Online adoption is growing in the Asia Pacific region where companies and travellers are becoming smarter about the way they book travel.

In a keynote industry perspective to the ACTE Asia Pacific Education Conference in Singapore today, James Stevenson, Executive Vice President, AsPac for Hogg Robinson Group (HRG), said that corporate travel managers in AsPac are being asked to be more traveller-centric, and to not only allow self-service but to actively encourage it.

"Online booking tools (OBT) can drive tighter policy compliance, expense management, and cost reduction but the organisation needs to first decide if it is ready to adopt online tools.  For success it must also have a strong implementation and communications plan in place", he said.

"At HRG we have identified an upward trend amongst our AsPac clients keen on making efficiencies in the booking process.  The traditional push back around culture and traveller behaviour is not as strong as companies mandate OBTs from outside Asia to this region and local companies are starting to see the value.  Most of our clients are either closely looking at OBTs or in the throws of piloting a roll out.  We believe over the next three years, OBT booking volumes will grow exponentially in Asia as the tools, carriers and corporations evolve and adapt to the new processes around OBTs."

HRG is showcasing its latest technology at the ACTE Asia Pacific Education Conference, held on 25-26 August 2010.  These new technologies will help contain costs, maximize return on investments, and meet duty of care requirements, all of which will enable travel managers to drive value in the new economy as it recovers from the recession.

HRG will unveil HRG Security Suite™, HRG i-Suite™, HRG Reporting™, and TripCase.  Steve Ash, Director, Business Technology for the AsPac region, says: "Each of these elements is vital to the success of a travel management programme as the new economy takes shape, which demonstrates that HRG has anticipated the different requirements and new approach by travel managers."

TripCase was developed through HRG's partnership with Sabre Travel Network. 

In addition to unique location-based messaging capabilities, it includes full-integration of travel plans, which makes it possible for HRG to enhance the traveller experience by providing timely and relevant information delivered to a mobile device. Security of data has been considered a part of this development.

HRG Security Suite™ was developed in response to managing traveller safety. 

It has a full range of security services, from pre-trip destination intelligence, traveller tracking and security training, to international emergency response services.  The new technology helps organisations and their travellers in dealing with different situations which can affect travel.  The suite offers a combination of core services provided directly by HRG, utilising its global reach and expertise, together with specialist services offered in association with global security experts, red24.

HRG Reporting™ is an online reporting tool designed to provide clients with relevant key data about their travel programmes quickly and easily. 

The latest version of the technology has additional reports which have been added to the standard ‘dashboard' menu. This ‘dashboard' can be adjusted by the individual user to suit their own needs, giving them the ability to ‘slice and dice' information through a mouse click which can filter information in seconds.

HRG i-Suite™ is a portal that provides corporate travellers and travel managers with one single point of online access to a wide range of tools, offering capabilities from booking to reporting and traveller tracking.

Both in-house tools and third party products and services can be integrated to provide a customised solution for the client organisation. The modular structure also enables users to personalise their homepage, choosing from content such as city and airport guides, weather forecasts and time zones. The new version contains an improved design, which when combined with existing multi-language capabilities, provides all users with an enhanced experience, whether their need is to book their next trip or make a programme management decision.

www.hrgworldwide.com