travel tech insights

Reach into your pocket, pull out your smartphone, and this is what you’re likely to find: an MP3 player; a GPS device; a calendar; an internet web browser; a video player; and perhaps even a platform for paying for goods and services at the POS in any given supermarket or megamart. In short, you’ll find a suite of applications capable of performing a series of complex tasks and functions designed to make your life easier, more convenient, and more connected, all of which are top priority for many of us in today’s fast-paced, digital world.

Today’s corporate travelers have a lot on their plate. Is the presentation ready? Has everyone reviewed the report? Will the right players be available for this afternoon’s conference call? How can we quickly leverage this data into a positive action for our company? These are the questions the average corporate traveler faces on a daily basis, which is why - given the number of decisions needed each day - it makes perfect sense that travel agencies are still an important value proposition for the 21st Century corporate traveler.

Yes, in today’s increasingly connected, digitized world, access to destination information, travel review websites, and online travel agencies (OTAs) or travel management companies (TMCs) is greater than ever. But as the speed and pace of the corporate lifestyle continues to increase, business travelers find themselves at something of a curious paradox: the speed and availability in ecommerce that makes travel bookings so easy and convenient has actually made it difficult for corporate travelers to tend to these tasks given the myriad of other responsibilities they have day-in and day-out.

Part 1 of this series explored why controlling the cost of employee travel is difficult due to issues that cannot be eliminated and are not easily handled. Part 1 also discussed why these difficulties often lead organizations to use travel management companies (TMC) for their business travel -  with their responsibilities ranging from administering corporate travel policies to booking employee business trips.

Business managers often find the challenges of controlling business travel costs to stay top of mind for two reasons: 1) travel costs often appear deceptively easy to manage and control – only to turn out to be quite the opposite; 2) travel is expensive, meaning these costs can quickly become significant if not controlled.  Travel costs appear easy to control because the amounts almost always require a formal approval mechanism. However, travel approval procedures in most companies tend to stumble in two ways.