Project Neo: a business trip in three clicks
KDS HAS ANNOUNCED plans for a new streamlined booking process, which it claims will produce full itineraries for business trips in under one minute. The travel and expenses specialist unveiled Project Neo at its annual KDS Now! showcase in Paris for travel buyers and TMCs. Project Neo aims to produce a system that reduces the number of clicks and screens for users by asking fewer questions at the beginning of the search process.
CEO Dean Forbes said the aim was to speed the process by only asking three key questions: the business traveller’s home address, and the address and time of the business event they are attending. The system would then come up with a full, optimal itinerary based on these answers, displayed on an interactional timeline which starts with the traveller leaving home and ends with their return. If a traveller changes any element of the trip (via a dropdown menu on each element), the impact on changes to times and overall cost are displayed.
“We are looking at coming up with a fully proposed business trip in three clicks, two screens and in under a minute,” said Forbes. Project Neo is set to go through beta testing later this year and then released in 2013.
KDS also revealed that it could now offer travellers the ability to book travel from smartphones using KDS Mobile, while the new Travel Manager Suite features 100 key performance indicators (KPIs), with visual graphics illustrating detailed data on supplier spend, rates and volumes. Along with KPI displays highlighting areas of policy compliance, including behaviour by individual travellers, these “show travel managers where to focus – where they can effect the biggest changes”, said vice-president Oliver Quayle.