5Q with Cornerstone's Mat Orrego

Like other travel technology companies with which it both competes and collaborates, Cornerstone Information Systems works deep within the managed travel business. In addition to offering data management and reporting solutions, the company helps travel agencies and corporate clients process reservations using automated ticketing and other functions. In an interview last week, president and CEO Mat Orrego offered his viewpoints about the roles of travel managers and travel management companies relative to technology, what is "end-to-end," and what irks business travelers.

You have a mix of agency, corporate and vendor clients. Where does the expertise on travel technology sit, and have you seen a trend where, say, travel managers are running technology more or less?

It exists in various silos. Any one customer is the person paying for those trips, but there needs to be a collaboration at that point. There is expertise at the TMCs, but there's also an expertise within the corporations and a ton of expertise within suppliers. When you look at an entire travel management program, you need to tap into every one of those sources. That's where technology can be a very binding element. While it's not in any one place, it can be stronger in one area versus another.

Is it more effective for a corporate travel manager to have the technology expertise or to outsource that to a TMC?

Leaving aside the objectives of any one person who has a passion to be involved with technology--since, after all, they are the ones paying the bills, and we have a lot of travel manager customers who have that [passion]--effectiveness can be defined as a single point of management that brings expertise together around a flexible platform. So, we have a lot of TMCs with that capability and they provide that very effectively out there, and we have seen a lot of models allowing for a very cost-effective linkage to that. So, yeah, I think the TMCs are developing or have that capability to provide that single source of travel technology and service.

We have asked you before about ARC's Corporate Travel Department program. Do you think the industry has a conventional wisdom on that approach?

I don't think the industry does, overall. What we have seen with our customers that are CTDs is that they go in and have a notion that that means they're going to do it all. Many of them are sort of a bifurcation of the same old, same old. They still use a travel agency, but they became a CTD for a particular aspect of their travel management. Some come to a stop and are still designated as a CTD, but work with a travel agency and outsource certain aspects of things. [Others] are evolving to being in total control of their travel program, and some start with that end in mind and evolve toward that. One of the most common elements of CTDs is that they are deeply involved in the technology purchase. They want to be involved with the technology. What's common in all CTDs is an involvement in decision-making, but frankly, you don't need to be a CTD to do that.

Some sellers of travel technology are talking a lot about the "end-to-end" booking-through-expense integration concept. Others have said they don't hear customer demand for it. We hear both perspectives on the customer side, as well. What's your viewpoint?

Customers should be going after their end-to-end process. You can listen to any one person's opinions, but there are different versions and views of that end-to-end process. Someone who says they don't need that aspect of it should be aligning themselves with their objectives and the sources of data they need to access, and the processes their travelers and vendors should go through. The flexibility today needs to be there in the tech platforms, where the focus needs to be on defining requirements and what you're going to be judged by. Those can be internal objectives within a corporation's general policy infrastructures, and there's also the opportunity to look at that from a holistic perspective and see it as, "Well, if I was to do these things and match these particular objectives, then that's my end-to-end process." When it's defined at that point, I would then choose my vendors and technology that align to that.

What do you think is the biggest challenge for business travelers?

Probably the most important thing they're looking for is predictability of the experience and the ability to manage, themselves, the process of traveling and figuring out and predicting what the outcome is going to be. We overtly spend a lot of time focusing on the transaction, and that's such a difficult process--the alignment of bookings and policy, whether procurement or operational policy, all these things we apply technology to--but at the end of the day, out comes a reservation and everyone breathes a sigh of relief. Then they send the traveler out into the world and there's not enough there in that process that then allows them to better manage the process while they are traveling. A lot of things could be applied at that point that would help them out. For the traveler, it's always about the service and the ability to provide them access to that service, whether it's self-managed or they reach out to an agent or a person to manage that. Another way to look at it is that there's a lack of training for travelers out there. There are different degrees of experience. Some of them are road warriors, but the majority are not. And you sometimes see a great majority of them in the terminal or at hotels and rental car counters with a sense of bewilderment and frustration. There needs to be a focus on training them for that experience.