As a Concur Preferred Partner, Christopherson Business Travel had the privilege of participating in Concur’s annual sales kickoff event, Ignite 2015, in Bellevue, WA. Nearly 20 Concur business partners joined 1,100 Concur executives, management, business development, and account management team members as they prepare for another year of making travel and expense management better for companies and travelers around the world. With the recent sale of Concur to SAP, the event was full of energy and excitement about the future of the combined organizations.
Our colleagues at Concur were interested to learn more about Christopherson’s travel management solutions and our integration with Concur Travel and Expense. As the 11th largest Travel Management Company in the U.S., Christopherson provides customers with a powerful end-to-end travel management solution and is confident of the value our exclusive travel technologies, like AirPortal 360™ and AirPortal 360™ Mobile, can bring to Concur customers.
Christopherson values our Preferred Partnership status with Concur and enjoyed this opportunity to participate in Ignite 2015.
With Christopherson Business Travel’s strategic travel management services, companies can enjoy best-in-class travel management programs.
According to Travel Market Report, “Travel accounts for a significant portion of total corporate expenses. But just how significant may be a surprise … Business travel accounts for anywhere between 8% and 12% of the overall enterprise expense budget. This is bad news for travel managers whose companies see travel as a cost center, but good news for those whose companies see travel as an investment in revenues.”
Market research firm, Aberdeen Group, identified three key strategies common to best-in-class travel management programs:
Support travel management with analytics, integration and mobility
Use mobile apps and portals to put expense management directly in the hands of travelers
Leverage analytics and integration to drive transparency into travel processes and spending to improve corporate budgeting, planning, and forecasting
As a leader in the business travel industry and the 11th largest travel management company in the U.S., Christopherson Business Travel is committed to providing innovative and integrated travel management services that accomplish those three key strategies.
By developing proprietary technologies like AirPortal 360 and AirPortal 360 Mobile, Christopherson supports their more than 1,000 corporate clients’ travel programs with that much-needed analytics, integration, and mobility.
Additionally, clients of Christopherson enjoy the added benefit of a consultative Account Manager whose job it is to help leverage that analytics, drive transparency in travel processes and spending, and improve corporate travel budgeting, planning, and forecasting.
Key strategies for best-in-class travel management programs 1, 2, and 3: Check, check, and check.
To learn more about how Christopherson can help your company implement these three key strategies into your travel program, please contact one of our business executives.
When 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!
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.
AirPortal 360™ Mobile helps travel managers and travel planners do their jobs more quickly, more thoroughly, and from anywhere.
With the recent release of Christopherson Business Travel’s new AirPortal 360™ mobile app, we have literally put the power of AirPortal 360 into the hands of travel managers, travel planners, and key executives. With just one or two clicks, you can now answer a variety of questions, such as:
Who is traveling today?
Where will our travelers be tomorrow or next week?
When does “so-and-so” return?
What hotel is he/she staying in?
What is our contract rate at the Hyatt in San Francisco?
What is the CD number for our Delta contract?
I forgot my password. Help?
A new hire started today. Can you get her set up to book travel?
I deleted my itinerary. Can I get another copy for my expense report?
One of our travelers was let go today. Will you please make sure he can no longer book travel?
You can also execute a number of important tasks, even when you’re not at your desk, including:
Locating all your company’s travelers
Viewing all your travelers’ itinerary details
Emailing an itinerary
Accessing vendor contracts
Enrolling new travelers
Resetting passwords
Deactivating ex-employees
Contacting your Account Manager
Contacting your Agents
Immediately assisting travelers if flights are delayed/cancelled
Notifying travelers of weather, disaster, safety, or delay information
Here is some recent feedback from current AirPortal 360 Mobile users:
“Everyone expects me to know all of the details of every traveler. Now I do!“
“I use this app every day, it is so convenient and simple to use.“
“With three clicks I can get the data I need. Wow!“
So, can AirPortal 360 Mobile make your life easier? All signs point to YES.
It has been our pleasure to participate in the Global Business Travel Association’s (GBTA) Annual Convention and Trade Show for several years, but this year we went “BIG.” Our booth was three times the size it was last year, and staffed with more Christopherson team members than ever–which was perfect for the big unveiling of our new AirPortal 360™ Mobile app. GBTA, with its 7,000 attendees, proved to be an exciting time and place for the release of this new technology.
With record traffic to our booth, we provided numerous product demonstrations and received exceptional feedback about AirPortal 360™ Mobile, the first comprehensive mobile app that provides corporate travel managers the ability to manage their company’s travel program from the palm of their hand—wherever, whenever.
As the mobile version of our intelligent travel manager dashboard, AirPortal 360 Mobile delivers a collection of tools that allow travel managers the ability to maintain and manage their duty of care responsibilities, ensure better policy compliance, keep track of travelers and their itineraries, and more.
Corporate travel budgets of any size will benefit from the features of AirPortal 360 and its new mobile app. It was a rewarding experience for us to launch it at GBTA with some of the largest corporate travel buyers in the country and we now look forward to sharing it with corporate travel buyers everywhere.
Christopherson Business Travel’s new mobile app for corporate travel managers, AirPortal 360™ Mobile, released this week at the annual GBTA convention in San Diego, California.
In the days leading up to, and following the event, Christopherson received much media attention regarding the new technology.
We are thrilled to see so many stories popping up and want to thank the news outlets for their coverage. Check out the latest of Christopherson’s news appearances:
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.
As a Concur Preferred Partner, Christopherson Business Travel had the privilege of participating in Concur’s annual sales kickoff event, Ignite 2015, in Bellevue, WA. Nearly 20 Concur business partners joined 1,100 Concur executives, management, business development, and account management team members as they prepare for another year of making travel and expense management better for companies and travelers around the world. With the recent sale of Concur to SAP, the event was full of energy and excitement about the future of the combined organizations.
