Author: Mike Cameron

Categories
Business Travel Travel Management

Christopherson and Domo Partnership

Choice-Humanitarian

At Christopherson, we’ve built a reputation of being the most innovative, technologically-savvy TMC in the industry. Whether we build it ourselves or integrate with other cutting-edge companies, we are committed to being the first in travel technology and a leader in delivering our clients digital tools to solve their problems. Which is why we are excited to announce our latest solution for busy companies and their employees. Christopherson Business Travel and Domo, a business analytics company, have paired up to streamline travel management data. Using Domo’s ability to quickly turn data into insights, and our technology suite to enhance your travel program, we’re again the first to bring unparalleled service to business travel.

Christopherson and Domo—bringing two leaders together

Domo connects directly to any source of data to streamline its reporting. It can combine, cleanse, and transform data in a flash, uncovering insights in just a few clicks. It allows users to visualize and share data across your organization with ease.

Christopherson and Domo have a multifaceted relationship. We have been using Domo to provide actionable insights for our own business for four years. And we are Domo’s premier travel management company. With a symbiotic relationship like ours, it was only inevitable that we would build something great together.

As the first travel management app developer within their ecosystem, the possibilities to integrate were intriguing. Domo and our travel management software, AirPortal, now integrate at ten different data sources. These ten Domo data connectors help us to gain valuable insight and answer questions with intuitive data exploration and filtering. Our account managers receive alerts when a client’s travel spend makes a significant change, up or down. Our sales team and our OPs managers are also able to make smarter, faster decisions to improve their business results.

Introducing our Domo-Partnered Apps:

We’re excited about our three new Domo Partner apps that will be released at the Global Business Travel Association Convention this week. The first in an ongoing series of apps, they pinpoint managed travel frustrations and easily finds solutions.

Travel Leakage Analyzer

This app provides insight into travel spend, revealing pieces previously hidden.  It integrates directly to a feed from a our Airportal, a general ledger, or Concur Expense, and compares it to bookings made through Christopherson. From there it analyzes travel compliance, and more importantly, finds non-compliance. The drill down functionality also allows you to be as granular as needed. With this tool, you can understand your entire picture of compliance, and know where to start to change it around.

Travel Map Insights

With this app you can effectively determine the best locations for future hotel RFPs, based upon a real time data. By looking at hotel locations, total room nights, average daily rate and total spend, your travel manager can make a more informed decision to future vendor negations. Travel managers will be able to easily see and sort the data to make better decisions.

Domo

This is a set of apps offering powerful analytics tools to travel managers. It accesses their data in real-time, making it fast and simple to gleen powerful insights for travel executives and managers.

The Christopherson and Domo Relationship

Premiering at GBTA, this is just the first of an exciting future for powerful and real-time solutions in the travel management industry. With our powerful travel technology suite, coupled with Domo’s cloud-based analysis system, the potential to revolutionize travel management headaches are endless. If you are attending the GBTA convention in Boston this week, we invite you to join us at booth 1175. We will be demo-ing our  integrated apps with Domo, as well as exciting updates to our AirPortal 360 suite. Hope to see you there!

Categories
Business and Leadership Business Travel

Marketing for Businesses: Knowing What People Want

Effective marketing is an important part of any business. Even if you’re company provides the best product or service, you still need some level of marketing to inform potential buyers. I was fortunate enough to hear Kelly McDonald, of McDonald Marketing, speak on  marketing in today’s changing environment. A published author and internationally recognized expert, I was excited to understand modern day marketing trends and learn tips for my own company.

Eight things to consider while marketing your business:

1. Identify what people want, and then give it to them

  • Listen, listen, listen
  • An example is the success of Target’s strategy compared to KMart’s strategy

2. Tap into values

  • Support locally owned business, source locally
  • Publish testimonials and reviews online
  • Go green
  • Be the good guys, doing good is the new cool

3. Foster a culture of empathy

  • Hire the right person, not the resume
  • Many jobs are teachable jobs
  • “Awesomeness” follows the person
  • Awesome people are not defensive when things go wrong

4. Recognize different needs for different markets

  • Burger King serves breakfast on bagels in New York City and on biscuits in Birmingham, Alabama

5. Use consumer insights

  • Sell your cause
  • Women typically value expansive choices
  • While men prefer the “magic number” of three choices

6. Pay attention to trends, not fads

  • Mass is out, customization is in
  • McDonalds has kiosks to customize your order
  • Coke started putting personal names on bottles
  • Social is everything

7. Show people as they really are

  • Show real people in ads, not photo stock models
  • People respond to those they can relate to

8. Helping Beats Selling

  • We don’t need anymore “information”. We need “advice.”
  • Provide solutions and help them

Overall, I was reminded that most people already know what they want. They are just looking for the right company to fill those needs. By being honest, transparent, and easily accessible, you can gain the trust of your audience.

Read next:

Categories
Travel Industry Travel News

Delta Air Lines Continues To Innovate

Here at Christopherson Business Travel, we’re pretty big fans of Delta Air Lines. Their continual innovation and commitment to fliers is inspiring. Earlier this year, our management team had an opportunity to hear some of Delta’s top leaders speak. One of those industry leaders was Tim Mapes, Senior Vice President – Chief Marketing Officer of Delta.  With a company that is consistently pioneering, we valued the opportunity to understand the message behind the brand.

How Delta continually innovates

During the meeting, Mapes said, “If the world is changing faster on the outside than you’re changing on the inside, then your company is dying”.  Sound business advice, it dawned on me how hard Delta strives to be on the cutting edge.  For example, their revolutionary new baggage ticketing system released this year. Or how their Gift Back Project cultivated altruism by recognizing selfless individuals. Mapes also explained the three pillars of their brand:

  • Thoughtful ? Always be warm and caring.
  • Reliable ? Get our passengers home on-time, safely, and with their bags.
  • Innovative ? Strive to be the first in the industry to make a change, and then continually innovate.

Delta Air Lines continues to deliver on their reliability brand promise. Their hard work and dedication lead to great accolades. For example, this November Delta was named the most punctual airline in North America. Hearing Mapes speak about the foundation of the Delta brand and recognize it in their recent updates was inspiring.

Christopherson Business Travel is an award-winning corporate travel management company. We help busy companies book, manage, and expense their business travel, so they can get back to what’s important to them. Contact us if you are interested in learning how we can simplify your company’s travel.

 

 

Categories
Travel Industry Travel News

Update on the New Salt Lake City International Airport Terminal

The long awaited building of the new Salt Lake City international airport terminal is finally making some noticeable progress.  Residents and travelers can see the change in the roadway used to enter and exit the airport. This project is a very complex undertaking, with a price tag of $1.8 billion, but the end result will be worth the effort.

New Salt Lake City International Airport Terminal

Salt Lake City International Airport serves nearly 23 million passengers a year. The current facilities were built 30-50 years ago, and designed to serve only half as many travelers. SLC International Airport has grown into a major hub airport in the western U.S. With flights often leaving and arriving at the same time, security protocols need to updated to accommodate these changes as well. Buildings also need to meet current earthquake-safety standards.

