Element Technology Services - Our Company News and Views , Element in the Press

Why Your TMC Needs a Robust Ticketing System

Wed, 13 Aug 2025 13:57:00 +0100

The Ultimate Guide: Why Your Travel Management Company Needs a Robust Ticketing System

Throughout this series, we’ve explored critical challenges facing Travel Management Companies—fragmented communications, inefficient manual processes, collaboration gaps, and limited performance visibility. The common thread? These issues significantly impact client satisfaction, operational costs, and growth potential.

A robust ticketing system like Zoho Desk is the solution that addresses these challenges comprehensively.

First, it unifies communications across email, phone, WhatsApp, and social media into a single platform. This eliminates lost or delayed messages and enables personalised, consistent client interactions.

Second, automation streamlines ticket management by routing requests, enforcing SLAs, and sending reminders. This boosts operational efficiency, allowing TMCs to scale without compromising service quality.

Third, integration with collaboration tools empowers teams to communicate and share knowledge seamlessly, accelerating problem resolution and improving morale.

Fourth, real-time analytics deliver actionable insights that help managers optimize resources, anticipate demand, and improve client experiences proactively.

Investing in a system like Zoho Desk positions your TMC to meet modern client expectations, improve internal workflows, and gain competitive advantage.

Implementing such a platform may seem daunting, but with the right partner and a clear plan, it becomes a strategic asset that drives growth.

Don’t let communication silos and manual processes hold your TMC back. Schedule a comprehensive Zoho Desk demonstration with us today and take the first step toward transforming your operations and delighting your clients.

Your future-ready Travel Management Company awaits!

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Week 4: Why Even Basic CRM Beats Your Best Spreadsheets Every Single Time

Wed, 26 Mar 2025 10:52:00 +0000

5-Week Blog Series: Breaking Free from Spreadsheet Chaos

Let's cut to the chase – your customer spreadsheets are holding your business back, no matter how well you've built them. Even the most basic CRM implementation will deliver substantial advantages not because of fancy features but because of fundamental architectural differences that spreadsheets simply cannot overcome.

The Structural Problems No Spreadsheet Can Solve

Spreadsheets create specific business limitations that exist regardless of how skilled you are with formulas and formatting:

The Relationship Problem: Customer data involves complex connections – multiple contacts per company, multiple activities per contact, multiple opportunities per company. Spreadsheets can't effectively model these relationships without creating data duplication and eventual inconsistency.

The Collaboration Challenge: A distribution company found they were spending over 7 hours weekly just reconciling changes from multiple versions of their client spreadsheets. Basic CRM eliminated this reconciliation entirely through native multi-user design that spreadsheets fundamentally lack.
The Visibility Gap: A building materials supplier needed a full day of manual work each week creating basic sales forecasts from spreadsheet data. Basic opportunity tracking in Zoho CRM provided this visibility automatically through standard reporting, eliminating the entire process.
The Follow-Up Failure: A professional services firm discovered that 28% of client follow-ups were falling through the cracks despite rigorous processes. Basic CRM task assignment reduced this to under 4% without any fancy automation – just simple structural advantages in tracking activities.

The Immediate Impact: What Basic CRM Actually Delivers

Even the simplest CRM implementation provides structural advantages that transform business operations:

The Complete Customer View: A consulting firm had been managing an average of 3.4 separate spreadsheets per client – contact information in one place, service history in another, communication records elsewhere. Basic CRM instantly unified this information without changing any other aspect of their operations.
Never Miss Follow-Up: Basic task assignment ensures critical activities don't depend solely on someone remembering to check a spreadsheet. When a sales opportunity needs follow-up, the system actively notifies the right person rather than passively waiting for someone to check.
Real-Time Pipeline Visibility: Basic opportunity tracking provides immediate insight into sales status, forecast accuracy, and team performance without manual aggregation or reporting delays.
Consistent Process Execution: Standard stage progression ensures your sales process happens the same way every time rather than depending on individual discipline or spreadsheet check-offs.

The Reality: Implementation Is Simpler Than You Think

Most businesses are surprised by how straightforward basic CRM implementation actually is:

Core contact, account, and opportunity management configured in 2-3 days
Basic customer information imported in hours, not weeks
User interfaces designed for business users, not technical specialists
System maintenance manageable without dedicated technical staff

A commercial real estate firm completed their basic Zoho CRM implementation with just 6 hours of configuration assistance, allowing them to maintain their daily operations without disruption while transitioning to significantly improved customer management.

