Thyssenkrupp is pitching its virtual reality platform at the ITB in Berlin this week, claiming that it can help corporates cut airfare costs by up to 50 percent, a company executive said.
“By our estimates, corporates can also cut hotel costs by 5 percent, mobility costs by 5 percent, and food outlays by 5 percent using our platform,” said Jürgen Loschelder, head of global travel management at Thyssenkrupp AG.
The German engineering firm is already using the tool internally to cut its own outlays for hotels and plane tickets.
Though Loschelder wouldn’t share figures, he did say “we are doubling our savings on travel, and more and more departments with Thyssenkrupp are being added. It’s not just a savings of, say, five or six million euros. It’s also an HR savings, a time savings.”
Sales people and engineers are saying “I don’t need to travel, I can do this online, I’m tech savvy. A business trip isn’t really always spectacular or enjoyable. People don’t always enjoy overseas travel, it actually makes them unhappy,” Loschelder added.
Thyssenkrupp also builds travel infrastructure, such as automated people movers found in airports, as well as airplane boarding bridges and escalators.
Smart glasses will help employees use local people to perform jobs that would otherwise require travel, and will require an initial training period, Loschelder explained.
“People who travel to meet customers worldwide will have to be trained to adapt to using our virtual reality (VR) glasses,” Loschelder said.
But he likened this to how people adapted to mobile phones. “Initially when mobile phones came out, people thought it was strange to walk around and talk on the phone. But people obviously got use to this.”
Thyssenkrupp is using VR in the elevator business, to connect local support staff with experts in Germany and elsewhere in a matter of minutes.
The company is also pitching VR to companies as a means of improving work-life balance.
“People are getting tired of travel for work,” Loschelder said. “People want to stay at home and enjoy their hobbies in their off time. This will ultimately help companies attract and retain talent.”
This is strictly an exclusive feature, reprints of this article in any shape or form without prior written approval from 4Hoteliers.com is not permitted. Michael Scaturro is reporting exclusively for 4Hoteliers.com at ITB Berlin 2019 - www.4Hoteliers.com/itb.
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