Some key features of the new design:

  • Single, three-level terminal
  • One linear concourse
  • Gateway center
  • New parking garage
  • New support facilities

We applaud Delta Air Lines for their commitment to Salt Lake City and their willingness to be the anchor tenant in the new facility. Delta’s CEO, Ed Bastian, was recently in Salt Lake City and shared a positive outlook about their commitment to the SLC hub. From a Salt Lake City Tribune article, Bastian said, “It’s a great destination market. And as we rebuild the airport here, there’s going to be even more opportunity down the road”.

Fro those eager to see the new terminal built, their SLC Airport provides consistently updated information and pictures. See their conceptual renderings, photos (including demolition), and other highlights. 

Christopherson Business Travel is a national corporate travel management company with headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah. Privately owned for more than 60 years, we are passionate about providing travel solutions for busy professionals. Please contact our sales team if you have questions about our unique services.

Categories
Business and Leadership Business Travel

Professional Tip: Make a Difference That People Love

I recently attended a presentation by the author David Sturt, who spoke on the subject of creating great work as opposed to good work. David Sturt is an executive vice president of the O.C. Tanner Institute and author of The New York Times best-selling book, Great Work. This difference between good and great work is how people make a difference others love. He focused on how inspired employees rise above and contribute more than expected.

Though Sturt’s career began in market research, he enlisted two PhDs from Harvard and Cambridge to help him design a research study for the book. They first reviewed 10,000 samples of award-winning work. To gain further insight into what makes work great, rather than just good, they also conducted 200 one-on-one interviews. In the process, patterns that influenced the great work emerged and they organized them into five consistent skills. He summarized the common success factors into the following five skills:

Common Success Factors For Great Work

  • Ask The Right Questions

    • Great work begins when we ask the right people what they would love.
    • Think about the people your work serves; customers, team members and partners.
    • Ponder improvements with the recipients in mind.
    • Learn how to ask the right questions:
      • Pause before you begin
      • Consider who your work serves
      • Ask the questions to those who your work benefits

  • See For Yourself

    • Difference makers get out of their own bubble and look with their own eyes:
      • They observe everything and everyone affected by their work.
      • Difference makers watch what people do to see how people experience their work.
      • They look at the process to find out what’s working and what’s not.

  • Talk To Your Outer Circle

    • You won’t get any new ideas if you always talk to your inner circle. Your inner circle is always in a bubble. They are a lot like you.
    • Collect ideas and seek points of clarification from others.
    • All of the best thinking comes from the thinking of your outer circle.

  • Improve The Mix

    • Find out what you need to add and subtract to optimize the work or product.
    • Add what is missing and subtract what is not needed.
    • Look at things that people don’t like; imagine ways to reduce and simplify.
    • Bring old things together in new ways.

  • Deliver The Difference

    • Good workers stop when they feel like the work is good enough; great workers are obsessed with sticking with it until people love it.
    • The real value is created after the feedback from those who benefit from your work begins.
    • Insist on knowing what worked and why; stay with it relentlessly until people love it.
    • Create great work that inspires others; become a catalyst for great work.


The takeaway from his presentation and book is clear – everyone is capable of great work. They just need the environment and skills to ideate, innovate and deliver their product.  If you are looking to be inspired, or create passion in your workplace, I recommend this book.

Christopherson Business Travel is an award-winning corporate travel management company with more than 60 years of experience. We are proud to be independently-owned, with more that 300 employees nationawide. Learn more about our own company philosophy or our unique travel management services.

Categories
Travel Management Travel Technology

Corporate Travel Programs Need Actionable Intelligence

actionable intelligenceAt the beginning of 2016, Christopherson Business Travel announced that we’ll begin transitioning our integrated business travel management software platform, AirPortal®,from providing “business intelligence” to “actionable intelligence.”

To this end, we built our 2016-2017 technology roadmap to support this improved strategy. We have more than 40 technology projects in the pipeline, half of which are to enhance existing business travel technologies, while the other half will provide new solutions to other business travel management problems. Many of these projects will be completed for our major AirPortal technology release scheduled for July of this year.

The use of Big Data has been evolving for many years from data capture, to data analytics, to data visualization, to business intelligence. The next logical step is to convert business intelligence to become actionable intelligence. Author and educator Keith B. Carter wrote the following in his book Actionable Intelligence:

“Leaders from all industries yearn for more information. They want to be able to assess risks and opportunities quickly and efficiently. They want answers in enough time to be able to make a difference. They want to seize opportunities. They need intelligence that is in time and accurate. They want… actionable intelligence.”

Hotel Attachment. Hotel Attachment tracks travel itineraries with missing hotel reservations and assists business travelers by providing clear options to match their needs and complete their itinerary prior to their business trip

As the CEO of Christopherson, I was recently interviewed by Skift, a media group that provides news and insights on the travel industry, and shared additionalthoughts about actionable intelligence:

“The problem with business intelligence is [that while] it’s very interesting and it’s useful … it’s backwards looking, so all of the new stuff that we’re building, we’re building with a more actionable forward-looking lens … We’re building a work-to-zero task manager for our travel managers that shows them in an actionable way all of the pending things that they need to do.”

Categories
Business Travel Travel Industry

Six Lessons on Innovation From the Wright Brothers

Evolution of business travelAll of us who benefit from airline travel owe the Wright brothers a debt of gratitude as the aviation pioneers credited with inventing and building the world’s first successful powered airplane and making the first sustained flight on December 17, 1903.

In his book The Wright Brothers, David McCullough writes that many of the “most prominent engineers, scientists, and original thinkers of the nineteenth century had been working on the problem of controlled flight,” without success.

Orville Wright is quoted as saying, “The desire to fly is an idea handed down to us by our ancestors who, in their grueling travels across trackless lands in prehistoric times, looked enviously on the birds soaring freely through space, at full speed, above all obstacles, on the infinite highway of the air.”

Forbes magazine recently published an article summarizing McCullough’s book by sharing “Six Lessons on Innovations From the Wright Brothers.”

Lesson one is how they kept going despite their failures. Additionally, they taught us how to take risks and still avoid total disaster. Most importantly however, the Wright brothers taught us to test, iterate, and continue to test prototypes, until you build something of value that the world needs–even if the world doesn’t recognize it yet.

To read Forbes’ article and learn more from the Wright brothers, click here.

Categories
Business and Leadership Business Travel

Leadership, Influence, and Willing Followers

what_makes_a_leaderAs we enter the New Year, it’s always good to reflect upon how we lead, if we really do lead, and what influences us to follow others.

We can all be leaders and influence others. A formal title does not guarantee that anyone will have willing followers. As I read what others have to say on this topic many interesting ideas have been proposed. I’ll share a few that were worthwhile to me.

Dr. Travis Bradbury wrote an article “What Makes a Leader?” referencing a quote from John Quincy Adams: “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.” This seems like a good test to determine leadership effectiveness. Bradbury later clarifies what leadership is not and points out that “You can be a leader in your workplace, your neighborhood, or your family, all without having a title.” He also outlines that leadership and management are not synonymous. Managers spend most of their time managing things; leaders lead people. He states: “Leadership is a process of social influence which maximizes the efforts of others toward the achievement of a greater good.”

