BCD Travel Testing Enhanced Portal With Clients

BCD Travel this month began beta testing with three customers, including Cardinal Health, an enhanced version of its Travel Source portal that includes such features as interactive content, a customizable user interface and integration of additional booking tools and expense management systems. The travel management company plans to roll out the new capabilities to all clients in early 2007.

Fueled by partnerships with FlightStats, AccuWeather and MapQuest, Travel Source now offers real-time flight status alerts, customized weather reports and interactive maps and directions, respectively. Following in the footsteps of some booking tools and other TMC portals, additional leisure-oriented content includes city and airport guides, streaming news feeds, health and safety information and restaurant and entertainment options. A traveler's mobile device can access and receive much of the content, the company said.

The portal includes Active Itinerary 2.0, compatible with all major online booking tools, which allows employees to download itineraries to such office programs as Microsoft Outlook and Lotus Notes.

The portal also syncs with BCD Travel's yet-to-be-released Decision Source, a technology platform that integrates real-time corporate card and travel data. Tri-Pen TravelMaster powers the tool, though BCD said it completed multiple enhancements to make the product a more robust offering. "We will work to integrate a company's solutions too, such as links to International SOS, for example, or to a loyalty program," added Matthew Jones, director of portal technology at BCD. "This portal will be a traveler's environment for everything business travel—maybe even leisure travel if the company extends those services to their employees."

The goal of BCD's enhanced Travel Source is to drive compliance and prepare employees to travel smarter, said Ellen Trotochaud, senior vice president of online technology solutions. "So much of it is about the traveler, but it's also about making sure everything is in line with the travel program and making sure we're driving compliance with information that supports those decisions," she said. "What this does is keep the traveler coming back to the site. The benefit to the travel manager is in providing those types of capabilities to drive compliance. At the end of the day, it's the tools that drive use of the program."

Cotton Tarr, director of global travel services at Cardinal Health, a healthcare technology company, has used BCD's current portal for the past five years to do just that. As one of three companies beta testing the enhanced version this month, Tarr expects the new Travel Source to offer a more consistent customer experience. Online adoption for the Dublin, Ohio-based company already sits at 80 percent. "My primary goal is to have a single method to communicate to travelers and travel arrangers," Tarr said. "I've got the opportunity to communicate with those folks policy changes or travel alerts from any of the various functionalities of the tool, whether it be a pop-up window or a homepage feature article. Travelers may be going there for weather information or to check on a flight, but they've got to see what I want to tell them first. It's a great communication tool for me to drive those folks through a consistent process."

Cardinal Health is using BCD's Travel Source portal only in the United States, but with operations in 46 countries, Tarr plans to expand use of the tool internationally over the next year.

"One of the biggest pain points that exists with global corporate travel management is the ability to implement common practices in different locations," said Norm Rose, president of Travel Tech Consulting in Belmont, Calif. "For larger companies, this often comes in purchasing strategies across the globe, maybe unifying with one or two TMCs. A portal is a front end to provide good communication to the traveler and a set of tools that make a difference."

Rose, who has seen BCD's enhanced portal, said though Carlson Wagonlit Travel has a similar offering, BCD has led in pushing interactive technology. Comparing Travel Source to a single, customizable page that aggregates news from several sources, he said the tool's interactive features "are almost a consumer expectation. The BCD portal is the right step towards having that same approach toward corporate travel."