Martin Cowen explores current thinking and finds out that the biggest thing in this field today is the way technologies can work with each other
CORPORATE BUYERS and travel management companies (TMCs) work hard to keep on top of technology. They need to keep an eye on costs, compliance, security and productivity. At the same time, business travellers are fragmenting into a mass of individuals, each with their own demands and devices.
As some technologies mature, new ones emerge. Sarah Kennedy Ellis is director of Sabre’s ‘future lab’ division, Sabre Travel Studios, but she doesn’t have time for geekery for the sake of it – her Sabre roots are in the nitty-gritty of its global distribution system (GDS) business, so whatever tech innovation her team is working on, Ellis is always looking for return on investment, cost savings, new service enhancements or revenue streams. “You can measure the impact of technology by how much you’d miss it,” she observes.
But despite the self-sustaining evolutionary nature of technology development, every now and again something comes along that causes a significant shift in how things are done. Forward-thinking TMCs and corporates are trying to predict which of the emerging technologies today are likely to survive, and if any of these will be revolutionary for business travel.
To read this article on your tablet, phone or desktop, download the Buying Business Travel app from the Apple or Android Store. To get a preview, click here
GOING MOBILE
Many of us take the presence of mobile for granted, but it has taken some time to establish itself as the biggest sea-change in technology our generation has experienced. The smartphone – particularly the iPhone 4, released in 2010, and the emergence of Google’s Android platform for mobiles – heralded a big rethink in the relationship between the business traveller and their travel organiser. ATPI sales director Scott Wylie refers to mobile in terms of the Gartner hype cycle – the business theory which identifies five stages in the development of any successful technology. A ‘technology trigger’ is followed by ‘a peak of inflated expectations’ which leads to the ‘trough of disillusionment’. “We’ve moved out of that stage,” he says. “And we’re starting the slope of enlightenment as we understand more.”
Travel technology giant Amadeus identified mobile as the ‘next big thing’ many years ago. Rob Golledge, head of marketing communications for Amadeus, explains that it is now ready with what it considers a major innovation. Put simply, Amadeus’s corporate booking tool, Amadeus Travel Management (AETM) is now available on mobile devices, in an extension called AETM Mobile. Although it sounds simple, Golledge insists that the real game-changer here is the consistency and control for the corporate. Travellers use the same AETM password to access the mobile and web versions, ensuring that any data derived from the mobile can be used with a desktop. Version one is already in pilot, and by the end of this year the mobile version will be able to automate ticket changes, make hotel bookings and feed into expense management.
“One of the biggest gripes our corporate clients have is that if they’ve set up the online booking tool to be policy compliant, often that compliance is lost when the travellers are on the road. So there is no visibility to the corporate until the expense claims are looked at later,” Golledge says. “With AETM Mobile, bookings on the road can be as policy compliant as those made on a desktop.” Research commissioned by Amadeus backs up his claim that, despite the growth in mobile use, many businesses are not working hard enough to capture its benefits. “66 per cent of travellers are now able to book their business travel through an online booking tool, but only 33 per cent are able to book travel on a mobile or tablet device,” he says.
Not all travel buyers are enthused about booking tool advancements. One buyer for a giant mining firm says their complex itineraries mean they use their TMC rather than any self-booking tools (SBTs). Another senior buyer in global finance insists the only tech gaps in her travel programme are self-booking abilities for multi-sector trips and trips to restricted countries – but adds this is down to company choice than lack of tools available.
She says: “The thing most people are talking about is mobile apps and gamification – I have very little time for either, I believe it’s predominately a media frenzy driven by those companies that have mobile apps or gamification processes.”
INTEGRATION IS KEY
‘Big data’ is a phrase which has entered the vernacular over the past two years. It is an umbrella term to cover initiatives based around the ability to capture, store and access data from different sources, link them together and come up with a new revenue stream, a cost reduction or some valuable business insight.
Julian Munsey is head of strategic business development at Hillgate Travel. He suggests the main technology theme his business is working with is “integratability”. He says: “For us, integration is the key – the ability to get systems to talk to each other and develop a tool or product specific for that client.”
Hillgate has a number of success stories under its belt where it has connected different systems to create a new service – earlier this year it announced that any booking made through Hillgate Travel can be captured via Concur’s travel planning tool Tripit, which will then aggregate the data to automatically pre-populate expense claims in Concur Expense. Munsey says the key to the integratablity of the various products and platforms is “single sign-on access”. This simplification of process – accessing all a traveller’s data by using a single user name and password – is a driving force for many businesses.