Another good article that really simplifies things is “The Single Leadership Trait That Adds the Most Value to Companies,” written by Aaron Webber. While it may seem a bit simplistic, I thought his ideas had merit. He proposes that “The single most important leadership attribute is constancy, or consistency.” It makes a bit more sense when he explains, “Being consistent in terms of who you are and the theme of principal-based direction you provide is absolutely critical to leadership, or else people will disengage.” He continues, “People need to be able to count on who you are and the principles you are driven by.”

Finally, I’d like to share some thoughts from Lolly Daskal’s blog post “Become the Leader Worth Following.” Daskal proposes that, “Examples of leaders are everywhere. Many are powerful, many are popular, but few are worthy of being followed … They are the people we count on. They are the ones we want to follow without being told.” She concludes with this: “Leadership is a privilege, and making yourself worthy of being followed comes with great responsibility.”

I hope that in 2016 we will all be more introspective and ask ourselves if our actions are inspiring people to become more. Can they count on us? And are we worthy of being followed?

 

Categories
Business and Leadership Business Travel Travel Management

“The Handshake” and Communication Protocols for Better Business

handshake communication for business travelAll communication between computers requires that the devices agree on the format of the data. The parameters of a communications channel must be established before the digital “handshake” will allow the communication to begin.

All communication between humans also requires that both parties agree on the parameters of the communication before they meet–shall we use digital, telephone, or a physical handshake for this meeting?

In 1889 Jules Verne imagined that the “phonotelephote” would replace the need for physical handshakes. This is no longer science fiction. All of us are now inundated with email, text messages, and WebEx meetings. And yes, we still use the old-fashioned telephone too. But according to a recent article in The Economist, “Companies are spending more on sending their staff out to win deals.”

At Christopherson Business Travel, we’re seeing the same trend, with our airline bookings up 13% year-over-year. While some of this growth is from new clients, much of it is coming from existing clients who are sending their people out to meet face-to-face, shake hands, build relationships, and win deals.

Whenever we experience a poor-quality internal conference call, we remind ourselves it’s a good thing that people need to see each other face-to-face in order to obtain greater effectiveness. After all, that’s the business we’re in. For more than 60 years, we’ve been providing companies of all sizes across the globe with cost-effective, personalized, and hassle-free business travel management and resources. Plus, our exclusive AirPortal® travel technology applications are the only tools you’ll ever need to manage your business trips.

If you’re looking for better business travel management so that you and your team can extend more than a virtual handshake to your clients, our executives would be happy and share more information about our services and technology.

Categories
Business and Leadership Business Travel

Uber, Free Enterprise, and America

As a frequent business traveler, I spend more time than I would prefer in taxis, Uber cars, and other forms of transportation. But one of my favorite things to do in these situations, is to “interview” the drivers and hear their stories–as most of their stories are interesting.

Last week, I was in Chicago where I spent an hour with Uber driver, “Dervish.” My motivation for the “interview” was to learn from someone working directly in the so-called disruptive “sharing economy,” and also to simply get to know him.

This is Dervish’s story.

—

Fifteen years ago, Dervish and his wife, along with their two sons, were living in their home country of Albania when he applied for immigration to the United States. With a crackle in his voice, he told me about the day he received the letter from the United States of America granting his request.

When he and his family arrived in the States, he started out working in a factory in Chicago making $6.00 an hour, but soon got a job with a limo company and increased his earnings.

A few years ago he was able to buy an Uber car and he now “runs his own business.” His wife “works for an electronic engineering company” and his two boys have graduated from college, both with masters degrees. They too have good jobs.

Throughout the entire story, he kept repeating versions of, “This is the best country in the world. There is no other place where my family could have had the opportunities we have had.” He told me that most of his extended family and relatives still live in Albania. Most of them struggle to “get by.” None of them want to take the risk he took 15 years ago.

—

We arrived at the hotel at about 6:00 p.m. and I asked him if I would be his last ride. He said, “No. Business is good tonight. I’m going to keep working.” He then hustled back to get my luggage out of his trunk, shook my hand, looked me in the eye, thanked me for my business and said, “I’m going to give you a Five-Star Uber rating. I hope you do the same for me.”

Categories
Business Travel Travel Technology

Business Travel and the Digital Revolution

tablet
Mobile access to your travel management program is an essential part of the relationship you have with your travel management company.

I recently had an opportunity to participate on a panel with three other travel industry executives at The Beat Live in Washington D.C. The panel topic was “We Want Mobile And We Want It Yesterday.”

Participating on this panel caused me to reflect upon how mobile travel services have evolved quickly over the past few years, and how Christopherson Business Travel has participated in the overall digital revolution, which essentially started about 15 short years ago.

As the Internet, smart phones, and tablets have evolved, we asked ourselves these questions over time:

  1. Should we build a website for people to learn about us and contact us?
  2. Should we offer an online booking tool so our clients can book their own travel with us?
  3. Should we enhance our website to enable our clients to login and do business with us?
  4. Should we offer a mobile app to our travelers so they can access their travel plans and alert them about flight delays, gate changes and more?
  5. Should we expand our software development team to build a comprehensive proprietary travel management platform?
  6. Should we build our own iOS and Android mobile apps so our travel managers can do their job remotely?
  7. Should we make our entire technology platform “mobile responsive” so our clients can interact with us digitally anywhere, anytime, using any device?

Our answer was “yes” to each of these questions as we evolved and adapted to the digital revolution.

We have delivered mobile solutions with a combination of buying, building, and partnering, for example:

  • We bought the Concur Mobile App. We offer this booking app and Concur’s related expense app to our clients.
  • We built AirPortal 360 Mobile™. This mobile app was built specifically for the Travel Manager.
  • We partnered with TripIt. This app provides our travelers with a mobile app that gives them access to their itineraries. We were the first TMC to partner with TripIt in 2010.

AirPortal 360 Mobile delivers all the essential tools travel managers need to maintain their duty of care responsibilities, keep track of travelers and itineraries, approve travel, access and manage traveler profiles, ensure policy compliance, and more—anywhere, anytime.

Mobile access to your travel management program is an essential part of the relationship you have with your travel management company.

Categories
Business Travel Travel Technology

The Hotel Attachment Problem

Hotel Attachment
Hotel Attachment, Christopherson’s new hotel compliance system, assists travel managers in fulfilling duty of care responsibilities and commitments to contracted vendors.

The Beat’s Editor-in-Chief, Jay Boehmer, recently reported on Christopherson Business Travel’s new hotel compliance system, Hotel Attachment. The article and its title, “Christopherson Thinks It Has Solved The Hotel Attachment Problem,” were bold and certainly provocative. I’m not surprised that some responses were somewhere between curious and even incredulous.

Our view is that a low hotel attachment rate is not a simple problem to solve. There are many complex reasons as to why hotel attachment rates are low. Christopherson decided to take a holistic approach to the solving the problem.

At a high-level, there are likely four main reasons a client would book airfare but not book a hotel at the same time:

  1. They need a hotel and simply haven’t gotten around to booking it yet.
  2. They need a hotel and don’t have enough information about their trip to book it yet.
  3. They plan to book their hotel through a different channel, or it was booked for them.
  4. They actually don’t need a hotel.

