Feature: Booking Tools


WHETHER the wind has changed favourably for technology in the corporate sector depends on who you talk to right now. Suppliers are bullish about implementation and adoption rates, travel management companies say the majority of bookings are still made over the phone, and corporates just want to maintain the savings they have reaped in the past year through tighter controls and travel policy compliance. This is just a snapshot of current sentiment, but


there is a general feeling and acceptance from all sides that technology can improve efficiency, put controls in place and provide businesses with a much better idea of their spend. Travelport vice president of strategic corporate development Julian Mills says, “There is a greater level of technology acceptance across the sector. It is not the monster in the cupboard it used to be. Ease and willingness of adoption is greater than it used to be.” As travel transaction volumes begin to climb upwards so too have technology adoption rates at companies. Dean Forbes, executive vice president for worldwide sales and marketing at KDS, says the downturn has had a double positive on its booking tools. “The lessons learned are staying in place. Customers have been putting pressure on us to help them make the savings and it has become apparent that the most effective way to buy travel is the least traditional way to buy travel,” he says. Forbes cites recent work with Deloitte where savings of close to 30 per cent have been achieved on the average ticket price through increased control on travel, while ongoing work with EADS continues to show savings in the region of five million euros annually. The cautious attitude to the adoption of technology of previous years has translated to a new desire from corporates to see a return on investment from their online systems. CWT’s director of public sector and industry affairs Nigel Turner says, “Online implementation is now a project. Companies are looking at what tools they are going to use and the return on investment for their organisation. There is a whole strategy built around that and it’s about getting adoption to a level where they are going to get good ROI.” Amadeus vice president of multinational business and corporate travel, Albert Pozo, has witnessed a similar trend. “Corporate travel managers are increasingly defining clear and measurable targets to evolve and improve their travel programmes. Costs and procurement efficiencies remain key, but security and service to the traveller have increased in weight.” CWT's Turner adds that there is also a greater willingness from companies, with online bookings systems already in place for air and hotels, to consider additional technology for other components such as rail and meetings. According to Turner, companies are currently roughly divided into two groups, those looking for a tool that enables them to buy travel – generally the small and medium-sized companies – and those needing a tool to


Tooling AROUND


As technology continues to gain ground across the industry, Linda Fox examines the current state of the booking tools market


manage travel policy. “Customers with a small spend want a good, easy-to-use tool and don’t require as much sophistication around policy management,” says Turner. He adds that those customers often start with simple online booking process such as for air or rail where success can be quickly visible. Simon McLean, managing director of Click


Travel, is seeing significant increases in adoption of online bookings tool among his customers which have an average travel spend of between £500,000 and £1.5million. He says that 92 per


cent of all bookings through the company are now online, with a rise of ten per cent points in the past 12 months. His bugbear is that many of the systems on the market do not offer the wide range of content that business travellers require to make the best decisions. “We think our hotel content blows everyone else out of the water because we’re connected to companies such as laterooms and Premier Inn,” says McLean. Traveldoo, whose clients include Alstom, AXA, Philips, Sony and Tesco, makes similar claims of its hotel inventory, offering fully-integrated


56 I THE BUSINESS TRAVEL MAGAZINE 18 I THE BUSINESS TRAVEL MAGAZINE


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