London - HRG is
developing pre-trip spend data aimed at helping buyers estimate their organizations'
imminent travel costs. HRG hopes to introduce the reporting tool by February
2012, group technology and data services director Nigel Meyer said during a Wednesday
media briefing.
Pre-trip
management information regularly is used for monitoring compliance and evaluating
traveler security, but is examined much less frequently for spend analysis because
data from a booked airline or hotel reservation does not always reflect the
final price paid, notably when bookings are amended or canceled. However, Meyer
said HRG is responding to client demand for pre-trip spend analysis even if it does
not ultimately prove to be 100 percent accurate.
"We
are turning data science into an art," Meyer claimed. "We are
changing our attitudes at HRG a little because some clients are asking not what
they have spent, but what they are going to spend. It feeds the ability to
change behavior or to switch-buy, because we are bringing them visibility
earlier in the process."
Meyer
added that HRG is looking to collate pre-trip spend data not only from bookings
it fulfills for a client, but also from bookings processed for that client by
other TMCs and from corporate payment providers. HRG currently aggregates data
from external sources for 150 clients worldwide. Clients will be able to see
which transactions have been paid and which have not. HRG is evaluating whether
non-travel spend, such as videoconferencing, can be bolted on to the reporting.
HRG
also revealed that it is developing map-based management information,
provisionally for the same launch date in February 2012. Instead of looking at
a spreadsheet, customers could click cities on a map for a summary of hotel
spend. Similarly, by clicking two cities (e.g. London and New York), customers would
be able to obtain a summary of air spending on that route.