21 July 2016

CTM launches new app for corporate travellers in first by Australian company

Corporate travellers can now book every aspect of business travel from their mobile device, following the launch of a new, locally-developed app, the first delivered by an Australian company to target the business travel market.

Corporate Travel Management’s CTM Mobile app allows business travellers to book their flights, car hire and accommodation on their phone through their company’s corporate account, giving travellers increased flexibility and accessibility while ensuring their travel is managed, and approved, according to their company’s travel policy.

CTM’s Chief Technology Officer Tom Clark said the new app delivered on company research that found 80 per cent of clients travelled with two or more mobile devices, and 45 per cent had needed to access out of office emergency booking assistance in the past 12 months.

“Corporate travel is highly complex, needing to deliver value for clients while ensuring appropriate approvals and oversight are in place – but we do not believe that should be a barrier to giving our clients tools that are intuitive, fast, secure and mobile enabled,” Mr Clark said.

“Our clients live in a fast paced, tech-enabled world and they are, by nature, always on-the-go. This means they need to have 24 hour access to travel booking tools when they are outside of the office, and outside of ‘business hours’”.

CTM’s research found more than two-thirds of corporate clients in the past 12 months had needed to make a last minute change to their travel plans for business reasons, 28 per cent for personal reasons, and more than 13 per cent due to a natural disaster or other emergency.

“When urgent travel assistance is required, its vital that a travel management company provides its clients with mobile technology which provides speed, accessibility and ultimately peace of mind in an otherwise challenging situation,” Mr Clark said.

“This is the first Australian-developed, end-to-end mobile app that will allow CTM customers to book their travel across any combination of air, hotel and car hire, via their mobile device as part of their corporate travel program.”

Mr Clark said the CTM Mobile app brings the functionality and booking experience clients have come to expect from the leisure market to the corporate sector for the first time, whilst ensuring businesses could maintain risk management and cost control over their corporate travel program.

“Our clients benefit from our growing scale and, with that, our growing investment in technology as well. We are doing some amazing things in technology here at CTM and the opportunities to innovate in corporate travel are significant. This will be the first of many iterations to come,” Mr Clark said.

“New clients have already told us our technology offering is a valuable point of difference in the market, and we believe our new mobile capability will put us even further ahead.”

The application was developed in Australia by CTM’s world-class technology team, but would ultimately be used for CTM’s clients worldwide.

The CTM Mobile app is available in the Apple App Store, and will be available in the Google Play store for Android devices over the coming weeks.