Of course, there are many nuances within those four categories. For example, under reason No. 3, the traveler may have booked their room “out of channel” because:

  • They were part of a group who booked the hotel room block separately.
  • They’re attending a conference or a meeting that included the hotel booking.
  • They were not able to get the hotel inventory through the GDS-powered booking option.
  • They were able to get a lower price using a different booking method.
  • They have a personal preference for booking their own hotel (better user experience).

But ultimately, it’s not good for a traveler to have an incomplete itinerary with no hotel data included. Our goal was to first, identify which of the four reasons a traveler didn’t book a hotel and then provide them with a simple, digital path to help them easily complete their itinerary and solve the problem. Our technology platform, AirPortal®, supports and powers the Hotel Attachment system and provides us with enough unique information about the traveler, the company they work for, and their specific airline booking to simplify that process.

As clients begin to use our solution, we will be able to track why travelers haven’t booked their hotel initially and gather data on how we solved the problem. This will give our travel managers business intelligence metrics to increase their hotel attachment rates, provide better duty of care, and give them better negotiating power with their preferred vendors.

Our solution is much more than a marketing email.

Categories
Business Travel Travel Management Travel Technology

Christopherson Business Travel Offers a Solution to Low Hotel Attachment Rates

Hotel AttachmentTravel managers and TMCs have always struggled with low hotel attachment rates, which the industry estimates to be less than 50%. This is problematic because the results of low hotel attachment rates are incomplete travel itineraries, weakened vendor negotiations, and compromised duty of care.

Christopherson Business Travel introduced a holistic solution to the problem at the 2015 GBTA Convention in Orlando, Florida–Hotel Attachment.

Hotel Attachment, a hotel compliance system, meets the needs of the travelers who want an acceptable hotel included in every itinerary. It also meets the needs of travel managers who want savings, knowledge of where travelers are in order to fulfill duty of care responsibilities, and the ability to satisfy the company’s commitments with contracted hotel vendors.

Hotel Attachment identifies itineraries with missing hotel bookings and provides the traveler with four options to close that gap:

1. Make a hotel reservation

  • For agent bookings – traveler is presented  with a form that connects to their booking agent
  • For online bookings – refers the traveler back to their online booking tool

2. Request another reminder for a later date

  • Presents a calendar to select date of next reminder

3. Attach a hotel reservation made outside the system to the itinerary

  • Pre-populates dates in a template based upon air reservation
  • Presents a map to zoom in a locate their hotel
  • Connects to Christopherson’s proprietary database to ensure correct hotel and GPS location coordinates

4. Waive the need for a hotel reservation

  • Requires an explanation as to how they’re meeting their housing needs

With Hotel Attachment’s digital reminders, companies can ensure trip plans are complete and hotel compliant prior to travel.

Categories
Business Travel Travel Industry

Christopherson Business Travel: 2014 in Review

Growth-ArrowIn 2010, Christopherson Business Travel’s executive team set a goal to double in size—from a $240 million company to a $500 million company—by 2015. One year early, we have reached that goal, booking $510 million in travel during 2014.

2014 Was A Year of Big Growth

  • We increased our sales from $384 Million in 2013 to $510 million in 2014–a 33% increase.
  • We implemented 84 new corporate clients last year. We now manage travel for more than 900 companies and organizations across the country.
  • We added 40 new team members, bringing the total number of travel professionals employed with Christopherson to 365.
  • We built 136 new Concur booking sites for both new and existing clients.

Christopherson’s Plans for 2015

In 2015, we plan to leverage the benefits of our larger scale and resources in the following ways:

Strengthen our Operational Excellence

  • We will review, evaluate, and combine the best practices from each of our five offices.
  • We will build a better disaster-recovery plan into our expanded geographical footprint.

Continue to Invest in Unique AirPortal® Technologies

  • We will invest in a UI/UX makeover and responsive design for our AirPortal platform.
  • We will invest in new, revolutionary technology that is useful, elegant, and intuitive.

Increase AirPortal Adoption

  • We will continue to listen, prioritize, and act upon feedback from our clients.
  • We will provide more training to a “higher, wider, deeper” group of client users.

Screen shot 2015-02-02 at 5.05.11 PM

Categories
Business Travel Travel News

Dubai: The Fastest Growing City

3I recently had the opportunity to travel to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), to attend the Virtuoso Chairman’s Event. The UAE was established as a country in 1971 and is located in the southeast end of the Arabian Peninsula on the Persian Gulf.

Dubai has undergone a rapid transformation—from a desert located, pearl-diving culture, to one of the fastest growing cities in the world. Today, Dubai is a tourism, aviation, real estate, and financial services hub and has become a world-class cosmopolitan city.

The city has become famous for its skyscrapers and high-rise buildings, in particular the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa.

Dubai’s oil revenue accelerated the early development of the city, but its reserves are limited today. Less than 5% of their revenue comes from oil.

While they are famous for their “over the top” buildings and tourist attractions, the thing that most impressed me was the vision the city’s leaders had to invest their oil windfall in building their future.

Forbes Magazine said this about Dubai: “The recipe for success is not complex: rule of law, free trade, low taxes, business-friendly regulations, free movement of people and capital, no tolerance for corruption, physical safety, and security of property. That’s it.”

Dubai’s ruler was quoted to have said: “When the oil runs out will we be clapping or crying?” He wanted to invest the money in a way that they would be “clapping.” This is a stark contrast to some of their neighbors in the region who have squandered their oil revenue on terrorism and other things that will not build a future for their people.

Categories
Business and Leadership Travel Industry Travel News

Lose fears, take risks, and be more genuine, says Virtuoso Travel Week Keynote Speaker, Patrick Lencioni

Virtuoso Travel Week opening session at the Bellagio
Virtuoso Travel Week opening session at the Bellagio

I recently had the opportunity to listen to author and consultant Patrick Lencioni–whose book, Death by Meeting, I had previously read–at the Virtuoso Travel Week convention at the Bellagio Hotel.

In his remarks, he shared how to take our relationships with our clients to a higher level of value by losing our fears, taking risks, and being more genuine. His thesis is that this approach will build stronger relationships that can lead to much bigger rewards. He calls the approach “getting naked.”

At its core, “naked service” is the ability of a service provider to be vulnerable, to embrace humility, selflessness, and transparency for the good of a client.

He explained that most of us live our lives trying to avoid awkward and painful situations, which is why we are all susceptible to the three fears that sabotage client loyalty. He defined them as follows:

VTW-lunch-Mike-and-Kirsten
Kirsten Little, Manager of Andavo and Mike Cameron, President of Andavo & Christopherson Business Travel

Fear of Losing the Business – Worrying about losing a client’s business may cause service providers to avoid doing or saying the things that could create strong trust and loyalty. He recommends that you be honest, that you “tell the kind truths,” and that you “consult” instead of “sell.”

Fear of Being Embarrassed – Rooted in pride, this fear can lead service providers to withhold their best ideas from clients. He recommends that we go ahead and ask our “dumb questions” and make our “dumb suggestions.” Don’t be afraid of them. Playing it safe can eliminate your relevance.

Fear of Feeling Inferior – To avoid feeling irrelevant, service providers try to achieve a high level of importance in their clients’ minds. He recommends that we don’t be afraid to do the “dirty work.” Make everything about your client, they will appreciate the small things you do and will see you as being invaluable.

