Smart thinking

Apps, platforms, devices... mobile technology is a challenging and fast-moving aspect of business travel. Martin Cowen looks at the commercial and strategic concerns that travellers, travel managers and buyers are having to address

SMARTPHONE TECHNOLOGY moves at such a pace, even language is struggling to keep up. The word smartphone itself is getting a bit old – aren’t all phones “smart” these days? How long before simply “phone” becomes the accepted term for a hand-held, portable multi-channel entertainment navigation device? Devices too are now a big issue.

The iPad is currently in version 2 with a sleeker, lighter version 3 anticipated in 2012, while the latest iPhone 4S was recently released in the UK.

Meanwhile shiny new Android-based devices and Blackberrys seem to be coming to market every week. Both apps (which can be downloaded to a specific device), and mobile web tools (which can be read on any web-enabled device) are becoming part of our everyday lives and can be useful for work as well as play. One of the biggest headaches facing the business travel world is how to manage the new work-life balance.

NOISE ANNOYS

As often is the case, many of those who talk up the rise of the app have a vested interest. But travel management companies (TMCs) in particular need to take a step back and look at what their clients want, not what the tech industry is telling them they should want.

Paul Saggar, director of product and technology for HRG, has been at the coalface of the debates surrounding mobile for some time. “The focus remains on apps that serve an itinerary management function,” he says, “because the added value and service component is an easier sell.”

Most business travellers store their itinerary on a mobile device, he says, checking departure gates and which hotel they are staying at. Saggar adds that the focus on itinerary management means there are now more apps available which include “policy and compliance” notes. “For example, your company policy might be to take the airport train link rather than a taxi, or vice versa,” he says.

The compliance issue is one of the few constants within business travel and rears its head often during the debate about mobile. Leakage – travellers booking outside policy, ignoring preferred suppliers and took place in isolation, among the TMCs and travellers,” says Saggar.

“The momentum built, clients became interested but then so did the corporate security teams. At this point, take-up slowed because the security guys wanted better safeguards.” D’Astolfo also thinks security is a headwind for mobile adoption. doing their own thing – remains an issue. And with the bean counters breathing down the TMC’s neck, ensuring road warriors use the negotiated rates is ever more critical.

A survey of travel buyers at the GBTA conference in Denver this summer by m-commerce giant Rearden Commerce shows how much leakage is going on: two-thirds of travel buyers polled said employees at their companies were less than 50 per cent compliant with online booking policies.

Tony D’Astolfo, Rearden’s senior vice-president for travel services, says mobile could be the way for this to be addressed. “Mobile should be an extension of the desktop, where policy compliance is built into the online booking tools.”

But Rearden’s research also found mobile is still not getting the traction with corporates that it ought to be.

D’Astolfo describes as “startling” the finding that while nearly two-thirds of travel managers are aware mobile could help their managed travel programme, only a quarter of them are currently using it to do so.

Saggar and D’Astolfo offer different explanations. Saggar suggests that the take-up of mobile by corporations “decelerated” at the same time as the level of interest had increased. He says the disconnect was driven by the phrase widely attributed to Albert Einstein: “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. So is a lot.”

“I think in the early days of mobile, discussions  “When the web started out 15 years ago, there was a worry it would be a distraction, so we had a whole bunch of web security firms emerging to make using the internet at work safer for the corporation. Soon we will see a similar rush of mobile security specialists, which will help adoption.”

SUPPLIER SOLUTIONS

But the question remains that if business travellers are still booking outside policy from the desktop, what is going to stop them booking outside policy from their mobile?

Jon West is CEO of online hotel booking firm HRS. He says it has been working on its leisure/corporate balance for a number of years and now has a suite of business-to-business and business-to-consumer products and apps.

“We have always taken a multichannel approach to hotel bookings,” he says. “We operate with a single database, so a user’s profile is the same whatever HRS channel is used for bookings. We really feel our time has come because this model works for the latest apps and devices.”

HRS has 250,000 hotels on its books, and boasts 72 million annual unique users. It is able to continue growing, constantly changing the apps it launches. “If you are a tech company or TMC that releases a new version every year, you are out of date,” he said. “We change the functionality or upgrade our products every five weeks.”

While hotels are seeing HRS and its app focus as a way to generate more revenue, other suppliers with a lot of business travel clients are not interested in slicing and dicing apps into leisure and consumer.

This summer Eurostar launched an app for the iPhone and Android devices, allowing passengers to book and manage journeys between London, Paris, Brussels and Lille.

Business Premier travellers have the flexibility to change their journey details to fit around busy schedules, while members of Eurostar’s loyalty programmes can also use the app to earn points. Eurostar launched a new mobile-enabled website at the same time. “We’ve no plans to extend this currently with an app specifically for corporate buyers,” said a Eurostar spokesman.

British Airways also has a current focus on apps for the end-user, and seems in agreement with Eurostar’s approach, saying “there is no appetite from our corporate customers for a dedicated app for business travellers. We currently have no intention to develop small specialised apps for specific corporates.”

BA says it has transactional apps for most devices in use. “Our apps have been downloaded by more than one million people,” BA says. “Some of those will be business travellers so there is no need to develop an specific app for that market.”

Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG) is also looking at apps for customers without necessarily separating them out into road warriors and beach bunnies. Sales and marketing director Matt Luscombe says: “In general our target guests for business and leisure are the same people.”

He says IHG is aware of some differences between business and leisure needs, but repeats BA’s approach that an app can work for both. “Many of our guests are business travellers who need to book a hotel room or change a reservation while they’re on the move,” he says. “We use location-aware capabilities to serve up hotels in the guest’s immediate vicinity. We also offer a click-to-call option for ease and speed. But this app can help the leisure guest as well.”

This summer IHG launched a suite of transactional iPhone apps, a separate one for each of its seven brands. In September it ensured that bookings made via the iPhone apps satisfied its best price guarantee. IHG also has tools for Android and other platforms, as well as a mobile web site in seven languages.

He also hints that IHG’s Priority Club Rewards scheme could be an area of distribution where the business and leisure separation is stronger. He says three years researching 10,000 frequent travellers found that “business travellers value loyalty more than price. Loyalty programme membership is a stronger predictor of hotel choice than price or location for guests who stay more than 20 nights per year.”

IHG’s revamped Priority scheme reflects this – members using their corporate ID on its app get not only the corporate rate but also the points.

GAMECHANGER

HRG acknowledges that TMCs are having to include a mobile strategy when pitching for business, but corporates are after what Saggar describes as “evergreen” strategies. “They are asking for a three to five-year plan,” he says. “A few years ago we realised that tablets would have a presence, so we are confident we will be able to handle any developments which are round the corner.”

One such development Saggar is keen to highlight is Windows 8. This Microsoft platform is being developed specifically to work across desktops, laptops, mobile, tablets, even the Xbox – something which the developer community insists is unique. “This could be a gamechanger,” Saggar says. “When you think how dominant Microsoft’s productivity tools like Powerpoint, Outlook and Excel are despite having been around for years.”

For businesses whose travellers are still not using the online booking tool, don’t worry – Windows 8 is still in its infancy. But as Tony D’Astolfo says: “The confluence of business and consumer apps and devices will change the corporate IT approach forever.”