Corporate Travel Agencies Build for a More Complex Future
Photo Credit: A gate at Boston's Logan International Airport. Travel management companies are ramping up their technology efforts, but there's still a long way to go before a larger transformation sweeps across the industry. Flickr / Kent Wien
Skift Take
Even big travel management companies, which usually resist change, are planning ahead to better anticipate traveler and travel manager needs. No one's quite sure when this more connected and insightful future will arrive, though.
Every major travel management company is working on ways to improve the traveler experience while gaining more visibility into how people actually behave on a business trip.
As these giant global companies morph into technology service providers, though, the challenge of driving deep integrations with travel companies and the usage patterns of business travelers is still a work in progress.
Skift spoke to leaders at several travel management companies to get a sense of what the priorities are when developing new technology and refining legacy systems with an eye on the future. Important work is being done, although travelers may not notice much of it in the near future.
Big data has been a buzzword for years now, for instance, yet the complexity of turning a variety of data points into actionable insights remains daunting.
"One of our key focuses is on making sure that we understand all of those touchpoints you might have in travel; it's not just bookings or travel data," s
