Andrew Winterton, Carlson Wagonlit Travel’s president of suppliers, products and technology, talks about the TMC’s mobile strategy and its latest smartphone app, CWT To Go, which is designed to make life easier for business travellers
How has the launch of CWT To Go been received by your clients?
We are very pleased with the positive reception it has had so far although it is early days and we are not pushing it incredibly hard. The current version is in English but by the end of the first quarter of this year it will be available in five languages – with French, German, Italian and Spanish alongside English. The highest take-up has been in the US which is relatively predictable. The take-up has been quite strong in the UK – it would be several thousand users so far.
What does CWT To Go offer to the corporate traveller?
The three functions that have been used the most are very consistent: flight searches where they are changing arrangements on the go is the most used, the second is mapping – probably to see where they are going, and third is dining to find and book restaurants. One area we are looking to see more use is for online check-in. That’s the next area we are looking at and we will be talking to the two or three largest airlines to see how we can make online check-in more attractive to travellers.
What where the main reasons for launching the app?
We have been looking at mobile for a long time but we had to find a way to try and identify where we could add value. We looked at the most successful apps in travel, then we had to decide as a TMC what would be the right sort of things to put on an app? We had to come up with two or three things which are very significant issues that corporate travellers face. We wanted to create one app you could use to support your travel endeavours by using your smartphone. I have downloaded some great apps personally but never used them. I’ve got one on the layout of airports – it sounded brilliant at the time but I have never used it. We have tried to make the app practical by including flight itineraries as well as hotel and car rental details.
What advantages does using an app like this have for travel buyers and their travellers?
We think functions like mobile check-in can be very useful – if you are dashing from a meeting and running a bit late, you just want to get it done while you are in the back of a taxi on the way to the airport. There is also the corporate safety and security issue. We were amazed to find that corporations were emailing their itineraries on to public apps. Most trips are obviously not particularly sensitive but there may be certain more high-risk destinations where you would want to be careful for security reasons, so don’t want that information to be in the public domain. There may also be commercial reasons why details should not be made public if there are meetings with banks, for example. With our app, we are creating a closed loop in that there is a great amount of control by the corporate about where the data goes.
What can you do to improve the way the app works?
We need to make it easier to check-in online – at the moment there are too many clicks. Using smartphones is not as fast as online networks so the fewer pages the better. But this is difficult as every airline has a different process for online check-in. We are also talking to travellers about what support services will add value so we are looking at airport parking as well as taxi and car transportation – two areas where we are having a lot of discussions.
What other products do you offer for smartphone users?
We have launched three mobile products with CWT To Go the main initiative. We launched CWT Market in the very early days to understand what was out that in terms of products that might be suitable for business travellers and it allows them to create their own group of apps. We also have CWT Policy which displays the corporate travel policy on a mobile app – this could be used if a less frequent traveller doesn’t know whether to take a taxi or train to Heathrow so they can check the policy on the app. The app can also update the policy on any changes made by the corporate through the smartphone.