The Proof: Basic CRM Impact In Real Numbers

The impact of basic CRM implementation delivers extraordinary ROI:

Commercial Real Estate Firm:

37% increase in renewal identification
42% reduction in proposal creation time
65% improvement in cross-selling identification

Industrial Equipment Distributor:

28% reduction in sales cycle length
45% improvement in territory coverage
32% increase in upsell/cross-sell revenue

Professional Services Organization:

52% reduction in client onboarding time
34% improvement in resource allocation
47% increase in referral identification

These improvements resulted not from advanced CRM capabilities but from the fundamental architectural advantages that even basic CRM has over any spreadsheet approach.

Getting Started: The Minimum Viable Approach

The most successful CRM implementations follow a phased approach that delivers value immediately:

Start with just contacts, companies, and basic opportunity tracking
Run it alongside your spreadsheets for the first few weeks
Add email integration and templates once the basics are comfortable
Introduce activity management and notifications
Expand to additional automation as your team builds confidence

This incremental approach minimizes disruption while accelerating time-to-value, typically delivering positive ROI within the first month.

The Bottom Line: It's Not Even a Fair Fight

The comparison between spreadsheets and even basic CRM isn't a matter of preference or marginal improvement – it's a fundamental difference in capability. No matter how well you optimize your spreadsheets, they cannot overcome their architectural limitations for managing customer relationships.

The businesses that recognize this reality and take action gain not just operational efficiency but genuine competitive advantage in increasingly customer-centric markets.

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Building Your Business Travel Analytics Pipeline

Tue, 04 Jun 2024 12:03:00 +0100

A Non-Technical Guide to Zoho Dataprep

Building Your Business Travel Analytics Pipeline: A Non-Technical Guide to Zoho Dataprep

Business travel data holds a treasure trove of insights, but unlocking its potential often feels like deciphering an ancient language. Fear not, travel expense warriors! Zoho Dataprep steps in to bridge the gap, empowering even non-technical users to build a data pipeline for their business travel analytics.

Imagine a streamlined system that automatically gathers your travel data, cleans it up for analysis, and delivers it ready for Zoho Analytics to work its magic. That's the power of Zoho Dataprep – a user-friendly tool that lets you build this data pipeline without needing to write a single line of code.

Here's how you, the non-data hero, can conquer the world of business travel data pipelines with Zoho Dataprep:

1. Connect the Dots: Bringing Your Travel Data Together

Zoho Dataprep connects to various data sources – a common pain point for non-technical users. Whether your travel data resides in spreadsheets, expense management software, or even internal databases, Zoho Dataprep can securely connect and import it. This eliminates the need for manual data entry, saving you time and ensuring accuracy.

2. Taming the Chaos: Cleaning Up Your Data for Analysis

Raw business travel data can be messy. Inconsistent formats, missing values, and duplicate entries can throw a spanner into your analytics efforts. Zoho Dataprep comes to the rescue with its intuitive cleaning tools. You can easily identify missing information, standardise formats (think dates and currencies), and remove duplicates. Imagine transforming a jumbled mess into a well-organized dataset – all with a few clicks and drag-and-drop actions!

3. Shaping Up Your Data: Tailoring it for Analytics

Not all data points are created equal. Zoho Dataprep empowers you to shape your data for optimal analysis in Zoho Analytics. You can create calculated fields (imagine combining travel dates for a "trip duration" metric) and split existing fields for finer granularity (separate "hotel cost" from "flight cost" within a single expense entry). This level of control allows you to tailor your data to answer specific questions about your business travel spend.

4. Automating the Flow: Scheduling Your Data Pipeline

Business travel data is constantly evolving. With Zoho Dataprep, you don't have to manually clean and prepare your data every time new information arrives. Schedule your data pipeline to run automatically at regular intervals (daily, weekly, or monthly). This ensures your analytics in Zoho Analytics are always based on the latest, freshest data, providing you with the most up-to-date insights.

5. Collaboration is Key: Sharing Your Data Pipeline

Building a data pipeline isn't a solo act. Zoho Dataprep fosters collaboration by allowing you to share your creation with colleagues. This empowers others (like finance or travel managers) to access the clean, prepared data and leverage it for their own analyses. Shared ownership fosters better decision-making across the organization.

