Travel management company Click Travel has added self-print rail ticketing technology to its Travel Cloud system, claiming a first in the corporate travel sector.
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TTE 2012: Click Travel claims corporate travel first
Travel management company Click Travel has added self-print rail ticketing technology to its Travel Cloud system, claiming a first in the corporate travel sector.
The new functionality builds on Click Travel’s Open Rail platform which it launched last year and allows clients to print rail tickets without the need for any specialist equipment.
Simon McLean, managing director of Click Travel, admitted providing corporate clients with self-printing functionality has been “a long time coming”.
“The Trainline has offered this in the consumer world for some time, but there are no TMCs doing it,” he said.
The self-print tool allows corporates to download a ticket in PDF form from an email and either print it off or keep it on the traveller’s mobile device.
McLean said it was winning more and more rail-only business because of the efficiency of Open Rail that strips out much of the intermediary costs traditionally associated with the sector.
Click Travel’s bespoke systems enables corporates to track travellers whether or not the mode of transport or accommodation was bookable on GDS.
In April Click Travel plans to launch Expense Cloud which is currently in final testing.
McLean said: “This takes the concept that travel and expenses are very closely related because you generally start incurring expenses once you are on a trip.
“Once customers take this they will get a 360 degree view of travel and expenses expenditure.”
McLean said Click Travel had been successful in driving up service and online adoption and that it would bring this approach to expenses.
He added the TMC will increase revenues from £20 million in 2011 to £30 million this year and that it was now looking to win larger accounts.
“We have targeted very successfully clients with spend up to £5 million but more and more we are targeting the bigger stuff. That will be our focus for the next year,” he said.
The prospects for business travel in 2012 will very much depend on what happens in Europe.
However Click Travel believes it has a good mix of customers and is growing fast enough to insulate itself from the impact of the continuing economic troubles.
“People are being cautious,” McLean said. “We have seen various tenders come out to market and then disappear.”
Click Travel operates its travel management systems in the cloud hosted by Amazon.
