Social_Media_white_paper

Smart-phones and social  – new landscape for managed travel

BCD Travel white paper examines how mobile technology and social Web trends are affecting the industry

ATLANTA, Sept. 20, 2010 – Mobile technology is being adopted by the corporate travel industry in four key ways: mobile itinerary management, security and safety on the road, mobile commerce, and automating and expediting the travel process, finds a new white paper by BCD Travel.

The white paper, Changing the DNA of Managed Travel: Using Social and Mobile to Enhance Productivity, Morale and the Bottom Line, provides an overview of the opportunities and challenges for managed travel posed by the inexorable and irreversible rise of social Web and mobile technology. The paper also guides travel program stakeholders in leveraging these concepts to serve the evolving needs, constituents and consumers of corporate travel and meetings within the framework of a managed program.

Thanks to the growth in the usage of smart-phones and the Social Web, today’s workforce has developed new habits and expectations around interactive information-sharing, mobility, interoperability, user-centered design and collaboration. These expectations are changing the way they see, and move through, the landscape of managed travel.

The white paper argues that, properly deployed, social Web and mobile technology can help keep travelers informed and aware, offer newly personalized corporate travel experiences and feed vital information into the corporation’s program management framework and processes.

A few other key findings in Changing the DNA include:

A shift in mind-set from controlling to influencing is key to the successful exploitation of the cultural forces and technological advances that are reshaping the managed travel landscape:

Program managers will need to expand their conversations with their travel management:

  1. Ask how the travel management company can support the program and its travelers in a new media/app environment
  2. Bring opportunities for targeting end-users (i.e., the corporation’s travelers) with information and offers into the scope of the program
  3. Take advantage of the wisdom of the crowd to evolve the program and explore options for influencing behavior

Mobile technology and social Web can allow travelers to:

  1. Choose those channels that are best suited to their preferred communication styles.
  2. Seamlessly integrate personal and professional lives through the ability to plan, network, and interact with information and other travelers.
  3. Receive services as the travel experience unfolds over time, so they can interact, connect and communicate before, during and after the trip
  4. Stay in touch and informed in times of need.
  5. Gain productivity.

Mobile technology and social Web can allow companies to:

  1. Support responsible travel
  2. Gain important feedback on program and policy
  3. Encourage compliant – or “better than policy” – behavior
  4. Gain from interplay between individual traveler behavior and overall program results

paper downloads

About BCD Travel

BCD Travel helps companies travel smart and achieve more. We drive program adoption, cost savings and talent retention through digital experiences that simplify business travel. Our 13,000 dedicated team members service clients in 170+ countries as we shape a sustainable future for business travel. For more information, visit www.bcdtravel.com.