Travelport uses its Universal Record product to aggregate all travel data. The firm’s corporate account director, Oliver Rait, says: “This is an evolution from when corporate booking entered the market and users needed a profile. At the moment, each service – the TMC, the corporate booking tool, even the supplier – has access to different data. We need just one place with a central repository.”
Amadeus is also working on similar products, using the phrase “profile synchronisation” to say the same thing.
Another aspect of “integratability” is the new approach by the GDSs to sharing information by allowing authorised businesses access to their codes – the building blocks of their massive systems. Hillgate is an approved Sabre Red developer, and is working on tools for clients based around its link to Sabre. Travelport has a similar approach, with its Universal API (application programming interface) which again can be accessed by authorised techies to work with. Amadeus is also a big fan of open source systems, putting its code out to the wider developer community.
CLOUD THEORY
The cloud’ is another buzzword that’s become widely used over the past few years. The cloud is a marketing-friendly way of saying businesses can use the internet to host their systems and store data. A number of businesses have emerged which offer cloud-based services. In theory, this could be transformational, but the jury is out. “The cloud isn’t something a business our size should depend on – putting all your data and critical software out to a remote server farm somewhere,” says ATPI director Gary Hance. “Cloud-based tools have a role, but try running a business with a Gmail account or a Skype line.”
However, Hillgate’s Munsey notes that tools, such as Skype, are driving a revolution in how businesses look at the costs of communications. He also points to “mapping technology” as an area where TMCs and corporates now have access to data which can be integrated with other products, some of it at no cost. “My IT department says Google offers everything from a free service with limitations, through to a developable paid-for product,” he says. “Tripit used this to provide driving directions between venues on an itinerary, for example.”
Over at Sabre, Ellis believes the Cloud is game-changing. “It fosters interaction more efficiently,” she says. “There are security issues, but Sabre has a global workforce and we would miss the cloud if it wasn’t there.”
PEOPLE TRACKING
Location-aware technologies have been around for some time, ever since people-tracking shot high up the corporate agenda post 9/11. The technology is relatively straightforward – most smartphones can pinpoint locations accurately enough for a whole industry to be built up around location-specific apps and tools.
Corporates here have to balance a duty of care with privacy issues – but forward-thinkers need to be aware that there is a generational gap. According to Ellis, “younger employees will be comfortable sharing data, so long as the employer clearly communicates the benefits to them of sharing that information”.
So while tracking using a GPS (global positioning system) signal is nothing new, an emerging technology which has the potential to shake things up is tracking by itinerary in advance. There is no one technology at work here – again, it is the “integratability” of various data sources into one screen. Travelport is working on tools for big corporate customers, who see the value in being able to pre-empt travellers’ decisions, or at least respond to them in real-time. “Unbundling of airline services causes corporations and TMC’s headaches,” says Travelport’s Rait. “A corporate wants to understand and manage the spend, but is often forced to do that retrospectively – if at all – through an expense programme, rather than applying travel policy managed through a corporate booking tool upfront during the booking and pre-trip decision process.” Rait adds that some issues with corporate booking tools are “more mundane – there’s still a difficulty getting air and rail on to the same screen, for example”.
LOOKING AHEAD
Sabre’s Ellis is well placed to talk about not only what current technologies will become game-changers, but also about the social, demographic and cultural trends that are as big a part of technology’s future as the technology itself.
“Business travel is becoming increasingly about the traveller,” she said. “They are taking decisions themselves and expect consumer tools in the workplace. Companies can take advantage of these consumer tech trends and give travellers the same tools and devices to manage their working lives as their personal lives.”
Wearable technology could have some business travel uses, if the smartphone can become the same size as a watch. In 2011, 17 million wearable devices were sold, by 2016 there will be 171 million. Further ahead, Ellis expects optical devices to gain “critical mass within five or ten years”.
If you’re thinking that some of this sounds a bit Hollywood, you’re right. More than ten years ago, Minority Report won great critical acclaim with a plot based around using technology to predict crimes before they happened. So could there be a developer out there working on an app which tracks the business traveller by his GPS-enabled smartphone, connects into the payment systems and is able to put a block on the company credit card once it recognises that he or she is about to check in to a non-policy hotel?
More importantly, is there a corporate travel buyer who has commissioned a developer to come up with this?