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

NuTravel Mobile Booking Plan Draws Travel Management Company Interest

Three travel management companies this week displayed varying degrees of interest in booking tool provider nuTravel’s plan to integrate with mobile app developers. NuTravel’s first partner, United Kingdom-based Mantic Point, provides apps to corporate agencies including Direct Travel, Executive Travel and FCm Travel Solutions. Officials with Direct Travel and FCm said they were considering the…

New Agency Automation Player Targeting Mid-Office And Point-Of-Sale Advances

There’s a new entrant eyeing a spot in the travel agent technology field. Centered on a rules engine, Fociss Travel System would help corporate travel management companies connect various customer-facing tasks with behind-the-scenes automation. The idea is to make agents more efficient and improve customer service. The first step is a new cloud-based mid-office system “because that’s what so…

Rio Tinto Plan Resurfaces Questions About Edicts On Travel Cuts

Rio Tinto CEO Sam Walsh got some attention last month when he said the multinational mining company would cut trips to save money. According to a press official, Walsh “was challenging everyone in the organization to remain focused on costs and that included reducing travel. He asked everyone to consider if that journey, visit or…

Roadmap Dares Corporates To Build Travel Apps

Denmark-based shipping and oil conglomerate Maersk appears to be one of the few companies building its own mobile corporate travel app. In an October discussion with Business Travel News, Mette Christensen, the company’s global head of travel and indirect services, said nothing else out there fit the bill. The idea prompted a challenge from Jeroen…

Latest Startups Try Texting, With Agent Or Bot

It’s becoming difficult to count on one hand the tech startups going after the “small” or unmanaged business travel market. 30SecondsToFly, Cinch, Hyper Travel, TripChamp and Travo are a few. Hyper, along with shopping services like Assi.st and Mezi, are bringing a new element to the travel-booking experience. They’re focused on mobile texting as the means…

Podcast 7: Judy Bauer, Evan Konwiser, Patrice Simon

Our seventh podcast episode features an interview Jay Campbell conducted in November with Judy Bauer, a longtime travel management practitioner recently retired from Marsh & McLennan Companies. Judy is keeping her hand in the business, taking the occasional project, but she has turned over MMC’s large travel program to her team members including Greg Wilczek and…

Is There Money Hiding In Your Email?

BCD Travel is working with undisclosed partners to help clients process compensation claims when airlines fail to meet regulatory standards for service. European Commission Regulation 261/2004 calls for varying payouts on cancellations, long delays or involuntary denied boarding. The new BCD program applies to travel to, within and (on EU carriers) from Europe. It’s available to…

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