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

Podcast 3: Pam Massey, Patrice Simon, Miriam Moscovici

On our third podcast episode, Jay Campbell interviews Pam Massey about the new and old challenges of managing travel in a non-governmental organization, and how leadership change is prompting new approaches. Pam shared tips on communication and being flexible on policy for the sake of service quality, as well as her new thinking on travel management company RFPs. Later…

Pro, Tzell Mobilize With ARC App

[UPDATE, Feb. 3, 2017: ARC discontinued this initiative in late 2015.] Using technology from ARC, Protravel International and Tzell Travel Group are joining the ranks of business travel agencies offering mobile apps. The ProTrip and tZapp apps are downloadable from the Android and iOS stores but not yet out of client beta. According to a spokesperson for the two…

Podcast 2: Christa Degnan Manning, Norm Rose, Bhart Sarin

On our second podcast episode, David Jonas interviews Bhart Sarin about policy compliance measures, outsourcing, career development and the Global Business Travel Association. Bhart is in global procurement for food production company Ingredion. He’s also a GBTA board member. Later in the podcast, Jay Campbell joins David in a discussion with Eudemonia founder and principal analyst Christa Degnan Manning and…

Podcast 1: Craig Banikowski, Evan Konwiser, Miriam Moscovici

On our debut podcast episode from July 2015, Jay Campbell discusses traveler-centric management, gamification, millennials, expense, mobile and social networking with Evan Konwiser and Miriam Moscovici. Evan is vice president of digital traveler for American Express Global Business Travel. Miriam is director of emerging technology for BCD Travel. Later in the podcast, David Jonas interviews…

Despite Published Info, Apple Pay Still Not Available For Corporate Cards

[UPDATE, April 8, 2016: We published new information related to this article here.] Some travel managers and TMCs are fielding questions about when Apple Pay will be available for corporate card users, but don’t trust the website. At press time, Apple showed five institutions as providers of corporate cards supporting Apple Pay. They weren’t exactly commercial payment heavyweights, but it…

Coupa, Chrome River Bag Millions

June was a huge month for two of Concur’s California-based competitors. Coupa raised $80 million at a valuation of $1 billion. Chrome River picked up $100 million, declining to disclose its assessed worth. Enterprise tech is attracting venture capital as established and new providers exploit mobile and cloud technology. The moves also reflect a competitive expense management software…

Expensify’s Fighting Words Are Not Just For Concur

Expensify CEO David Barrett likes dissing corporate booking tools, and seems to consider travel management his competition. He proudly opines that expense will “eat” corporate travel. Expensify for the most part has ignored traditional enterprise sales as it targets the end user with its expense app. Popular with startups and “unicorns,” Expensify recently signed Yahoo and its 12,000 users, showing a desire to…

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