The Non-Technical Path to Business Travel Insights

Zoho Dataprep empowers non-technical users to become data pipeline heroes. By simplifying data connection, cleaning, shaping, and automation, it removes the technical barriers that traditionally kept valuable business travel insights out of reach. With Zoho Dataprep, you can build a streamlined system that delivers clean, ready-to-analyze data to Zoho Analytics, paving the way for a more data-driven approach to managing your company's travel spend. So, embrace the power of Zoho Dataprep, and unlock the hidden treasures within your business travel data!

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Reimagining Workflows for a Technology-Driven Future

Wed, 03 Apr 2024 11:45:00 +0100

Reimagine, Automate, Thrive

In today's rapidly evolving business landscape, technology offers a powerful catalyst for transformation. However, simply replicating paper-based processes on a digital platform, a phenomenon known as "digital mimicry," fails to harness the true potential of these advancements. This approach can hinder efficiency, impede data integration, and ultimately, stifle growth.

Reimagine. Automate. Thrive:

Inefficiency Perpetuated: Digital mimicry often translates to replicating manual data entry and repetitive tasks within the new system. This fails to leverage the power of automation, keeping employees bogged down in time-consuming activities better suited for technology.
Data Silos and Limited Visibility: Mimicrying paper processes creates fragmented data sets, residing in separate digital "files." This fragmented approach hinders the generation of comprehensive reports and insightful analytics, limiting an organization's ability to gain a holistic view of performance.
Missed Opportunities for Innovation: Digital mimicry fosters a static mindset, overlooking the potential for entirely new ways of working. New technologies offer the ability to streamline processes, eliminate unnecessary steps, and even automate previously manual tasks, leading to significant efficiency gains.
User Frustration and Low Adoption: Clunky, unintuitive systems built on outdated workflows can lead to user frustration and, ultimately, low adoption rates. When employees perceive the new technology as an impediment rather than an enhancement, the desired benefits remain unrealized.

Unlocking the Power of Technology:

The true value of technology lies not in replicating the past, but in reimagining processes to leverage its full potential. Here's how organizations can move beyond digital mimicry and embrace a technology-driven future:

Process Reengineering: Rather than simply transferring paper-based steps to a digital platform, businesses should critically analyze existing workflows. Can steps be combined or eliminated? Can automation be implemented to free up human resources for more strategic activities?
Automation Champions: Repetitive tasks such as data entry, approvals, and notifications are prime candidates for automation. By leveraging robotic process automation (RPA) or other automation tools, organizations can free up employee time and streamline operations.
Embrace New Technologies: Cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), and advanced analytics offer exciting possibilities for data analysis, informed decision-making, and scalability. Embracing these solutions allows organizations to gain deeper insights and adapt to changing market demands.
Invest in User Adoption: Implementing new technology requires investment in training and user experience design. User-friendly interfaces and comprehensive training programs empower employees to leverage the new tools effectively, maximizing the return on investment.
Continuous Improvement: Technology is constantly evolving. Organizations should foster a culture of continuous improvement, encouraging employees to identify areas for process optimization and explore new technologies to maintain a competitive edge.

Case Studies in Transformation:

Several industries showcase the effectiveness of moving beyond digital mimicry:

Financial Services: Banks are transitioning from paper-based loan applications to online portals and AI-powered credit scoring, significantly streamlining the loan approval process for both clients and institutions.
Manufacturing: Real-time data on production lines and equipment allows factories to predict and address potential issues, optimize operations, and make data-driven decisions for improved efficiency and quality control.
Healthcare: Electronic health records have revolutionized patient care by enabling seamless information sharing among healthcare providers, leading to more coordinated treatment plans and improved patient outcomes.

Conclusion:

Moving beyond digital mimicry allows organizations to harness the true power of technology. By reimagining workflows, leveraging automation, and fostering a culture of innovation, businesses can unlock significant improvements in efficiency, data-driven decision making, and ultimately, long-term growth. It's time to ditch the digital ditto and embrace a technology-driven future.

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TMCs must make duty of care a top priority

Mon, 28 Sep 2020 10:21:59 +0100

Gavin Smith, Director of travel technology reseller Element, outlines the biggest challenge facing Travel Management Companies.

Travel management companies (TMCs) need to be more aware than ever before of the ever-changing risk profiles and travel policies of countries across the world and ensure these are communicated to clients and their employees before they travel.

Changing quarantine rules and entry requirements will have to be considered along with previous known hazards such as Ebola and Malaria in certain destinations.

As business travel starts to resume, companies will be asking how they can best fulfil their duty of care obligations to staff who travel for work as employers are responsible for mitigating any risks - and that burden is going to increase enormously as we head into 2021.