As a business travel agency, we plan to take these tips to heart in our dealings with our clients.

Categories
Business and Leadership

Twitter’s Biz Stone Talks About How He Defines Success

Convention_2014_Biz_Stone_120x168
Twitter’s Biz Stone, image source: GBTA

I recently heard Biz Stone, the co-founder and co-inventor of Twitter who also helped create and launch Xanga and Blogger, speak at the GBTA Convention in Los Angeles. In his remarks, he shared the story behind the idea and invention of Twitter. He also shared some of his insights into how he defines success. I took the following notes:

  • First, it must be fun before it can be important.
  • Twitter is not a triumph of technology. It’s a triumph of humanity.
  • Opportunity can be manufactured.
  • Creativity is a renewable resource.
  • To succeed spectacularly you need to be willing to fail spectacularly.
  • Altruism is important, be willing to help other people.
  • Get started helping others early. There is a compounding impact in helping others. Time matters.
  • A lot of the improvements made at Twitter came from watching how people used our software.
  • My hope is that all of this hyper-connectivity will create more empathy in the world.

Speaking of Twitter, you can follow Christopherson Business Travel’s feed here.

 

Categories
Travel Industry Travel News

Groundbreaking Held for Salt Lake International Airport’s New Terminal Project

Salt Lake City International Airport

The groundbreaking ceremony for Salt Lake International Airport’s new terminal was held last month on July 18. According to the press release, the 8-10 year construction plan will result in a new terminal and associated facilities at Salt Lake City International Airport.

“A single terminal will be built southwest of the existing terminal complex, featuring dual level access, new parking, and more spacious, modernized facilities,” the press release stated. “It is anticipated that the terminal will be completed in 2019.”

The $1.8 billion project will transform Salt Lake City International Airport into one of the nation’s most efficient airports. A more efficient Delta hub will also help drive Salt Lake City’s economic development.

A rendering of what the new airport will look like can be seen here.

Highlights of the new airport facility can be seen here.

Categories
Business and Leadership Business Travel

The Big Shift – What Leaders Must Know About The New Economy

I recently attended the Virtuoso Symposium in Berlin, Germany. One of the keynote speakers was Nancy Giordano, CEO and Brand Futurist at Play Big Inc.

Nancy shared some insights about the new economy and what we need to do in order to be successful in the future. At a high level she talked about “big shifts” or radical changes in technology, economics, culture, and values.

Screen shot 2014-06-02 at 8.02.12 AM

The essence of her remarks was that there is a “Big Shift” occurring—the world is in transition. As leaders, we need to translate this into what we need to do differently in order to remain relevant.

One of the things she mentioned is the need for companies to have a “User Experience (UX)” designer to help improve the user interface of their technology. She explained, “We must improve and simplify the user experience. At the center of a great UX designer is empathy. They need to ask what does the customer need and want. How do we look at the world through their eyes, not ours?”

We are in the process of doing this at Christopherson Business Travel with our AirPortal 360® travel management platform. We are reviewing all of our technology to ensure we are making relevant products that matter, with an elegant design, and an intuitive user experience. We look at everything we build with a “mobile first” attitude, understanding the need for a simplified experience. We plan to make “the big shift” and we can’t wait to show you the improvements.

Nancy concluded with this: “The future offers unprecedented possibilities. And it will be very bright for those ready to embrace these shifts and the invitation they extend to consider what you are in a unique position to contribute, commit, collaborate and courageously create. The future is asking you to play big! Please.”

Categories
Business Travel

Christopherson’s Newly Acquired All Seasons Travel Undergoes Rebranding

Christopherson Business Travel purchased All Seasons Travel in December of last year. As we continue to integrate our new Birmingham and Montgomery, Alabama offices into our organization, we will be rebranding the Alabama operations into three separate divisions:

1. Christopherson Business Travel

CBT_SmallThe Alabama business travel team members will all operate under our Christopherson Business Travel brand, with Jeanine Eissler as the manager of the Southeast region. We have already won $20 Million in new business travel contracts in the Southeast, all of which is in the process of being implemented into our Alabama offices.

2. Andavo Travel

Andavo Logo_335x60The leisure travel agents and independent contractors will operate under our Andavo Travel brand (which specializes in luxury travel and hosted agent travel), with Meredith Price as the operations manager of the Southeast region. Our Alabama offices will also be part of Andavo’s world-class luxury travel consortium, Virtuoso.

3. All Seasons Sports Travel

AllSeasonsSportsTravel_Logo-v2All Seasons Sports Travel is a newly created division and will primarily focus on the fan-based collegiate sports travel that All Seasons has done so well for so many years. Ellen Ray has been named manager of this division. Click here to see the new website, AllSeasonsSportsTravel.com.

 

Categories
Business Travel

Driving Loyalty: Turning Every Customer and Employee into a Raving Fan for Your Brand

book-img21I had the privilege of hearing Ron Cerko, Vice President of Travel Industry Relations for Enterprise Holdings, speak at the BCD Affiliates annual sales and account management meeting, held at The Ritz-Carlton Lodge, Reynolds Plantation in Greensboro, Georgia last month.

In his remarks, Ron referred to Driving Loyalty, by Kirk Kazanjian. The book, though written about the National Enterprise Rent-a-Car story, teaches how any business can be successful through brand loyalty. Some of the highlights Ron pointed out included:

  • Think differently!
  • Meet an overlooked need in the marketplace
  • Find and serve a specific un-crowded niche
  • Take care of your customers and employees first–the profits will follow
  • Be ready to seize an opportunity when it strikes
  • Be the best company your clients have ever done business with
  • 68% of lost customers leave because they had poor customer service
  • Deliver dazzling service

At Christopherson Business Travel, we work diligently to create and maintain a unique competitive advantage. We have approached the development of our unique services and technology offerings as a science. This is the only way you’re able to succeed in a competitive marketplace.

In order for something to be defined as a “unique competitive advantage” we require that it pass a four-part test:

  1. It must be objective.
  2. It must be quantifiable.
  3. It can’t be a cliché.
  4. It can’t be claimed by our competitors.

Read more about Christopherson’s four-part test here.

 

Categories
Business Travel Travel News

Christopherson’s CEO Shares His Notes from Jim Collins’ GBTA Keynote Address

Camerons with Jim Collins
Mike and Matt Cameron with author, Jim Collins

I recently attended the Global Business Travel Association’s Masters Program with my brother Matt, our COO. While there, we had the privilege of hearing the Concur-sponsored keynote speaker, Jim Collins. Jim is the author of the book Good to Great, which, in my opinion, is one of the all-time great business books on how to build successful, enduring companies.

If you haven’t read his book, you should. If you haven’t attended the Masters Program, you should.

Jim’s remarks summarized some of his famous principles and I took notes as follows:

If you want your company to go from “Good to Great” you must identify how you are doing with regards to the following 12 questions:

 

1. Do I have the will to become a level 5 leader?

Leadership is the art of getting people to “want” to do what needs to be done

    • Level 5 Executive – Inspires people to follow a cause
    • Level 4 Effective Leader – Inspires people to follow them
    • Level 3 Competent manager
    • Level 2 Contributing team member
    • Level 1 Highly capable individual

2. Are you humble?

Humility is a most important leadership trait.

