy security queues, uncertainties about flight take-off times, gate locations in unknown airports, lost baggage: all are common pain points. A booking platform that incorporates third party connections via software development kits and APIs can provide corporates and TMCs with a seamless wrap-around booking experience incorporating essential end-to-end solutions. This enables access to new services tailored to business requirements to provide a personal digital travel concierge service for business travellers wanting a more personalised travel experience.
Combining platform APIs and intelligence
More than ever, technology provides the opportunity to automate corporate travel management, streamline processes and reduce costs. Choosing the right technology partner will not only enable travel managers and TMCs to embrace digital but help them capitalise on the growing trend of personalisation in the travel industry to better service travellers and provide the greatest return on investment in terms of productivity from each trip.
The ability to transform data into actionable information not only enables travel managers and the TMC to better understand the profile and patterns of travellers, it helps them to implement traveller-centric policies. These policies balance the needs of the traveller with the needs of the organisation and enhancing duty of care programmes beyond simple traveller tracking to adopt a user-centric approach that responds to the personal needs, preferences and policies of the corporations they service.
Combining the right technology with business intelligence solutions will also help keep data synchronised across multiple systems, both internally and with the TMC. Connecting all available booking and travel information about travellers will provide a true perspective and help predict demand and anticipate needs. This enables the travel manager to capture spend in one place, offer a more personalised service and more flexible booking policies to the business traveller. It can also help improve compliance and cost management for the corporate and allow for additional services and create new revenue streams for the TMC.
Digital and personalisation will be key for business travel in the years to come. Only those corporate travel players capable of providing these will succeed.