Focus: profiling and reporting

The integration of new offers and functions will not only impact the user experience (front office), but also the data models of booking platforms (mid/back office). The main focus is to be able to: a) track relevant booking behaviors to better engage with the travelers, and b) monitor the air expenditures and assess the effectiveness of the travel program in place.

Challenge #4 - How to track business travelers’ behaviors and make the most of this data

The idea here is to think how profiling – which has become mainstream in leisure travel – could be adapted to business travel. For example, this could be illustrated by the creation of enhanced corporate user profiles and leveraging the analysis of shopping/booking behaviors to suggest relevant offers to travelers based on their needs, within a corporate framework. 

During the Hackathon you can for example look at identifying what a traveler systematically books alongside the air ticket, to propose this option for any future booking.

Challenge #5 - How to improve visibility and forecast on travel costs

Travel managers don’t have clear visibility on the expenditures related to ancillaries since they are mostly unavailable in the corporate booking tools and are booked separately by travelers. Consolidation is not easy due to the various booking channels existing today (SBT -cf. glossary- ; airline.com). If a booking does not go through a preferred channel (e.g. SBT - cf. glossary), it will not be easy to track. Consolidation happens after the booking, provided the traveler has submitted an expense claim when purchasing ancillaries using an individual payment card, often via the airline.com (cf. glossary).

Take advantage of the Hackathon to grant the travel manager with a better visibility on ancillary fees, predict costs and even help him/her to make decisions that will impact the travel policy based on fully integrated data.  

References:

IATA has built a sandbox (“SBT Demonstrator”) to show how NDC could enhance a corporate booking tool, both from a user experience perspective (rich content, comparison features etc.) to an analytical perspective (reporting and forecasting capabilities). Check the SBT Demonstrator for more information - specifically the REPORTS menu. 

View this brief video that showcases the possibilities for Self-Booking Tools (SBT’s) to enhance the user experience in a travel-managed channel. 

All resources, including a Change Readiness guide (pdf) and a gap analysis report (pdf) highlighting featured developments opportunities are accessible through the NDC for Business Travel Microsite.

Focus: User Experience

In the context of consumerization, the business traveler is influenced by the convenience of the tools and services used for leisure. Imagine how NDC could improve the business traveler journey via rich content (photos, videos) and new features.

Challenge #1 - How to ensure consistent content? Choose options for 1) across all direct versus indirect channels 2) to provide a seamless experience regardless of the device or 3) to ensure truly comparable products (with bundled versus unbundled taken into account)

Today, there is a huge influence from leisure travel websites and airlines.com that travelers like to use because they are more convenient and often result in a better user experience (UX) than corporate booking tools (SBT’s – refer to glossary). Yet, the content (offers) available across channels used to book a trip is not consistent. Furthermore, the multiplicity of air fares and of devices accentuates inconsistency.

Use the Hackathon as an opportunity to explore how corporate booking tools (cf. glossary) could aggregate the entirety of airlines’ offers and come up with enhanced comparison features ( including luggage, Wi-Fi, priority boarding, lounge access etc.)

Challenge #2 - How to introduce a double level of personalization, recognizing both the individual business traveler and their company

Personalization is a big deal in business travel and it is influenced by what happens on the leisure front. OTAs or airlines (via their airlines.com) may have built a personalized relationship with travelers and know their preferences to be able to suggest appropriate offers and perks.

Seize the opportunity to participate in this Hackathon to enhance airline retailing by sending out tailored messages/services/perks to the business traveler while he/she is being identified as an employee of a given company. For example by sending out a welcome message upon check-in stating: “Welcome John Y from CompanyX.

Challenge #3 - How to improve the business traveler’s experience at the airport, based on geolocation

This refers to ‘on the go’ services and is about developing solutions on mobile/smartwatches (apps) and how to use technology based on geolocation. This could be illustrated with the business traveler receiving a notification on his mobile/smartwatch while passing by specific shops or other points of interests at the airport. Or the business traveler could be detected while walking by the airline’s lounge and receive a push notification on his mobile device(s) asking: “Would you like to purchase lounge access?

References:

IATA has built a sandbox (“SBT Demonstrator”) to show how NDC could enhance a corporate booking tool, both from a user experience perspective (rich content, comparison features etc.) to an analytical perspective (reporting and forecasting capabilities). Check the SBT Demonstrator for more information - specifically the REPORTS menu. 

View this brief video that showcases the possibilities for Self-Booking Tools (SBT’s) to enhance the user experience in a travel-managed channel. 

All resources, including a Change Readiness guide (pdf) and a gap analysis report (pdf) highlighting featured developments opportunities are accessible through the NDC for Business Travel Microsite.