*GUEST BLOG* Please Sir, I Want To Take A Business Trip

How the tedium of approval stresses travellers out – and inflates costs

People often have a romantic view of business travel – flying business class, five-star hotels, lobster dinners, piling up the points, cutting epic deals. And sure, it has its perks! But ask anyone who travels more than three or four times a year, and they’ll tell you it can be stressful too.

For many travellers, the stress begins long before they board the plane. Getting approvals, for example, can be a soul-cleaving experience.

Most companies demand employees seek approval before booking. And in theory, this makes sense. Companies don’t want employees booking trips willy-nilly, racking up costs.

But pre-trip approval processes have become so onerous that the booking experience is about as streamlined as a Lego bulldozer.

This applies across Asia. In India and China, travellers can require four or five levels of approval before booking. Even in Singapore, that beacon of efficiency, travellers may require two or three. So, they typically wait around three days – sometimes even a week – before booking.

As mortals wait, airfares rise.

In Asia, business trips are usually booked two to four weeks in advance. Waiting three days bumps airfares up four per cent on average. A week? Seven per cent.

Worse, if the fare goes up in the interim, it can be back to square one – the company’s travel policy might require the traveller to restart the entire approval process all over again.

You might ask: “Isn’t the ability to hold a booking one of the benefits of using a travel management company?”

And the answer is yes – but only for certain fares. It doesn’t apply to cheaper fares, which are ticketed instantly. Consider China, where approximately half of all airline seats are ticketed instantly, and these are around 30 per cent cheaper than the flexible seats.

It seems absurd to waste your travellers’ time – while costing the company money. Particularly since a whopping 98 per cent of trips are approved in the end. For domestic travel, approval rates are even higher.

What to do?

Start by identifying which trips require approval. Then set thresholds. For example, you can modify your policy to auto-approve any flights under US$500. And for flights over US$500, if fares increase only 10-12 per cent while you’re waiting for approval, you’re good to go.

Next, consider post-trip instead of pre-trip travel approval. Since almost all trips get approved anyway, just trust your employees to do the right thing. Deal with issues when they file their expenses after the trip.

And of course, use technology. Some apps send push notifications when a trip needs approval. This can cuts approval times massively. Technology can also auto-approve trips if the approver doesn’t approve them in time.

We’ve worked with our clients to find savings of up to five per cent. That might seem piffling, but when you’re spending US$5 million a year on flights – not uncommon for mid-to-large sized companies in Asia – that’s a quarter of a million dollars. Plus you have happier and more productive travellers. Result!

Blog Author: Akshay Kapoor, Senior Director, Multinational Sales, Asia Pacific, Carlson Wagonlit Travel. CWT are exhibiting at Business Travel Show, register for FREE now and visit the team on stand B230 www.businesstravelshow.com

*GUEST BLOG* NDC: Why Consumer-Driven Content is King

In this blog, we'll look at why consumer-driven content is the key to driving NDC adoption, and lay out the steps needed to ensure that the promise of a truly rich and differentiated NDC content that benefits business travellers is realised.

Let’s start with the obvious: Massive investments are currently being made by all industry players to make NDC a reality. It is therefore only prudent to ensure that this capital is put to its intended use, which begins and ends with delivering content that the customer not only needs and wants, but also benefits from seeing.

So what does this rich new content look like?

To date, the enhancements being considered revolve around providing a consumer-grade user experience, access to new bundling opportunities and ancillaries, such as early boarding, preferred seating, and special meals, and adding personalized content.

These are the types of services that can be enabled through NDC, and the benefits can only be realised through industry-wide collaboration that puts consumers’ interests at the centre.

Using a test and learn approach, driven by corporate traveller feedback, ensures that the industry is building a product and capability that consumers want and can use – every step of the way.

After all, only the consumer can really certify the value of NDC-enabled content, based on its ability to address the cost, convenience, choice, and service objectives that are lacking in the current distribution model.

When the industry solves these objectives with the end traveller in mind, it will naturally result in the kind of demand that will lead to the mass adoption necessary to make NDC succeed - not only for the industry, but also (and most importantly), for the benefit of business travellers.

So, let’s assume that we now have the ability to distribute content that meets a clear and compelling need of the corporate travel community. There is still one final step to realise the potential of this industry-transforming technology standard – and that’s display.

We’ll cover modernising the way business travellers and agents consume this rich content to make an informed purchasing decision in the third and last blog in this three-part series.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions on NDC overall, and, in the meantime – remember: content will always reign supreme.

Blog written by Erik Magnuson, Vice President, Air Distribution Capabilities, CWT.
CWT is exhibiting at Business Travel Show, register for free and visit the team on stand B230 www.businesstravelshow.com

GUEST BLOG: Travel management of the future – three ways predictive analytics can transform your programme

“If you can look into the seeds of time, and say which grain will grow and which will not speak then unto me.” If you're a fan of Shakespeare, you will recognise this quote from Macbeth.

Since the beginning of time, humankind has been obsessed with predictions. Fortunately, nowadays we don't need to rely on oracles or witches of any sort. We have powerful algorithms that allow us to predict the future and even change it.

How cool is that?

At CWT Solutions Group we have gone a step further when it comes to data management and created a powerful crystal ball to improve travel management and find new ways of saving.

How did we manage that? By integrating traditional travel data with public information on commodity prices, macroeconomic indicators, weather and even holidays. All of these are then analysed to identify patterns and correlations, generating robust predictions for a company’s future spend, specifically the number of trips and cost per trip.

Thanks to these insights, our clients can make small changes to travel policies and supplier programmes that can lead to great savings – up to 10% even.

If you also want to save that much, you can apply our tailored predictive modelling to your travel programme by focusing on three key stakeholders: your travellers; your internal stakeholders - like directors, management, and finance teams - and your suppliers and procurement team.

When it comes to your travellers, you want to control costs, ensure your caps are matching the market conditions and make sure they use the right suppliers. To achieve these, you can:

·       Communicate with defined traveller groups to let them know about price increases. Avoid non-compliance and encourage them to take actions to remain within the travel policy rules.

·       Recommend the use of an alternative supplier or suggest they postpone the trip to other dates if they have flexibility in their travel plans.

·       Blacklist suppliers expected to have fares increase, or with forecasted limited availabilities.

·       Pro-actively adjust caps, upwards or downwards in order to drive your travellers towards suppliers not subject to rate increase.

Internal stakeholders are also key actors in your travel program equation and you want to support business leaders with budget planning and intelligence on future costs. You can make vast improvements in these areas:

·       Better advice on the most relevant actions to take for their travel budget, especially if a destination where your company has business projects has been impacted.

·       Insights on travel trends.

·       Location for team meetings.

And, last but not least, you have your suppliers and the procurement team. Here you want to be proactive when negotiating rates, and understand what market trends are likely to occur. To achieve that, you can:

·       Use predictive analytics to adapt your negotiation strategy before, during and after agreements renewals.

·       Make your supplier program better by managing the number of suppliers. You can do this by adding more suppliers, fares, classes, rate types, or ancillary and amenities and focus on the areas expected to increase.

·       Adapt your negotiations targets and caps.

·       Review your contractual goals (volume, market shares) set by the suppliers and monitor that your negotiated classes or rate types are available.

·       Ensure your online booking tool matches your negotiation strategy and predictive analytics outcomes.

Follow these steps and become a true king of travel management – skipping all the drama of Shakespeare's masterpiece.

Blog author: Jim Lungu, Data Scientist, CWT Solutions Group, who will be exhibiting at Business Travel Show on 20-21 February at Olympia London. Secure your free ticket now at www.businesstravelshow.com.