Inside T&T - Travel and Transport:

Thursday

Aug262010

In Poland with RADIUS: Pierogis for Everyone!

Thursday, August 26, 2010 at 11:00AM

In June, April Wheeler, General Manager, Client Services with Travel and Transport spent four days in Warsaw, Poland for RADIUS' annual European Regional meeting.

The purpose of the meeting was to network with the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) RADIUS shareholder agencies and RADIUS suppliers and share best practices of doing business in that area. In addition, attendees were given updates of what RADIUS is doing in regard to technological advancements and service enhancements as a global travel management company.

From RADIUS updates to industry trends, the meetings' informational sessions were all aimed at enhancing customer satisfaction. Travel and Transport was the only agency from the United States that attended the meeting, Wheeler said.

"It is a great opportunity to talk with the respective agencies about possible leads for current and new customers who need multinational travel assistance. It helps to get to know the RADIUS employees as well as to be able to link up and work together with our global customers," Wheeler stated.

Topics discussed at the annual meeting included increased importance of cost effective solutions such as fare transparency and pre-trip approval, increased security for travelers, using third party solutions for traveler security and using local markets to help see the customer's point of view.

Photo from April Wheeler of WarsawIn addition, RADIUS discussed how its new reporting tool, TravelTrax, will give customers more capability with value add-on's such as pre-trip mapping and reporting, dashboards, detailed reports and the ability to build customized reports.

"It is very important to get together and network face to face with RADIUS and our partner agencies so we can give and receive input on RADIUS' business practices that will enhance and affect each of the local RADIUS shareholders," she said.

And also, look at a few of April's great pictures of Poland!

April Wheeler |

Mobile Apps: Are the Benefits Worth the Risk?

Tuesday, August 24, 2010 at 03:52PM

The following post is taken from Travel and Transport's Quarterly Newsletter, which was released just a few weeks ago. You can read and subscribe to our newsletter here.

There are literally thousands of mobile applications available to consumers - some, such as Yelp, help users with a specific goal in mind, while others provide no purpose at all.

Mobile technology is changing how we interact with the world and the development of travel apps is quickly gaining speed. Roughly 90 percent of Travel and Transport's customers currently use these products, but it will only get more popular - especially when this technology gets bigger (iPad) easier to use and faster, said Mike Kubasik, Travel and Transport's Senior Vice President, Information Services and CIO.

Whether travelers download their company's managed or third party unmanaged applications, mobile apps simplify travelers' lives by allowing them to have the information they need at their fingertips, he said. Travelers today can easily view their itinerary and be alerted of flight changes and make reservations; in the near future they will be able to make purchases and interact with online booking tools.

"Technology is ever changing and is being created to adapt to what consumers want and need," Kubasik said. "With the ability to be PC free, applications appear to make life easier."

While there are many advantages for a traveler to have access to mobile information, there are potential risks involved. As downloading the newest app becomes more popular, security for sensitive corporate information becomes an important concern. Just like laptops and desktop computers, mobile devices are susceptible to viruses, hackers and malware, according to a whitepaper published by Foundstone.com, a division of McAfee. In fact, since this article was published in our newsletter, the first legitimate viruses have begun to circulate on both Apple iOS devices and Google Android OS devices.

One notable risk is the potential for exposure of critical information. According to a study by PC World, one in every five mobile applications will ask users for access to private information, such as location and contacts in the mobile phone.

"When downloading an unmanaged third party application, customers may be unknowingly agreeing to terms that their company wouldn't be comfortable with, such as itinerary, hotel and flight information," Kubasik said.

Depending on the supporting company, developers can create applications without having to undergo a screening process - this places the responsibility directly on users to detect corrupt and malicious applications, according to The Wall Street Journal.

So the question is: are travel apps worth the risk? Kubasik thinks so; however, he stresses the importance of selecting a corporate option rather than downloading an application on your own. For instance, Travel and Transport supports the following mobile apps for our customers:

With a managed travel application, the travel manager will know, and will be able to track who is using the application; this will provide better security to both the company and its employees.

Andrea Matousek |

Reply To All...

Monday, August 16, 2010 at 02:03PM

At my part time job we sell a magnet with a picture on it of a June Cleaver-type with an expression of horror on her face and the words:

"Had she really hit Reply to All?"

Well, recently the world of comedic magnets became my reality. Of course if you work at Travel and Transport HQ you already know that because I inexplicably notified you that I wanted an appointment to donate blood, as early as possible. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

A couple of months back, I became a member of the GoodBusiness Committee here at Travel and Transport and was authorized to send e-mails to all the employee-owners here at headquarters about our company efforts as a responsible corporate citizen. As someone who really enjoys having any type of special status or privilege, I was elated (Last year I was delighted to learn that my allergy to bee stings had reached the point that it was recommended that I start carrying around an Epinephrine shot. Fancy!).

Anyway, as Spiderman will tell you, with great gifts come great responsibility, or something like that. Perhaps it was that urge to in some way earn or be worthy of my recent deluxe permissions that led me to want to give something back.

Cynthia, our talented receptionist heads of our blood drive partnership with the Red Cross. She had sent out an e-mail asking for blood donors to the whole Travel and Transport Tower, including several of the other companies that have offices in the building. I'm a fairly regular blood donor because I'm a real fan of the brightly colored bandage wraps they give you these days. I had intended to respond to her e-mail the previous week, but had gotten distracted with other projects. So when Monday rolled around, I quickly whipped up an e-mail asking for the earliest time available hit reply and moved on with my life.

Oh, but of course, I didn't just hit "Reply" did I? No, I went for the all inclusive - the sizzler - the "Reply All".

I suppose panic hit when I started receiving out of office replies from people I didn't know at companies I had never heard of. If panic equals a tightened feeling in the chest and the sudden urge to leave the country, then it was definitely panic. The out offices e-mails were quickly followed by messages from friends giving me the business about my mistake. However, by this time I was franticly looking through my Outlook menus for the e-mail recall button. No dice, which is just as well because those retrieval messages are to me essentially the equivalent of telling everyone you e-mailed, "In case you missed it, I'm an idiot ,and if it's okay with you I'd like to retrieve the evidence of my idiocy."

In the end there was nothing to do but just ride out the storm. Some people were nice enough to tell me that they thought I sent out my e-mail to everyone intentionally in order to encourage others to donate blood. As far as I'm concerned, those people will be going to straight to heaven when they die.

The good news is that most people are evidently too busy and too nice to be very bothered by some bozo accidently e-mailing them. I just hope that will still be the case when I e-mail the whole world to tell them that I want to buy College World Series tickets.

More information about Travel and Transport's GoodBusiness Program
Travel and Transport believes that it is possible to manage our business in a way that contributes to our local and global community, addresses work force equity, and supports environmental sustainability, all without undermining the service we provide to our clients or our efforts to maximize profitability. Corporate responsibility has become a best practice. By being mindful of this on a daily basis, we extend past our legal obligations to manage our impact on the environment and become a corporate citizen that is making our communities better.

With this in mind, we created the "GoodBusiness" program, through which we focus on the efforts made by Travel and Transport within our communities to reduce waste and improve lives.

If you want more information on our program and how it works, please email me or leave a comment below. I promise that I won't forward your inquiry to the whole company...probably.

Chuck Koster |