It isn't only large firms that are responsible for the health and safety of their travelling staff. Under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007, every employer is expected to develop and deploy appropriate travel risk management approaches to protect their staff.

The issues TMCs face now

Due to the unique travel restrictions imposed by each country during this global pandemic, TMCs need immediate access to trusted information. They must become experts in health and safety and be able to recognise and reduce risks. They will need to take on more of a consultative role and assist with the development of procedures, programmes and escalation measures.

Currently, the correct information is difficult to access and usually found by searching through lengthy online resources. Fact-checking and dependency on human interpretation increases financial and reputational risks. However, technology companies that specialise in travel are developing modules that offer real-time information on company's destination travel policies, restrictions, and Covid-19 border restrictions, quarantine periods and other protocols. These applications enable TMCs to configure the policy for each client around the allowed countries, cities, airlines and hotels.

The communication process

During a trip, TMCs will need to use an employee tracking system which allows companies to know where their people are at any time. Travel tech company Zenmer does this via their mobile App using location tracking. This is particularly important in high-risk destinations, or if an attack or natural disaster occurs.

Direct communication with staff using chat facilities on Web and mobile will be critical as will real time alerts to travellers and advice on possible alternative arrangements and bookings. With a round-the-clock service, real-time travel and travel policy data plus experts trained in emergency response management, TMCs will be able to offer a level of protection and provide a sense of safety and confidence that business travellers will expect. TMCs that adopt new technology like this will be better positioned to succeed. As well as providing business-critical support they will be offering a more consumer-like experience as business travellers expect the same seamless user experience they find in leisure travel.

Other new services such as AirBnB for Work provide dashboards that enable businesses to view where all of their employees are travelling and where they are staying, while Airhelp tells travellers their rights if flights are cancelled or delayed.

Invest in technology

TMCs should invest in technology that provides actionable information and gives confidence and trust back to travelling for business. A renewed confidence in travel is what this industry is working towards, whether travelling for leisure or business, but this can only be encouraged by rebuilding trust and safety. The travel industry is still working towards the new standards that need to be put in place to create that trust. Industry bodies like the World Travel and Tourism Council are working together with corporate TMCs to find solutions.

We know that duty of care was important to corporate travel, this was well-documented prior to the outbreak of Covid. This has now become crucial. TMCs that introduce these measures and supporting technology now will succeed by restoring the confidence to travel when businesses start travelling again.

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Time to Shine

Tue, 21 Jul 2020 14:19:24 +0100

How travel technology start-ups have weathered the pandemic

22 July 2020 - An article from Business Travel News Europe, written by Molly Dyson.

https://www.businesstravelnewseurope.com/Technology/Time-to-shine-How-travel-technology-start-ups-have-weathered-the-pandemic

The global shut-down brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic has been devastating for the travel industry as a whole, with many companies still feeling the bite of a continued downturn in demand for their services. This is perhaps particularly true in the corporate travel world as many businesses and their employees are reluctant to return to travel.

But the pandemic seems to have carved out a niche for corporate travel technology start-ups, many of which managed to weather the storm, double down on innovation and as a result are now reaping the benefits in the form of new customers and, in some cases, a hiring spree.

So how did such young and sometimes-overlooked companies manage to survive such a harsh time for their industry?

The consumer effect

According to Gavin Smith, director of travel technology reseller and support service provider Element, the mass disruption seen over the last four or five months has made the need for time-saving technology even more apparent. “As companies start allowing travel again, they will want to implement strict pre-trip approval processes, and I think that is likely to be a very manual process. We’re looking at technology that will move a lot of that to more automated systems so travel managers and team leaders don’t have to spend as much time looking at the details of every single trip. What might not have been of value to some organisations and TMCs before the pandemic will probably become fairly invaluable in a post-Covid environment.”

For Neil Ruth, CCO of travel management platform taptrip, the disruption has emphasised the importance of data in travel management. “Having access to live data from multiple sources at TMC, business and traveller level has never been so important,” he says. “This enables all stages of a trip to become far more defensible than a typically antiquated offline model.

“Duty of care must now become much more sophisticated and accessible, mobile-first technology; it puts the safety and wellbeing of the traveller literally in their own hands with immediate support and information just a few taps away.”

