Mobile technology
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tripCase vice president of business dev- elopment, Michael o’Connell, says forward thinking tMCs understand that travellers are using these tools and ‘put a modicum of policy around it.’ Both Winterton and saggar agree but
highlight a potential area of risk if travellers are allowed to download what they want both in terms of tMCs being unable to support them if things go wrong or if suppliers attempt to target travellers direct with their own tools and technology. While medical equipment specialist,
acumed, does not limit the apps that its employees are allowed to download it has found the Concur Mobile and itinerary- management tripIt apps are the only ones travellers need, with all its rules and policies integrated into the technology. the company has also been a first mover
in adopting mobile services for travellers, driven largely by erin tasker, senior accounting specialist for aggregate spend, who wanted to improve the expense management process. about half of acumed employees travel
extensively within the us as well as outside the states and were experiencing hurdles in dealing with expenses quickly both in approval times and reimbursement. “With mobile the capability to build and
approve expenses as well as take pictures of receipts and upload them has really helped both the user and the manager,” says tasker. she adds that the company has reaped
many benefits from improved overall view of spend with expenses recorded as soon as they are incurred, less paperwork and resources devoted to expense management in accounting, and fewer laptops being checked out because everything is done via the mobile apps.
tasker says there have been no data or security issues for acumed and that it feels confident that Concur keeps all the information secure. Mike Hilton, Concur co-founder and
executive vice president for worldwide marketing, says its mobile solution does not really touch the insides of a company and connectivity is between Concur’s infrastructure and the mobile device, thus alleviating many data security concerns. He believes companies are fighting a
losing battle if they try to prevent employees from using mobile tools but does under- stand the concerns from corporates. “I think we will start to see corporates
move away from a centralised telecommuni- cations policy and let employees use their own devices, but the way the device connects in to the company needs to be really smart,” he explains. Hilton adds that bookings on the Concur mobile app are in single digits but foresees a day, maybe in five years time, when the majority of bookings will be via mobile devices. tripCase’s o’Connell also believes we are
years rather than months away from real change but that ten to 15 per cent of overall bookings could be done via mobile by the end of this year. He doesn’t see the advance of mobile as disruptive in the corporate travel world but rather that it provides another channel for travellers to do what they already do via desktop computers. adoption, it seems, will be driven by a number of factors: traveller pressure, policies being developed by tMCs, the massive surge in tablet purchases, the ongoing drive to increase business productivity, increasingly user-friendly apps, and improved infrastructure from all sides including airlines and airports.
ten of the best mobile solutions for corporate travel
Amex: the tech partners involved make this a good one to go for as does the functionality it offers, including a text service
ConCur: offers a complete booking service including air and has TripIt integrated too
CWT: has worked on the elements it thinks travellers will find most useful and it's next step will be to crack air
GeTThere: replicates the corporate website and enables access to trip itineraries and flight status
hrG: mobile app is the company's second version with hotel booking and calendar feature akin to what travellers are used to working with
KDS BooK on moBile: an updated version with booking capability including air, rail and expense management
lemon: an app that helps travellers be more productive on the go as well as enabling them to record expenses more effectively
TripCASe: is the Sabre owned app which combines trip management technology with useful info such as seat maps, SMS service, flight schedules and conversion tool
TripiT: is the itinerary management app acquired by Concur last year which enables travellers to record and share their trip plans
WorlDmATe: another itinerary management app which builds the itinerary and synchronises with the mobile device. Price alert service also recently added
68 THE BUSINESS TRAVEL MAGAZINE
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