As corporate travel begins to ramp up, early adopters of new technology will enjoy a competitive advantage thanks to their ability to be agile in an unpredictable market.

For example, businesses that fully embraced the cloud before the current crisis presumedly have the resources and relationships in place to boot up quickly as business travel ticks up, while others with legacy systems may have a steeper hill to climb.

As corporations and TMCs prepare for the return of business travel, you should ask yourself three questions when evaluating how prepared your tech partners will be on the road to recovery and beyond.

Do they have the right IT infrastructure in place?

The discussion around IT infrastructure usually ends up as a chorus of approval for the cloud. Faster response times, ease of access to stored data and the ability to integrate efficiency-enhancing artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are the most referenced benefits of the cloud.

Innovation by the cloud providers in terms of pricing and their own business models – *SaaS, IaaS, PaaS - contributes to the improved IT backbone of the corporate travel value chain. For example, new applications such as advanced merchandising, dynamic pricing and highly scalable fare search are only possible on the cloud. Therefore, technology providers still wedded to legacy mainframes are at a commercial and performance disadvantage – and therefore so are their customers.

Amadeus’ new partnership with Microsoft harnesses cloud technology to innovate and explore new products and solutions to create smoother travel experiences. Both teams will leverage the full value of Azure and Microsoft’s solutions (Microsoft Teams, Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform) to deliver more powerful and sophisticated end-user experiences and create custom solutions tailored to the precise needs of the travel industry. Initial efforts are expected to focus on establishing more integrated business travel journeys and enabling closer collaboration between travel and health authorities.

Are they prepared for an unpredictable future?

Corporate travel veterans will remember the effects of 9/11 and the credit crunch – two major external shocks to the corporate travel value chain, and the impact of COVID-19 remains. Unpredictability is difficult to prepare for, but it must be acknowledged. Your technology partner needs to address the dichotomy of preparing for something without knowing exactly what it might be.

Look for technology partners with strong cash flow and balance sheet as well as a solid corporate structure that prove they can withstand volatility and maintain continuous investment on strategic projects. Tech providers with such a track record will prove invaluable in the short and medium term.

Do you want to lead and gain the advantages of being an early adopter?

According to pre-COVID Accenture research, companies that fail to keep up with new technology will combined lose more than $20 billion in revenue over the next five years. Leaders that adopt emerging technology earlier in the cycle are better positioned to share the benefits with their customers or clients.

The analysis of 8,000 companies found that leaders in their industries view enterprise technologies as a system, not a series of independent fixes, with more than nine out of 10 leaders having adopted cloud computing and AI. Machine learning algorithms improve over time, giving early adopters a head start. Tech firms and cloud partners often commit to joint developments as part of commercial deals – the longer the relationship the better the mutual business benefits.

Investing in the right tech partner

In our COVID research paper Reboot. Recharge. Rethink Business Travel, senior executives interviewed said that leveraging technology as a key enabler was a priority for them with 48% incorporating operational and business optimization to adapt and thrive.

As you navigate the road ahead, examine how well your technology infrastructure is standing up during the crisis, how supportive are your tech partners and how confident are you that they have the financial strength, experience, industry footprint, ecosystem and resources to help you through recovery and beyond.

With the travel industry being shaken, collaboration within the travel ecosystem (airlines, airports, hotels, travel agencies), as well as with key partners (such as health and government authorities) will be key to accelerate travel recovery as well as bring safe travel innovations faster to market.

*IaaS: cloud-based services, pay-as-you-go for services such as storage, networking, and virtualization. PaaS: hardware and software tools available over the internet. SaaS: software that's available via a third-party over the Internet.

Jay Richmond

Head of Customer Solutions Americas – Business Travel, Amadeus

www.amadeus.com