How smartphones are changing managed business travel

Keeping your travel program relevant is key. If you’re one of the 60% of readers who opened this email on your mobile device, you might know where we’re going with this.

Smartphones are amazing. From the palm of our hands, we have unlimited content for our digital consumption… and an app for pretty much anything.

With the rising popularity of Apple Pay and Android Pay, even simply hovering our phones over a register is now considered a secure business transaction.

So how does the rising use of mobile come into play for managed travel, where our goal is to keep business travelers happy while providing oversight to your organization? If you're worried about your employees thinking you're outdated, it's all about staying relevant with modern business travel solutions. We've rounded up five perks to view this digital shift in a positive light:

Researching, Booking + Sharing Travel

90% of travelers want to use mobile to book. Concur's mobile app is just as powerful as its desktop version, allowing your employees to view in-policy travel options and book securely from their phone. What’s not to love?

Managing Itineraries

The Concur online booking tool platform automatically integrates to the TripIt app, creating the most seamless travel management scenario possible for travel managers and employees. This is important, because according to the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), 72% of millennials check their itineraries at least once daily on their mobile device. Don't have Concur? Itineraries created through travel management companies like Cadence will populate in the free TripCase app, so you can impress and empower your employees with a smart app that notifies them of delays, gate changes, etc., sometimes even before the airports have updated. (Game changer: TripCase app also integrates with smart watches. Imagine getting your gate change notification without having to put down your coffee!)

Unconventional Convenience

Apps like Uber and Lyft are incredibly well designed and have changed how we view traditional ground transportation options. As business travelers began favoring the convenience of the sharing economy as part of their travel experience, Concur stayed nimble and launched an exclusive partnership with Uber to make this formerly separate travel expense easier to manage. Airlines are noticing too, and now you can earn one Delta SkyMile per dollar spent on Lyft rides by linking your Skymiles and Lyft accounts.

Managing Expenses

Digitally savvy business travelers want to keep track of their expenses on their mobile devices more than ever, and there are a variety of incredible tools to support this move. For example, the receipt app ExpenseIt (through Concur) allows travelers to snap a quick photo of their receipt to automatically update their expense report for your accounting team to access. "I lost the receipt" will be words of the past.

Better Travel Experiences

In addition to TripCase storing itinerary details, the travel app includes some great stand alone features, like the ability to manually update other helpful components of your trip (like restaurant reservations, event tickets, etc.), or log memorable places you’ve visited to add to your itinerary for reference.

Are your digitally savvy travelers underwhelmed with your current platform for smart phones? Let’s talk about how the mobile device can be an incredibly powerful extension of your managed business travel strategy.