Why TMC needs to invest in Technology?

TMC stands for Travel Management Companies, primarily servicing the needs of corporate travelers.

In the traditional world of TMC or the offline environment, everything happens offline – Corporate Traveler will send the request to the travel desk, in case it’s a large corporate or send the request directly to the TMC. Based on the request TMC or the travel desk will prepare the multiple quotations and sent it to the corporate which corporate will review, negotiate (if needed) and then close the quotation. 

Send an email confirmation to book the services, TMC will put their service fees and send the invoice as per their contract.

In such scenarios, 1 booking may take a day/s to confirm or more, case to case basis. Post that TMC will go ahead to book – they may book the same fare if its available or the next best fare available for the corporate.

In such a business model, there is no automation – resulting in slow service and communication, prone to human errors, lack of transparency between TMC and corporate, Travel Policies are all applied offline – exposed to the judgement of Travel Desk or TMC. Once the traveler is on the move hardly any direct communication with Traveler & the Agency so lack’s the personalized assistance for the traveler and DUTY of CARE would be the far-fetched dream.

There are n numbers of benefit’s which a TMC can achieve with technology solution:

• Quality of Services: There are multiple factors that play a role in enhancing the service quality offered by TMC to their corporate traveler, some factors highlighted are as follows:
  • Automation: First and foremost advantage of implementing any technology solutions is the process automation, majority of tasks are now performed by the system like creating quick creation of offers from multiple suppliers, applying the agreed service fees, documentation in TMC branding – Invoices, vouchers, tickets, etc. auto-reminders for free cancelation period, etc. Managing operational accounting.
  • Fast Service: With the technology in place, TMC can respond to the corporate request much faster and in a professional manner. Also, if they offer the SBT (Self Booking Tool) to the corporate traveler or the travel desk – it empowers the travelers to search and book by himself.
  • Personalization of Services: With the CRM (Corporate travelers’ information) tools which come along with the corporate travel technology solutions, TMC’s are more aware of their customer’s needs, preferences, taste, etc. They can update the information about the customer passports, VISA’s, Pictures, ids in the system. Send them the reminders or alerts on the expiration of their passports or VISA’s. Manage their loyalty programs with various airlines, offering them specific airlines or hotels as per their purchase history, etc.
• Access to Multiple Suppliers in a single window: With a single booking engine to access the content from multiple suppliers will help the advantage to TMC to pass on the best offer as per the corporate traveler’s requirements based on Travel Policy, Price, Preferences, etc. This will help TMC to provide the cost benefits to the corporates.
• Rates Transparency: As for corporates finalizing as TMC partners, the rates provided by the TMC for various services are very important, so as to make sure they have access to the best rates available in the market and at the same time they can verify it. With the SBT tool, they can check the rates for themselves by replying to the TMC to furnish the rates to them. Also, they can cross-verify it from the market rates so to be assured they are getting the best deal.
• Differentiating the corporate fares: During the booking process corporate also wants to see the normal fares and corporates fares coming in the search result as may opt for corporate deals to take the advantage of the additional benefits which come along with these corporate fares.
• Best Rates (Discounted, Corporates, etc.): TMC’s have discounts from the specific airlines or hotels and to pass on these discounts to the corporate using Corporate technology solutions becomes easier for them, corporate gets the best deal. Corporates also have their own discount codes or corporate fares with the suppliers so they can configure their own discount codes in the TMC system and have exclusive access to those fares.
• Corporate Travel Policies: Corporate policies are very important for most of the corporate, as they have their budget allocations in line with their travel policies based on their past data. So, they need to make sure their employees travel as per the policy structure defined within the organization this help them control the cost and at the same time offer the best experience to their employees as well as per their grade within the organization.
• Duty of Care: For every corporate well-being of their employees are one of the important priorities, through technology solutions TMC’s can offer various Duty of Care benefits to the corporates like they can pass the information about unsafe travel zones or travel with specific precautions Like Yellow Fever Injection was mandatory for some regions in Africa. Track the location of employees, offering them travel services on the move, providing them the required support, changes, modifications, cancelation, making new bookings, etc.  Also, one point connects to access to travel agencies through chat, call, or email.
• Optimizing the cost of operation: Once the repetitive tasks are automated, which earlier in requires human effort and time like offer creation from multiple suppliers, arranging them in a professional format, applying service fees and markup and then sharing it with the corporates requires half an hour to a couple of hours depending on how easy or complex is the requirement, with technology the same job can be done in minutes. This results in saving lots of time for human resources which now can be focused on specialized tasks like negotiating the best deal from suppliers, offering personalized services, etc. as a result their will fewer errors and an increase in productivity ultimately resulting in more profits.

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