3. Do you have the right people on the bus?

This is the single most critical executive decision you need to make with your leaders. Do your leaders have the necessary:

    1. Values
    2. Will
    3. Skills

Great leadership isn’t worth much without exceptional unit leadership.
Great unit leaders are really good at building pockets of greatness.

4. What are the brutal facts?

Pick up the “rocks” and look at them underneath to see what needs to be fixed.

5. What do we understand about our hedgehog?

Click here for an explanation of Jim’s hedgehog concept.

Foxes love complexity.
Hedgehogs understand one big thing.
Simplify things, reduce concepts down to a simple concept.
Three things that play into your hedgehog strategy:

    1. What are you passionate about?
    2. What are you the best in the world at?
    3. What drives your economic engine?

6. How can you accelerate your flywheel by committing to a 20-mile march?

Two teams set out to get to the South Pole in 1911. They both left for the South Pole at the same time. Only one team made it there and back by committing to a 20-mile march EVERY day.

    • Fanatical discipline
    • Productive paranoia
    • Empirical creativity

Once you get the flywheel moving, fine-tuned and growing, it can’t be stopped.

7. Where should you place your big bets?

How do you blend creativity and discipline?
Creativity is natural.
Discipline is not natural, it must be learned.
There is a difference between how the winners did innovation.
Those who didn’t win didn’t fire enough bullets.
First fire bullets, then cannon balls.
Keep trying things until you find something that works, then fire cannonballs.

8. What is your BHAG–your big hairy audacious goal?

The “goal” will stimulate progress.
Preserve the core while stimulating progress.
Change practices without changing core values.

9. What is the right 20% that you need to change and why?

10. How can we maximize our return on luck?

Level 5 leaders credited good luck for their success
Are the big winners luckier? No.
The winners got a higher return on their luck.

11. Do you show any stages of the five stages of decline:

    1. Hubris born of success
    2. Undisciplined pursuit of more
    3. Denial of risk and peril
    4. Grasping for salvation
    5. Capitulation to Irrelevance or Death

12. What should be on your “stop doing” list?

True discipline lies not in what we do, but to know what to stop doing.
What can we do to seek not to attain a good life, but instead a great life?

Categories
Travel Management Travel Technology

AirPortal 360™ Mobile Provides Travel Management And More

AirPortal-360-Mobile-blackWhen Christopherson Business Travel developed AirPortal 360™ Mobile, our objective was to create the first mobile app designed exclusively for the corporate travel manager. We succeeded!

With AirPortal 360 Mobile, you can do your job wherever you are, whenever you need to.

The app is now available in IOS and Andriod versions and includes the following functions:

SecurityLogic®: Provides a map to see who is traveling and where, plus the ability to alert travelers of delays and dangers

Airtinerary®: All your travelers’ itineraries—past, present, and future are accessible

ProfileLogic®: Access and edit your travelers’ profiles, deactivate/activate users, and reset passwords

PolicyLogic®: Summary view of your company’s travel policy plus access to your vendor contracts

Contacts: All the numbers you need, stored in one place

But as it turns out, AirPortal 360 Mobile does so much more.

Now that our corporate clients have been using it for four to five months, we have learned that the app is helpful in so many additional ways. For example:

  • One of our travel managers recently told us, “Every time I’m in a meeting, someone will ask me where so-and-so is, assuming that I have every traveler’s itinerary memorized. Now I do!”
  • When a group of travelers are attending a meeting or event together, there are always questions about who is arriving and departing when, who has a rental car booked, and how you will coordinate transportation. With AirPortal 360 Mobile, it’s done! Logistics are easy to coordinate because all that information is at your fingertips.
  • When traveling with others you often need to know who is staying at which hotels to schedule logistics and events. Again, done!
  • When traveling for business it is often necessary to find a coworker’s itinerary, should you be interested in booking others on the same fight. Done.

We are pleased with the adoption of AirPortal 360 Mobile and the way in which it has enhanced not only travel management, but also day-to-day travel coordination and the logistics of business travel.

If  you have questions about how AirPortal 360 Mobile can benefit your company’s travel program, please contact one of our executives.

Categories
Business Travel Travel Industry

2013: A Big Year of Change, Investments, and Growth for Christopherson Business Travel

Christopherson experienced a big year of investment, growth, and change.
Christopherson experienced a big year of investment, growth, and change.

As we look back on 2013, Christopherson Business Travel had a great year with lots of change, major investments, and lots of growth.

We Made Big Changes:

  • We implemented the Agresso ERP accounting & business information system.
  • We updated and implemented our travel management technology platform, AirPortal®.
  • We moved, expanded, or remodeled our offices in Marin County, Salt Lake City, and Denver.

We Made Big Investments:

We Experienced Big Growth:

  • We implemented 96 new corporate clients, plus we added 170 new clients in Alabama.
  • We added 75 new team members (27 new employees/agents and 48 new employees in Alabama).
  • We added about $50 Million in sales.

Twenty-thirteen was a year filled with change, investment, and growth. And as we look forward to 2014, we have set the stage for even more growth. We are looking forward to another amazing year.

Mike Cameron, CEO
Christopherson Business Travel

Categories
Business Travel Travel Technology

AirPortal 360™ is a Travel Management Nerve Center

Effective travel management must meet and balance the needs of two key groups:

  1. Travel managers, who need to save their company money on travel and who also have duty of care responsibilities
  2. Travelers, who want service, safety, and convenience.
AirPortal 360 is a travel management nerve center.
AirPortal 360 is a travel management nerve center.

Our objective at Christopherson Business Travel, when we developed AirPortal 360, was to meet the requirements of both groups. While our key stakeholders are the companies for whom we manage travel because they pay for our services, we must also take good care of the travelers, in order to be successful.

AirPortal 360 is the solution that provides companies:

  1. One platform integrating full-service and online travel management.
  2. A 360° real-time view of their entire travel program providing high-level “situational awareness and increased visibility.
  3. Actionable intelligence allowing travel managers, our account managers, and our agents to respond to our clients’ needs.

The key components of our proprietary AirPortal 360 platform are:


AirPortal 360™ Dashboard

  • Provides SecurityLogic heat map on the homepage, plus customizable widgets to provide awareness and actionable intelligence

PolicyLogic™

  • Create a travel management policy to monitor and manage your travel program
  • Manage preferred vendor relationships and ensure compliance to help save money

ProfileLogic®

  • Set up a company and their travelers’ profiles and optionally organize them by division, department, and team

Airtinerary®

  • Access past, present, and future traveler itineraries

SecurityLogic®

  • Handle duty of care by identifying who, when, and where travelers are, and respond appropriately when there is an incident that requires action

AirBank®

  • Increase savings through recovery and management of unused airline tickets

DataLogic®

  • Provide real-time access and on-demand reporting of travel program data

My Travel™ Dashboard

  • Provide travelers with the information they need before, during, and after their trips

To learn more about how Christopherson’s AirPortal 360 platform can benefit your company’s travel program and save you time and money on business travel, please contact one of our executives.

