MOBILE


Going mobile


Will the


smartphone replace plastic? Amon Cohen investigates the potential of mobile payments in corporate travel


A


recent photo feature in the The Guardian’s Weekend supplement showed how familiar household items have


evolved in their appearance over each decade of the past century. In the case of the alarm clock, recorded music (vinyl, cassettes and so on) and the telephone, the designs mutated through all sorts of variations until, finally, in 2010, all three disappeared to be replaced by a single object: a smartphone. The question is, by 2020, will the corporate card have vanished into exactly the same device as well? These are early days, but logic would dictate the answer is: yes.


20 • Buying Business Travel 2013


While there is nothing a plastic card can do that a ‘card’ stored on a mobile phone can’t, there is plenty a mobile card can do that a card cannot. “Paying for a hotel stay, a meal


or a train journey by waving a cell phone over an electronic reader is now a reality,” says a white paper from Airplus International and the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE), entitled Mobile Payment – How It Will Transform Corporate Travel and Expense Management. “This breakthrough opens up many new possibilities for improving corporate travel: more convenience and smarter purchasing choices for travellers;


increased data visibility, process efficiencies and programme control for travel managers. A mobile device offers smarter payment than a plastic card because it is essentially a mini-computer equipped with: a display, a keypad, the ability to send and receive information, the ability to locate itself, and the ability to ‘talk’ to other functions such as an expense management app or a mobile trip itinerary.” However, Diners Club executive


vice-president Tom Edgerton points out that a widespread move to mobile is not a simple or speedy process. Mobile will only become a standard method of payment, he says, “when global standards emerge and can be


In association with


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36