And Ruth agrees with Smith that automating processes in the offline environment will come to the fore as a result of the pandemic. “Robust automation is going to become more and more critical, again moving away from offline models and toward a more seamless and frictionless experience, within which are greater efficiencies pertaining to time saved and, consequently, less hassle and worry.”

JC Taunay-Bucalo, chief commercial officer at TravelPerk, believes the consumerisation of business travel will be accelerated as a result of the pandemic. “We have acquired a lot of new customers over the last few months, and many of them have never had a managed travel programme before but now see the value of gaining support from a company like ours or a TMC. I think technology will play a big part for those customers; travellers want a consumer-like experience and the ability to self-service their bookings. The majority of our bookings are made without the need for human interaction because that’s what people want. This was already happening before the pandemic, so I think development and innovation will only increase. The key for technology providers will be to stay flexible when it comes to self-servicing. I believe that there will come a time that business travel technology outpaces consumer technology.”

New products and innovation

Element, which was founded in 2019 as a technology reseller, provides implementation support, software outsourcing and consultancy services, mainly for small and medium-sized TMCs. Since the start of the year, the company has signed reseller agreements with dcs plus, 30SecondsToFly, Traveldoo and Zenmer. In addition, the company has launched its new service product, Accelerate, for both TMCs and corporates, which helps companies outsource their booking tool delivery and support, and it is currently developing a new product offering travel policy support.

Talking specifically about the coronavirus outbreak, Smith says: “We’re a very young company, but this situation has given us the opportunity to think about exactly what we offer our customers and how we can adapt to the changes that we’re seeing. For us it’s about what we can do to help our clients, all of whom have bills to pay and employees with families to support.”

In a recent blog post about Element’s upcoming policy tool, Smith wrote: “Being part of corporate and TMC forums, we have first-hand examples of the new complex processes that corporates have or are putting in place. We knew it was a major problem and wanted to get to the root of the issues.”

For young technology companies such as taptrip, the shutdown hit close to home for employees.

“Firstly, our initial approach was to ensure the team were supported in any capacity they needed to be, from a home office allowance to over communication and mental health support through services like Perkbox and the new [workplace mental health and wellbeing app] 87%,” says Ruth. “We recognised this was – and still is – an incredibly uncertain time, but all jobs were secure, and we needed to continually reiterate that.”

Taptrip is one of several start-ups that was able to close an investment round in the midst of the pandemic, which Ruth says has allowed the company to double its engineering team and grow its overall headcount to 19 staff members in recent weeks. “We’ve doubled down on product development since the world stopped, and we’re ready to go once the world starts going again,” Ruth adds.

TravelPerk, seeing the need to provide duty of care support through its technology, struck a partnership agreement with Riskline to integrate its destination information into its TravelCare platform. However, Taunay-Bucalo says recent local lockdowns to contain infection spikes created the need for city-specific information, so the company acquired start-up Albatross earlier this month, allowing the platform to provide clients with Covid-19 travel restrictions and local guidelines.

The company’s FlexiPerk offering, which was released in some markets in 2019 and allows corporates to cancel and get a refund on any booking for a 10 per cent up-front fee, was made available across the EU and Switzerland in April as the disruption of the pandemic hit. TravelPerk has also used the time to develop its GreenPerk carbon offsetting product and continues to develop its rail product that last year saw it integrate content from Trainline.

“This pandemic has definitely not been business as usual,” says Taunay-Bucalo. “In the beginning it was a shock to the system for us and the whole industry. We went from processing hundreds of transactions a day to no transactions and supporting our clients with cancellations and ticket changes, so we moved our sales team over to customer care to help with the volume of requests that were coming in. Then the attention turned to making sure people who were still on the road could get home and that refunds were processed, so we invested in our technology to make sure we could support that.

“Since around May I would say our focus has been on supporting the people who need to travel – those in the healthcare sector or engineers who can’t fix a machine via video call – and reassuring them, because a lot of people are nervous about travelling right now. Hence the investment in our duty of care offering and the acquisition of Albatross.”

Hope for the future

While the companies interviewed by BTN Europe for this article seem to be thriving, the downturn caused by the pandemic has still not been kind. As Taunay-Bucalo said, like traditional TMCs, TravelPerk had a lot of work to do during the height of the disruption with very little revenue coming in from bookings. But the situation has also brought companies a wealth of new customers that now see the need for a managed travel programme and the technology to support that.

