For most of the past decade, mobile software for managed business travelers was either useless or marketing hype. That's changing this year as a frenzy of development by new innovators and existing corporate travel software providers accompanies explosive growth in the use of smartphones.
"The development of travel applications for smartphone devices and the growing adoption of 3G are enabling more offline travel transactions made on personal cards or via cash advances to be redirected to mobile and the Web-both trackable points of sale from a corporate travel management perspective," according to PhoCusWright's U.S. Corporate Travel Distribution report, released in July.
"Given the heavy use of smartphones among business travelers, the mobile channel offers tremendous potential to rein in ancillary and en route travel expenses."
As handheld technology and network bandwidth improves, the focus is shifting beyond the travel purchase to traveler services. As such consumer-originating providers as Dopplr, TripIt and WorldMate bring their enhanced traveler itineraries to business travelers, industry suppliers--including Amadeus, Concur, Rearden Commerce, Sabre, Travelport and TRX--also are putting their mobile development dollars into what PhoCusWright calls "traveler-centric buying."
This approach "means business models revolve around the 'lifecycle of a reservation,' not just the purchase of travel. This enables better targeting of pre-trip, point-of-sale and en route services to the specific needs, trip purpose and location of a business traveler," PhoCusWright reported. It also allows "business travelers to be seen as consumers in order to leverage consumer applications in business travel," such as social networking and devices that originated outside the corporate world.
Benefits for managed travel programs include the potential to capture "en route itinerary changes, entertainment expenses, miscellaneous charges, unbundled service fees and other on-demand applications," as well as air, car, hotel and rail spending, according to PhoCusWright. In the meantime, location-based services and private social networks have the potential to enhance productivity by keeping employees informed about one another's plans, key physical locations, security concerns, in-policy services and trip purpose. Among the vendor developments:
- Amadeusannounced plans to launch in August the Amadeus Mobile Partner, with applications designed for several major mobile systems that synch itineraries with Amadeus' e-Travel Management booking tool and enable pre-trip approval functions for approvers. In partnership with conTgo, Amadeus also will provide a "follow-me itinerary," including location-specific and policy-controlled service options through SMS messages. Travelers also can request information by keyword; for example, sending the word "office" might kick back to them a list of the company's nearby office addresses.
- Travelport's Journey Manager by next year will offer itinerary sharing and expense report population, and leverage mapping and localized content from Microsoft's Bing. Microsoft's "connected traveler experience" is the "ecosystem they are taking to the travel vertical as a whole," said Travelport product strategy director Brian Batts. Travelport plans to "take some of the key features around collaboration and extend those on to Traversa," the company's corporate booking tool.
- RideChargeand minority investor Concur offer mobile taxi searching, booking, payment and receipt capture for expense report population. Announced in March, ConcurMobile's itinerary management, out-of-pocket expense capture and report approval solution is designed for BlackBerry or Windows Mobile phones.
- Rearden Commercelast year introduced its Mobile Personal Assistant for direct clients and partners, including American Express Business Travel, enabling BlackBerry users to receive "personalized real-time information, whether in the office or on the road," such as itineraries, travel alerts and weather. Rearden since has added a mobile dining service providing restaurant information and reviews, and enabling reservations based on the employee's location, itinerary, personal dining preferences and company policies.
- Sabre's GetThere Mobile provides a "browser- and mobile device-independent" solution that "replicates the look and feel of a corporation's travel site," Sabre said. The software offers travelers current and historical trip information, flight status and "one-click access to travel agency contact information." Executives said GetThere also stands to benefit from Sabre's development of TripCase, a mobile application available on the iPhone and coming to the BlackBerry and Windows Mobile.
- Launched last year, TRX's ResX Mobile provides "on-demand access" to booked trip details, flight information, airport maps, aircraft seat configurations, upgrade status, weather and other local information, and trip approval for managers.
"Over time, next-generation mobile technology will enable multimedia transmissions to facilitate informed decisions, enable self-service and paperless travel purchases, and allow e-wallet payment and data capture for submission and reimbursement wherever a business traveler is located," PhoCusWright said.