Ohio-based ATG Business Travel Management plans by mid-2020 to release a voice-powered booking application thanks to a strategic partnership with IBM. Backed by historical travel and expense data, business traveler profiles and company policies, the new booking function will be “more than a chatbot,” according to Tammy Krings, CEO at ATG Worldwide. Krings claimed that essentially…
Chicago — When $630 million accounting and consulting firm Baker Tilly about six years ago attempted a “soft” travel program rollout, it didn’t really work. Now the Chicago company is combining more polished communications and training efforts with a more stringent policy in an effort to get program buy-in while also respecting its culture. A…
Travelport has agreements with “major” hotel and travel management company partners to pilot a hotel commission tracking and collection system using blockchain technology from IBM. Travelport chief architect Mike Croucher said during a Monday interview that he would be disappointed if the initiative did not produce a working solution this year. Other industry efforts to…
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office last week issued a patent to IBM for “intelligent travel planning.” The patented process covers receiving a user’s trip requirements and preferences, searching travel options, building an itinerary based on “relative weights for preference information” and purchase history, obtaining a response from the user to the proposed itinerary and…
Amadeus expects this year to reach a major milestone, decommissioning the last of its mainframes. This is the culmination of a multi-year process to achieve “more flexibility and resiliency.” Sabre isn’t there yet. Under new CEO Sean Menke, the company has embarked on a general tech upgrade program. “We will make investments in our IT…
After decades of hesitation, the business world has embraced climate protection. More companies than ever are taking stock of the environmental impact of their employee travel and working to reduce it. Videoconferencing and more efficient ground transportation are among the more common means. Several organizations last month announced commitments in conjunction with the COP21 United…
As they work for advantage, clients, suppliers and those in between keep business travel management interesting. Changes to underlying and consumer-facing technology make it a dynamic business function. The personal and geopolitical elements of business travel offer points of note from the micro to macro levels. As one of our featured practitioners noted, this job is about economics, geography, psychology and then some….
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