THE BUSINESS TRAVEL MAGAZINE I 39 The Review THE TECHNOLOGY ➔ CWT muscles in on the world of apps
CARLSON Wagonlit Travel has pinned on the sheriff’s badge and is striding out to tame the Wild West wilderness of app-world, writes Mike Swindell. With most corporate travellers
now packing a smartphone as they set out to face the uncertainties of a business trip, there is a plague of unstructured app downloading going on as they try to make life on the road easier for themselves. The danger for travel managers is
that their travellers can be tempted off the straight and narrow trail of corporate travel policy into the saloon of unsanctioned expenditure. Riding to the rescue is CWT with
the launch of CWT Market, a free application for iPhone and Android mobile devices that aggregates what the TMC considers “best-of- market” travel apps and mobile websites into one mobile app. “We have had great interest from travel managers,” says Pauline Quéré, CWT's vice president of customer product marketing. “Some of our largest clients have
been saying they had been waiting for something like this,” she says. Users who download CWT Market from their device’s app store can preview and add a selection of further apps, mostly free of charge, and be kept informed of new ones selected by CWT as they arrive in the market. The
applications that are beyond corporate control,” she adds. “They see CWT Market as a platform for recommended applications and a controlled environment rather than have their travellers download things that are going to generate additional costs to their travel programme.” CWT Market is available to any traveller regardless of the travel management company they use, with about 70 per cent of the apps relevant outside the US to give the service worldwide relevance. Like the Colt 45 in the American
worldwide launch offered about 25 apps, providing services such as local taxi booking and restaurant reservations to a wifi locator. “Busy travellers want to have information at their fingertips but don’t necessarily have the time to seek out the latest applications,” says CWT technology marketing director William El Kaim. “We’ve designed CWT Market
to help travellers keep up with relevant, best-in-market services that can make their lives easier while on the road.” Quéré adds that the mobile
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function will also set travel managers minds at rest. “Our observation was that the mobile arena was a bit Wild West in terms of business travellers trying to find the right application, what they are allowed to download and what they should download,” she says. “There was no guidance for business travellers in that space and we felt it was important as a TMC to provide that for them. “Travel managers today see 75
per cent of their travellers going out there with smart phones and downloading a whole set of
West, CWT Market may become known as the peacemaker on the business app frontier – the more so when combined with an additional app, CWT To Go, launched in June. Pauline Quéré says of the newer offering: “This is a mobile app designed specifically for our clients. It supplies all the essential needs for CWT travellers including access to their itinerary, on-the-go travel information, mobile check-in and click-to-call the travel agent.” She continues, “It securely imports all CWT-booked itineraries automatically, which are available to use immediately. Accessible to all CWT clients for free, CWT To Go has been tested in the US and is available globally on all app stores for BlackBerry, iPhone and Android smart phones.”
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