Adoption of SMAC helps improve cost savings and service efficiency for travel management companies

Abstract:

Cost savings has always been a top priority for travel management companies. They constantly work on ways to reduce cost related to corporate travel. Some traditional cost cutting measures include using budget airlines, moving from business class to economy class, not staying in five star accommodations, using online booking tools that streamline the travel booking process, thereby enhancing time efficiency and ensuring more transparency on expense claims or video conferencing wherever possible instead of travelling for meetings.

The most recent trend is the adoption of SMAC. The phenomenon of Social Media, Mobility, Analytics, and Cloud (SMAC) is a disruptive trend in the global services industry. Each of the elements of SMAC has started to impact the corporate travel industry.

SMAC is also important for the Procurement Outsourcing (PO) market as it helps in reducing cost and provides a better value proposition dedicated to lowering Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), improving working capital, increasing organizational flexibility, aiding innovation and improving collaboration.

This article will provide insights on what is SMAC and how it would impact corporate travel. Other key insights include:

• Adoption of SMAC
• Impact of SMAC on Airlines
• Impact of SMAC on Hotels
• Impact of SMAC on TMCs
• Future of SMAC in corporate travel

SMAC in Corporate Travel

Social, Mobility, Analytics and Cloud can individually impact business but convergence of all four, referred to as SMAC, is the new enterprise IT model that is currently disrupting the business world. Enterprises are riding confidently on this fifth wave of computing for embracing new technologies for future business prospects. Businesses are now facing the need to cater to the “Digital Customer” by adopting SMAC and to stay ahead of competition.

A gradually improving economy and greater consumer expectations for more personal and real-time interactions and transactions is driving airlines, hotels and travel agents to adopt SMAC to boost business performance and retain wallet share.

Organizations globally are shifting to an extremely revenue-focused model. The core aspects of the model are to have a sustainable competitive advantage, grow revenues and at the same time be cost conscious. To adopt this model, businesses have to become very Agile (Dynamic to change), Context aware (Awareness on industry and competitors), connected (With customers and suppliers) and mainly Insight Enabled (From social and data sources). SMAC is an inevitable disruption that needs to be adopted quickly for enterprises to shift to a revenue-focused model.

Benefits of using SMAC

Adoption of SMAC by various travel stakeholders is benefiting the corporate travel in many ways.

Conclusion

SMAC has already created awareness for itself in the corporate travel segment. However, its adoption is still at a developing stage. The convergence of all the four pillars would provide an outburst of opportunities that would enable businesses to move towards advancement. SMAC creates an ecosystem that allows a business to improve its operations and get closer to the customer with nominal overhead and maximum reach.

Corporate travel teams across the globe are working out efficient procurement outsourcing strategies to reap maximum benefit to their organizations. The adoption of SMAC will bring in innovative ways in procurement outsourcing. It will not only drive down costs and improve decision making but will also build travel ecosystem-wide efficiencies. 

SMAC has become inexpensive, accessible and pervasive that it is available to businesses of all sizes. It has opened up a plethora of opportunities in the corporate travel segment and has leveled the playing field as far as competition is concerned. It is inevitable for the players in the corporate travel segment to adopt SMAC and make it an integral part of their business strategies to have a competitive edge. Those who capitalize on the power of SMAC will lead this new wave of growth.