EXTRA >> CORPORATE Travel Management (CTM) is well known in the travel industry for being “ahead of the game” when it comes to information and communication technology (ICT) services for customers.
The technological tools CTM has developed – which is referred to as the SMART Suite, including the Smart Portal, Smart Taxi, Smart Approve, Smart 
Alerts and Smart Data – have become an integral part of the positive customer experience in two distinct ways: the way customers use these intelligent tools while travelling, and also in the data that is provided to both the client company and the CTM travel consultant.
According to CTM managing director Jamie Pherous, the CTM business case for developing its own technology was simple: the online tools help with both customer retention and customer attraction – and the data generated in real time helps both the traveller and the travel consultant to manage the right outcomes.
A challenge CTM’s developers had to overcome was that different air travel and accommodation booking systems – the industry calls them Global Distribution Systems – dominate in different regions. The CTM SMART Suite and other tools had to seamlessly deliver information to the customer no matter what region they were travelling in, so they had to integrate with whatever systems are best of breed in any region.
“We made a conscious decision that we think it is unlikely that one provider is likely to have the best booking tool in every single market,” Mr Pherous said.
“They might in one region but it is probably unlikely it is going to be in the other. The same goes for expense management tools, security tools and the like.
“So we’ve made a conscious choice to build our own platform – a smart platform – that gives the client the same look and feel and the same tools, but behind the scenes it can then link to the best booking engine. But to the customer, it looks and feels the same, whether it is in North America, Europe, Asia or Australia,” he said.
“That’s the way we’ve gone and by having great data and controlling the data we have our own tools that fulfil the need.”
CTM’s travel consultants and technology development teams constantly look at the data and use it to refine the technologies it can offer to clients.
“So the idea is not just to have been tools in market, but also best innovations within our SMART Suite that is going to be relevant to that market,” Mr Pherous said.
“That’s where we believe we can get it right, because we believe within any region we have local ownership and local supply knowledge and, by using the best local tools, we can pull that together.
“So, by definition, we should have not just the best value proposition locally, but also regionally and globally at any time. And that is our opportunity.”
This approach has often taken CTM out of the strict travel realm as customer surveys bring through new ideas for better service.
“In terms of technology we are also building things that aren’t even to do with travel,” he said.
“An example is our taxi-share service. This came from a client who said to us they were sick and tired of going to head office and seeing 50 people who have come from other cities and they probably used 50 different taxis to get there. So we built a solution that identifies when people travel together, or close to, from other cities. Then through e-mails and text they are able to contact each other to share transport into the office and back.
“That came from client feedback. So that’s a good example. Nothing to do directly with travel, but it’s more logistics.
“Another one is what we call the Travel Tracker. It was used just to find out where people are … but what we found was it could be used by people, say, who might have to go to a meeting in Perth but they could look on this site and in one simple view see where other key managers might be.
“So if someone was already in Perth, they could hook that meeting up for them to see them. Again, feedback from clients and how we use this information. Nothing to do with travel, but more logistics – within an organisation.
“So you can go onto a screen, whether it is on an Apple (phone or tablet) or your (PC) desktop and see where all your people are. We found that clients are using that in very innovative ways.”
Mr Pherous gave the example of a CEO travelling to London for a meeting, who found one of his international managers was also to be in London at the same time and he was included in the meeting to great effect.
“We are really selling on value,” Mr Pherous said. “I really believe those two examples of logistics really save our clients money – and not just money but time. We can help them to be more efficient and effective.
“It fits right in with our commitment that the savings that we make (for clients) must outweigh the fees that we charge.”
CTM uses a range of developers for its products, with an internal team leading the projects but accessing the best talent available externally. Typically, an app might take two years of development and proving before it would be released.
“We’ve got a bit investment in IT development. That whole group is a very important part of our business,” Mr Pherous said.
“If we look now at our global objectives, how we win and retain business is pretty critical and so is the technology solutions in both reporting suites – for clients and internally – as well as the client tools and apps that we want to roll out globally.”
Technology was moving to use data in real time, Mr Pherous said, and CTM was at the cutting edge of that trend.
“I think reporting has had a big move in the past 24 months,” he said. “Getting reports historically doesn’t really help. The idea of our reports, and indeed our whole SMART Suite of apps, is there to identify things before travel is taken.
“We have acknowledge that saving along is somewhere like 7-8 percent, just by being able to see things up front. So the reports are more interactive, to show what-if scenarios.
“As well as the apps, another example is one of our tools for clients that allows them to look forward 14-21 days for booking discretionary travel,” Mr Pherous said.
“Often what people don’t realise is that they can get the cheap airfare (weeks out) but they don’t realise there may be a conference, say, in Melbourne at the same time which means the rooms rates are $500 a night. Our clients are able to, in a one screen view, look forward and say, you know what, if I go on Thursday or Friday it is going to be $200 a night, on average, versus $500 a night if I go Monday-Tuesday.
“These are tools that are doing two things: they are helping clients make better decisions and more effective travel, and as well it is freeing up our staff to get down into the stuff that really matters.
“We are finding now that if you look at client service, technologies now are a key part of that service. But we want to use technology to leave our people free for the really difficult itineraries.
“We believe the industry has dropped the ball on that. We know that having an expert travel adviser can make the difference between having a $10,000 and a $20,000 ticket, when it comes to complex itineraries.
“Free the travel organiser up though technology … but also make the travel more interactive between the traveller and the travel organiser.”
Mr Pherous said CTM’s teams realised that data makes a difference to the travel adviser and the client company.
“Data is the key in any business,” he said. “We use that data both internally and for clients.
“The more aware you are of data in real time, the greater ability you have to look at what-if scenarios, forwards as opposed to backwards. Clearly that can change options and opportunities – and that’s what we are seeing in our client base.
“So people who don’t have access to that are foregoing savings, generally.”
Mr Pherous said there was a pipeline of new technology products and tools being developed by CTM teams.
“We’ve got roughly a two-year build cycle and a pipeline of the things that we want to build,” Mr Pherous ssaid.
“But the key for us at the moment is making these tools accessible everywhere that CTM operates. For clients that want a regional solution, this is really relevant technology.”
Mr Pherous said CTM was rolling these out progressively through all its global regions.
“The philosophy is that once we’ve got them rolled out, we want the same innovation structure across each region,” Mr Pherous said.
www.travelctm.com
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