 

 

Categories
Business Travel Travel Industry

Delta Air Lines Continues to Invest in Los Angeles

delta_airlines_logo1Delta Air Lines continues to invest in their presence at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and in meeting their clients’ global travel needs. Some of their exciting 2013 milestones are:

  • Commenced a $229 Million renovation at LAX which, when complete, will feature four new check-in islands, a new baggage claim area, same-floor security check-in with 10 lanes and even more restaurants and shopping options
  • Closed on their 49% equity stake in Virgin Atlantic Airways, giving Delta non-stop, twice daily LA-London service on Virgin’s industry-leading product. This service will commence in January 2014.
  • Launched a new “Shuttle Service” on the busy L.A.-San Francisco route with 15 daily hourly trips with a top-of-the-hour memory schedule similar to the East Coast shuttles between New York and Boston/DC/Chicago
  • Standardized flat-bed seats with no-step over aisle access in business class on all Delta transoceanic daily international flights from LA to Sydney and both of Tokyo’s airports, Narita and Haneda
  • Launched new destinations from LAX including Seattle, Portland, San Jose (CA), Nashville, Spokane, Cancun, Puerto Vallarta, and San Jose (Costa Rica)

Delta recently announced the best 3rd quarter financial results in their history. They are performing well on all fronts.

The airline also won in double categories in The Beat’s sixth annual Readers’ Choice Awards, for Most Admired Airline and the Supplier of the Year.

Categories
Business Travel Travel Industry Travel Technology

A Brief Overview and Evolution of the Travel Industry

Travel is so commonplace and easy in today’s world, most people don’t stop to thing about the evolution of the travel industry. Just how far have we come? Where did we start? Read our ultimate guide below for a history on our current travel and reservation system, which ultimately changed how we work and live.

Historical highlights in the evolution of the travel industry:

  • In 1841, Thomas Cook, a Baptist preacher, struck a deal with the Midland Railway to organize the transportation of members of his temperance society. Cook received a commission from the railway and effectively became the first recorded travel agent.
  • The rapid growth of the airlines began in the 1920s and Delta, American, and PanAm were formed at this time.
  • Joe Saunders, an entrepreneur from Omaha, started an “Automobile for Hire” business that is recognized as being the first recorded car rental company.
  • Later that decade, John Hertz would purchase one of Saunders’ competitors and form the Hertz company.

The evolution of travel technology and reservation systems:

In 1952, American Airlines installed the Magnetronic Reservisor. This is an electromechanical system of vacuum tubes and a magnetic storage drum. It allowed the airline to store seat availability on a centralized platform.

  • Around the same time, Trans Canada Airlines (TCA), in conjunction with the University of Toronto, developed the world’s first computerized reservation system. Called Reservations Electronically Controlled, it was commonly known as the Reservec.
  • American Airlines, aware of the early Reservec success, invested in the development of their own computerized reservation system.  In partnership with IBM, they developed the Sabre computer reservation system. Used by travel agents, it acted as a clearing house for US travel.
  • By late 1970s, reservation terminals were installed in travel agencies across the US.
  • Meanwhile, Sabre, in partnership with the growing computer network services business, Compuserve, provided the first known instance of online bookings for both airlines and hotels via EAASY Sabre.
  • The increase in travel agent hotel reservations and the advent of smaller and more powerful desktop computer systems prompted the creation of hotel reservation systems. Now, the reservation systems could be located at the hotel front desk, increasing convenience.
  • In 1996, a small division of Microsoft, called Expedia, launched its website offering online bookings for air, hotels, and car rentals.
  • Later that year, Travelocity, owned by Sabre, launched its own site to help the “do-it-yourself traveler.”
  • The co-founders of Orbitz and Experdia realized consumers were shopping across multiple websites looking for deals on airline fares. They developed Kayak, allowing customers to find airline pricing results across multiple sites with one search. This model is known as metasearch.

Today, the travel industry has morphed into a combination of self-service internet tools  and full-service travel management companies. One suits the ‘do-it-yourself’ traveler, while the other manages travel for businesses and organizations. Christopherson Business Travel provides a crossover with our proprietary travel technology known as AirPortal®. We manage travel for busy companies, but provide simple and straight-forward technology so they can easily book travel themselves too.

Categories
Vacation Travel

Destination Highlight: Iguazu Falls, Argentina

I recently visited Iguazu Falls, prior to attending the Virtuoso Symposium in Buenos Aires. (Isn’t it nice when you can add some leisure travel to your business trip?) Iguazu Falls is on the border of Brazil and Northern Argentina, and consists of numerous waterfalls varying from about 200-270 feet high. It is divided into upper and lower Iguazu and is so large that there is no vantage point that allows you to view the entire falls at once, unless you are in a helicopter. The upper falls are called the Devil’s Throat, where about half of the rivers flow falls. The Devil’s Throat is about 270 feet high, 490 feet wide, and 2,300 feet long. It is incredible to see the amount of water flowing through it!

About 20% of the falls are on the Brazil side and 80% are on the Argentina side. The Argentina side takes you almost the entire day to visit, because of the numerous catwalks along the entire top of the falls. It also takes you to a great vantage point right in the middle of the Devil’s Throat. I did not visit the Brazil side, but it seemed that the Argentina side got you much closer to the falls overall and had a lot more to see, where as the Brazil side gave good panoramic views from across the river.

The best place to stay is the Sheraton Iguazu Resort & Spa. It is the only hotel inside the park. You can literally walk out the back side of the hotel and you are at the falls. The other hotels are in Puerto Iguazu, which is a small town about 20 minutes from the falls. The Sheraton is more expensive because of its proximity to the falls, but it’s still the best option.

We spent a day at Iguazu Falls and I believe it was the perfect amount of time. Two days would have allowed for us to take our time, but much more time would have been excessive. The only thing to see is the falls, but they are definitely worth the trip. Even though Iguazu is packed with tourists and far away from anything, it is still absolutely amazing and completely worth seeing.

Categories
Business Travel Travel Industry

The Science of Maintaining a Unique Competitive Advantage

competition_advantageWhen in business, whether you own the company or are an employee of it, it is important to understand the difference between “unique competitive advantages” and “business strengths.” Many companies will tout their “advantages,” but what they’re really presenting are just their basic strengths and most cases, are likely are only spouting clichés. An example of a common and overused business cliché is: “we will exceed your expectations.”

While business strengths are important, they are not differentiators. You need strengths just to stay in business. You need unique competitive advantages to grow and prosper, faster than your competition.

At Christopherson Business Travel we have approached the development of our unique competitive advantages as a science. This is the only way you’re able to succeed in a highly competitive marketplace.

In order for something to be defined as a “unique competitive advantage” we require that it pass a four-part test:
1.    It must be objective.
2.    It must be quantifiable.
3.    It can’t be a cliché.
4.    It can’t be claimed by our competitors.

An example of one of our unique competitive advantages is the recent introduction of AirPortal 360™ Mobile, the first comprehensive mobile app to provide corporate travel managers the ability to manage their company’s travel program from the palm of their hand. Read about it here.

The introduction of this newest unique competitive advantage garnered a great deal of media attention (see here), which is objective and quantifiable.

