TECHNOLOGY STRATEGY


“The most important thing is not to do it in a silo, but really to involve stakeholders: internal IT teams, TMCs and other partners”


found we were spending more than our competitors. We need to travel dramati- cally less and need to spend the money in smarter ways. Technology can help drive awareness and then drive behaviour.” One challenge is that technology pro-


viders and TMCs often overhype the capa- bilities of their technology products. Moya says everyone wants a perfect solution immediately, but neither buyer nor supplier is ready for it. “It is better to have a realistic roadmap and view of the future,” she says. “There clearly is overselling [by tech pro- viders], but buyers need to be upfront and truthful about their requirements. I see a


lot of requirements copied and pasted from one tender to another. “The most important thing is not to do it


in a silo, but really to involve stakeholders: internal IT teams, TMCs and other part- ners,” she adds. Talking with IT teams is not always straightforward. “Sometimes IT people speak strange languages,” says Moya. “Those guys have no clue about travel and the service attitude, and all of a sudden you can’t connect the dots. You can overcome that by having a travel technology manager who is able to speak both languages, knowing what an API is as well as a GDS and an OBT.”


And you do need to speak to IT. The IT department is likely to know things that you don’t, for example, that one part of the company is running a service chatbot that could be used by travel to answer the thousands of questions that come in about travel policy.


TRAVEL TECH MANAGER In some programmes this travel technol- ogy manager role sits successfully within the TMC’s account management team rather than on the company payroll. TMCs can be divided into two camps: those that do technology and those that


BUYINGBUSINESSTRAVEL.COM


BBT January/February 2018


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