Clients of TravelTracker, a joint-venture from International SOS and risk management consultancy Control Risks, now can more easily capture travel details for trips that travelers book outside the designated travel management company. International SOS’s Forward Travel Itinerary enables travelers and arrangers to send air, hotel and car rental email confirmations to International SOS.
The new feature automatically integrates the details into
International SOS's TravelTracker solution using travel technology provider
WorldMate's application programming interface. Additionally, travelers can
establish email rules to automate the email forwarding step, International SOS
executive vice president Tim Daniel told BTN
in an email.
Previously, travelers or arrangers manually entered trip
details from non-TMC bookings in the My Trips module of TravelTracker. The new
tool, which is TMC-agnostic, eliminates the potential for errors associated
with manual entry, allowing travel managers to track travelers accurately, claimed
International SOS.
International SOS said the tool is useful for corporations that
do not have TMCs, as well as companies with TMCs that don't cover all departments
or locations. "Universities are a great example of organizations that
usually have a TMC that covers some of their travel but with significant
amounts done outside" the TMC, Daniel said.
While travel security firms like International SOS and iJet
can integrate with TMCs to capture travel, aggregating off-channel bookings has
proven more challenging. Tools like Forward Travel Itinerary and Concur's
TripIt and TripLink aim to close that gap.
TripIt also has email forwarding functionality and TripLink has integrations
with some suppliers to capture travel details when trips are booked through supplier
sites. However, TripLink is limited. The first carrier hasn't gone live yet,
although United
Airlines is expected to launch "in the relatively near future," with
Air Canada and Lufthansa to follow, according to Mike Koetting, Concur
executive vice president of supplier management and travel management company
services. To capture the data from Concur's API, TMCs also need to build
a Concur-approved export for consolidated reporting.
With iJet reporting 6,000 travel disruptions in 2015 and recent
attacks in major business markets, traveler-tracking tools have drawn increased
attention. In particular, solutions that reach into the midmarket are providing
new opportunities for small and midsize programs to support
duty-of-care initiatives. More recently in March, two
explosions in Brussels left at least 35 people dead and more than 300
injured.