Productivity

Business travel is all about productivity — whether that relates to its fundamental use for more efficient collaboration, guarding against bureaucracy to ensure seamless collaboration, or generally purchasing the right services at the right prices so trip missions deliver the most value. It also means helping employees avoid getting bogged down in post-trip red tape. The coverage below digs into issues, processes, tools and tricks.

Some examples
• The movement of services to mobile devices and/or chatbots
• Stories about expedited airport screening and business travel’s ROI
• Trends like artificial intelligence and rewards
• The pandemic-era struggle to avoid quarantines

Notebook: Government Travel Pros Treated To Latest On Innovation, Sustainability

Alexandria, Va. – Amid a federal government solicitation process putting the management of upwards of $4 billion in annual travel spending up for grabs, the National Defense Transportation Association’s GovTravels conference attracted a record 1,100 attendees here last month.  The U.S. General Services Administration has begun collecting information from interested travel and expense tech vendors…

For Big Corporate Travel Management Companies Using Artificial Intelligence, Risk Mitigation Is Job No. 1 

Artificial intelligence promises efficiency gains and better, quicker corporate travel service. Use cases include email automation, swift answers to simple questions, and chatbot bookings and changes. For corporate travel management companies, though, achieving tantalizing outcomes requires extreme care. “Move fast and break things” this is not. Machine learning and predictive artificial intelligence are not new…

With A Stronger Balance Sheet, Amex GBT Expects To Grow By Outcompeting, Acquiring

American Express Global Business Travel expects to improve margins thanks to productivity gains, lower restructuring and debt costs, and a continued shift to proprietary online booking tools. It’s also looking for acquisition opportunities that executives and company documents released Tuesday called “accretive,” “incremental,” and “strategic.”  Speaking under the condition of anonymity a year ago, one…

With Airlines Pushing Self-Service For Disruptions, What’s The TMC’s Role?

As some airlines build programs to offer trip data to corporate clients on re-accommodated travelers after flight disruptions, travel management company leaders want the market to know they have a lot to offer here. Christopherson Business Travel has not seen a change in its disruption management role. “The main change is that the frequency and…

Squeezed By Some Airlines, Flight Centre Tweaks Tech To Support Others

How much more can a travel management company make when corporate customers use its proprietary booking technology? Flight Centre Travel Group’s head of corporate travel wouldn’t specifically say, but his answer during a Tuesday evening conference call with equities analysts was instructive. With its own tools, the TMC has to cover maintenance and development costs….

Automation Central To CTM Plan For Doubled Profits In Five Years

Execs from travel management company Corporate Travel Management on Tuesday outlined a five-year goal of doubling profits thanks to productivity gains and 10 percent annual organic revenue growth. The guidance doesn’t account for any acquisitions — a “significant opportunity” for which CTM is “well-positioned” as industry consolidation is “really likely,” according to managing director Jamie…

Southwest Aims To Soothe A Corporate Travel Headache: Changes

Due out this spring, the Southwest Business TravelTrack service aims to mitigate a growing challenge for corporate travel programs — missing data from changed itineraries. Bookings originally made through online booking tools and global distribution systems, as supported by travel management companies, often end up getting changed directly with airlines when flights are disrupted. Those…

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