Travel Executive Crystal Balls Part 3: Rock Blanco and Cornerstone

To coincide with the mammoth Tnooz Predictions 2010 article, Tnooz asked people around the industry to gaze into their own crystal balls to forecast some of the key developments for the next 12 months.

The third of this five-part series features Rock Blanco (president of Prime Numbers), Mat Orrego (chief executive of Cornerstone Information Systems) and Alan Minton (vice president of marketing and customer solutions of Cornerstone Information Systems).

Rock Blanco:

Companies will finally come to hold those responsible for providing data results more accountable for accurate and meaningful information. We’re in the second decade of the 21st century, where people can change world politics from a mobile device, yet companies of all sizes still base decisions about what is generally the third most controllable expense – travel – using outdated measurements. Companies will start to finally “get it” in 2010 and make travel policy changes accordingly.
Legacy carriers are out and “TwitterGen” carriers are in. It’s not that the legacy carriers don’t get it, they just don’t know how to sell it anymore to a new generation of travelers with few loyalties to traditional, but antiquated “frequent flyer” programs. This will create a whole new set of challenges for corporate travel facilitators to deal with, especially when it comes to maintaining control over their travel budgets and their travelers.

Mat Orrego and Alan Minton:

There are more than 2,000 mobile applications available for the travel industry and mobile apps this will be a top 5 growth category in 2010. Location-services applications will be a central theme behind the growth.
The pre-purchase post-book focus of procurement departments will expand. Those with limited experience in travel procurement will demand real time analysis of travel spend prior to actual allocation of money. New and/or enhanced technologies around policy compliance and spend management will be required to deliver information in an easy to use and consumable format with supporting data a simple click away.

There are more than 2,000 mobile applications available for the travel industry and mobile apps this will be a top 5 growth category in 2010. Location-services applications will be a central theme behind the growth.

The pre-purchase post-book focus of procurement departments will expand. Those with limited experience in travel procurement will demand real time analysis of travel spend prior to actual allocation of money. New and/or enhanced technologies around policy compliance and spend management will be required to deliver information in an easy to use and consumable format with supporting data a simple click away.