The Business Travel Magazine December/January 2018/19

Technology / TMCs
Let the
TECH
do the talking
There's much hype around chatbots
and AI, but TMCs need to get the basics
right first, writes Catherine Chetwynd
Given the increasing
use of AI and
chatbots, it is not
unreasonable for travel
managers to expect their TMC
to be able to provide technology
that manages bookings and duty
of care, delivers forensically
analysed MI, allows employees to
administer their travel while on the
move and keeps a record of all these
things in one place.
On top of all that, the technology that
TMCs supply has to be consumer grade –
bookers and travellers expect to be able to
run their business lives with the same ease
as their personal lives.
Corporate travel
programmes are
increasingly hungry for tools
that simplify life on the road
for their employees and that
increase both trip and job
satisfaction”
These days, recruiting and retaining talent
also features. “Technology aggregates data to
form a story about travel policy and global
travel,” says Managing Partner at Black Box
Partnership, Raj Sachdave.
“TMCs are putting the unstructured
elements of a travel programme into a
structured format to address a number of
questions, including what impact travel has
on the performance of an organisation –
productivity, absenteeism, fatigue, retention,
wellbeing.” It has got personal.
Yannis Karmis, Senior Vice President of
Product Planning & Development for BCD
Travel, agrees: “Travel technology is driven by
digital expectations and traveller demands to
reduce trip friction and enable self-service
across multiple devices.
“Corporate travel programmes are hungry
for tools that simplify life on the road for
their employees and increase trip – and job –
satisfaction,” says Karmis.
He continues: “A recent study from Airlines
Reporting Corp. suggests that road warriors
travelling under a cost-focused corporate
programme are twice as likely to consider
leaving a company than those whose
corporate programmes are focused on the
traveller’s needs.”
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