It’s been just over 18 months since Mark Walton announced
the existence of Solutions Travel, the first TMC partner built on Spotnana's
travel agency technology platform. Today, the company has built a multinational partnership network in
nearly 30 countries and will surpass 40 countries in the first quarter of 2025.
He understands what's at stake in travel today and what clients want from a TMC partner:
“You have to understand the granularity of the content—there’s
GDS, there’s NDC, there are other direct connects. But even with all these various
content sources, which we are fortunate to bring into our ecosystem with
Spotnana, there are still local deals that occur and we have to bring those in,”
said Walton.
That’s the mindset of local experience that Walton brings to
the table and that he wants Solutions to be known for—a local feel, rapport
with agents who know the program, and 24/7 service. Originally, he targeted
these services to small and midmarket companies. “We started at literally zero,”
he said. “So we weren’t sure how fast we could scale.”
Well, the answer was "really fast" thanks to Walton's veteran know-how
and his ability to inspire affiliates to get on board with the changes
moving quickly across the travel management company landscape. The company is attracting large multinationals like Ciena, but there are
other major corporate and entertainment names that are filling Walton’s client
roster.
All the above surely demonstrates vision, strategy and smart sales, but
does it show influence? Maybe.
What has really impacted the travel management industry is
the work Solutions has done to help Spotnana scale its tech foundation and
solve for real-world TMC problems before the platform got picked up by other TMCs.
Solutions has been a crucial partner in pushing Spotnana to
address detailed components within the platform. Solutions continues regular
collaboration with Spotnana to provide input directly to chief product officer
Sarosh Waghmar regarding roadmap prioritization, specific features and
functionality to benefit TMC clients and the TMC’s corporate customers. Because
Solutions quickly attracted multinational accounts, Walton has also pushed
Spotnana toward certain prioritizations that would not have occurred without those
specific client demands.
In the wake of Solution’s success, Spotnana has notched some
significant 2024 TMC wins: Expensify, JTB Travel and Goodwings. Indeed, Solutions
may have been at least one data point in demonstrating the potential value of Spotnana’s
second TMC client, Direct Travel, which Spotnana CEO and Madrona Ventures
general manager Steve Singh acquired in April.
With the Direct Travel acquisition, Walton knows Spotnana is
powering some of Solution’s stiffest competition for clients. Is he prepared?
“There will be other partners,” he said. “Almost every TMC in
the world is a Concur partner, for example, and you don’t see all these TMCs
going out of business because of it. Steve [Singh] has committed to providing
parity in the platform, so we just have to compete on our own merits, and we
think we do a good job of that.”