Can we objectively say that our unique competitive advantages have helped us grow faster than our competition? During the last five years we have more than doubled in size, growing from a $160 million company in 2007, to a $341 million company in 2012. Christopherson was recently ranked #11 in size, in the U.S., by Business Travel News (BTN). We were also the fastest growing of all the top 20 Travel Management Companies in the U.S., in terms of percentage growth. Read more here.

The BTN ranking and applicable growth rate are objective, quantifiable, not a cliché, and can’t be claimed by our competitors. Thus, Christopherson Business Travel can present our technology to be a “unique competitive advantage.”

Categories
Business Travel Travel Industry Travel Management Travel Technology

Christopherson Business Travel Releases AirPortal 360™ Mobile: The First Comprehensive Mobile App for Corporate Travel Managers

AirPortal 360 Mobile is the first mobile app that allows corporate travel managers the ability to manage their program wherever, whenever.
AirPortal 360 Mobile is the first mobile app that provides corporate travel managers the ability to manage their company’s travel program–wherever, whenever.

Christopherson Business Travel will soon be launching AirPortal 360™ Mobile, the first comprehensive mobile app to provide corporate travel managers the ability to manage their company’s travel program from the palm of their hand—wherever, whenever. (Read the full press release here.)

As the mobile version of Christopherson’s intelligent travel manager dashboard, AirPortal 360 Mobile delivers a collection of essential management tools that allow travel managers, and other key players in a company’s travel program, to maintain and manage their duty of care responsibilities, ensure better policy compliance, keep track of travelers and their itineraries, and more.

In the recent Business Travel News (BTN) article, “Assessing Mobile Travel Services and Strategies,” BTN stated that, “However nimble a corporate travel program might be, changes in its culture inevitably occur more slowly than did the rapid, massive embrace by business travelers of mobile technology.”

At Christopherson, we have noticed that while mobile technology innovation has progressed rapidly for travelers, there has not been much innovation when it comes to mobile technology for travel managers. The mobile apps that do exist for that market only provide a third-party software developer’s niche service, and until now, there have been no comprehensive mobile apps to help travel managers oversee their entire travel program. AirPortal 360 Mobile is the solution to that void.

Christopherson has long been a leader in adopting mobile business travel technology, as evidenced by the fact that we were the first travel management company to fully integrate TripIt’s interactive trip management services for all Christopherson business travelers. This occured three years ago, prior to Concur buying TripIt. (Read TripIt’s full press release here.)

Christopherson will be unveiling AirPortal 360 Mobile at the 2013 Global Business Travel Association convention, in San Diego, CA, August 4-7. The app is first available to iPhone users, and the Android version will be released in September 2013.

We invite you to stop by our booth (#3625) to take a look and demo the app for yourself.
GBTA Signature

Categories
Business Travel Travel Industry

BCD’s Acquisition of TBiz Continues the Convergence of Full-Service and Online TMC Channels

BCDBCD Travel acquired Travelocity Business, otherwise known as TBiz, from its parent company Travelocity. Travelocity is a unit of Sabre Holding.

This is particularly interesting to us at Christopherson Business Travel because we are an affiliate of BCD Travel. We see this as a positive announcement and anticipate that this should benefit our clients in the future, by giving us access to any discounted hotel and other discounted vendor content that Tbiz might have.

This transaction brings full circle the decade-long trend of online travel agencies and traditional full-service travel management companies converging. The trend started in 2002 when Expedia bought full-service corporate travel agency, Metropolitan Travel.

An interesting side-note to the story is that World Travel Partners, the predecessor company to BCD Travel, was the original fulfillment partner for Expedia. They issued and serviced all of the tickets for Expedia for many years, and by 1999 had as many as 250 customer service representatives assigned to the account.

Orbitz joined the convergence trend with the launch of Orbitz for Business in 2002 and then Travelocity followed suit by launching Tbiz in 2003. Expedia bought Paris-based Egencia in 2004 and eventually rebranded its entire business travel unit under the Egencia name.

During this same time period full-service business travel management companies were converging from the opposite direction and rapidly selling and implementing corporate online booking tools. Online adoption rates soared with TMCs over the past decade. Concur expanded the convergence trend by acquiring the Cliqbook on-line booking tool from Outtask and integrating it into their expense management service.

We can now say that effective travel management requires all TMC participants to offer and embrace the full spectrum of online booking tools as well the as the high-touch travel agent and account management services offered by the traditional TMCs.

Christopherson is also participating in the convergence trend with increased online booking adoption rates. While our total airline transactions in 2012 increased 17% over 2011, our online bookings increased at a much more robust rate of 78% during 2012!

 

Categories
Travel Management Travel Technology

Great Design Matters–How Christopherson Bridged the Gap Between Technology Form and Function

airportal360-dashboard

Everyone sees Apple as the gold standard for great technology design. Their minimalistic, clean, user friendly interfaces are great because they are simple and intuitive. They hide the complexity of the technology from the user. Great design is an integral part of every decision they make.

Many technology companies have great technology (function), but they leave the user-interface (form) up to their internal software engineers. In these instance, the design often appears to be an afterthought, at best. Popular psychology tells us that those who are often best with the “left brain” work, the logical stuff, might not be as good at the creating great designs, the “right brain” activities.

When Christopherson embarked on our journey to completely redesign AirPortal®, our integrated business travel technology platform, and introduce AirPortal 360™, our travel manager dashboard, we wanted to treat form and function with equal importance. We made the decision early on to hire a creative, user-interface design company to help us with our “form.” But this also then creates a separate challenge, which is that if you get too creative, your technology might not be as functional as a simple, yet boring, design might be.

How did we bridge the gap? We created two separate designs–one was done by our outside design company and the other by our internal development team. We then sat down and merged the best of both worlds. We were also fortunate that we have one of those rare individuals on our technology team who has great skills on both sides of the brain. The process was interesting; designers are artists and they often think of their design as their “baby.” And who wants to tell anyone that they have an “ugly baby,” right?

In the end, we came up with a design that nailed our form-versus-function objectives. And while we’re certainly not Apple, we do think our new AirPortal 360 design is clean, creative, and functional–so please don’t tell us that you think we have an “ugly baby.”

Categories
Business Travel Travel Management

The Acrobatics of Rock & Roll Business Travel

business travel management for rock groups

What event takes 130 people, 27 trucks, a 747 cargo plane, multiple cars, hotel rooms with late check-in and late check-out, catering, advance travel teams, and contingency plans? Here’s a hint: It’s all for one two-and-a-half hour rock and roll show.

Welcome to the Sir Paul McCartney tour!

The travel requirements for this tour were described as “practically a paramilitary operation,” by Global Business Travel magazine editor Peter Greenburg in his recent  article “Band on the Run: Anatomy of a Mega Rock and Roll Tour.”

It’s not just the musicians’ needs they have to consider. Planning a concert tour means coordinating travel for the entire crew, including lighting and sound techs, caterers, and accountants, plus the arranging of numerous hotel rooms, navigating weather, and dealing with lost luggage. It’s nothing short of a business travel management miracle.

But having had the privilege of attending two of Sir Paul’s concerts, I can confidently say that all the behind the scenes acrobatics are certainly worth it!

(Oh, and while you’re browsing the latest issue of Global Business Travel, check out Christopherson Business Travel’s ad on page 7!)