However, Taunay-Bucalo urges caution as businesses start considering whether to send their employees on trips. “We want people to get back on the road, but we want them to do it safely,” he says. “I think this pandemic will really change corporates’ habits. We have some customers who say they’re going to reduce their level of travel, while others are booking entire hotels just to have a place to get their team back together if they don’t have an office. Whatever you do, make sure the duty of care element is first and foremost.”

Smith and Ruth maintain an incredibly positive outlook for the industry but agree the recovery will be a long and winding road. “Travel will come back,” says Smith. “Where businesses have removed internal travel, I think that will probably continue at least in the medium term and client-facing meetings will be the focus. Businesses will really have to evaluate the value of travel for the business and it will be driven by both budget and duty of care considerations.”

Smith continues: “The one thing I really hope will come out of this is that organisations realise it shouldn’t be up to a single person to manage their travel programme – it should involve various parts of the company, from HR and compliance to finance and the c-suite.”

Ruth adds: “Our industry is incredibly resilient. This isn’t the first and certainly won’t be the last pandemic, but we will learn to be more adaptable and defensible to it happening again. I hope during the recovery there are opportunities to collaborate more, to support and share with each other.

“This pandemic has perhaps hit us harder than any other industry, but through such testing times our response will be through innovation. I’m excited to see what comes next, in particular a new wave of start-ups that are born in response.”

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Element Market Research

Thu, 16 Jul 2020 09:29:36 +0100

Element survey finds concerns among TMCs about COVID-19 bookings compliance

Element Travel technology is working on a new COVID-19 corporate travel policy tool after finding widespread concern from agents and TMCs about errors and forced cancellations.

The start-up technology supplier to small and medium sized travel management firms, said agents are concerned about out of date or incomplete information on government policies and internal corporate guidelines.

Element conducted a survey among agents about the challenges of managing business travel in an uncertain environment which is being continually impacted by the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.

The results revealed that most are extremely concerned that out of date or incorrect information held by their teams on government policy or clients’ internal corporate guidelines.

The fear this will result in booking errors or forced cancellations, incurring costly financial penalties while compromising the agents’ reputation.

Gavin Smith, director of element said: “Being part of corporate and TMC forums, we have first-hand examples of the new complex processes that corporates have or are putting in place. We knew it was a major problem and wanted to get to the root of the issues.”

Element found that current processes are disparate with most TMCs entering and maintaining their clients’ travel policy in various formats including Word documents and shared folders on agents’ computers.

In addition key information for each client is being stored in agent’s GDS portals in a static text format which is not dynamic and has to be read and interpreted by the agent.

With a renewed focus on duty of care, companies are reviewing and implementing new processes focused on the care of their employees when they travel and are using intranet sites and online booking tools to help guide travellers on the new approval process.

Element’s research found TMC clients are expecting their agent to support the new process when booking which is going to increase costs when using existing manual processes.

Smith said: “TMCs will have to enter all updated travel information in the GDS in a flat text format.

“This process is not sustainable due to how fluid the situation is. Along with company process and policy, the agent then needs to use other tools to provide the current status of where the traveller wants to go to.”

Gavin Smith added: “It’s clear from this survey that TMCs and SMEs need a multifunctional tool to support new travel requirements.

“One for the whole company, rules for organisational levels, specific business units and rules for different countries.

“Agents need clarity and a defined set of guidelines from clients and government policy in real-time.

“They are looking for a management tool that helps them support their client’s duty of care requirements.

“We believe that this tool, will help TMCs support their client’s needs, while helping to reduce reputational and financial risk for both parties.

“We have not found a tool in the market that meets the needs of SME TMCs. We have approached our partners and are working with them to deliver this tool.

“At Element we are 100% focused on helping SME TMCs manage business travel with confidence.”

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zenmer CBT Reseller partnership announced

Tue, 28 Apr 2020 08:45:00 +0100

Element signs a partnership with Zenmer for their latest corporate booking tool

Element is now able to provide the advanced booking platform to small and medium sized TMCs.

28 APRIL 2020: element. today announced a partnership with travel technology company Zenmer to provide its latest advanced booking tool to Travel Management Companies (TMCs) and corporates across the globe.

Headquartered in India, Zenmer builds innovative booking solutions for TMCs using the most advanced technologies that connect with all GDSs, NDC, direct airline connects and hotel consolidators and aggregators. This latest product has been developed for corporate travellers that want a leisure experience when using an enterprise corporate booking tool (CBT). element., which provides cutting-edge travel technology, consultation and support to TMCs across the globe will be adding this CBT to its extensive portfolio.

Gavin Smith, Director at element.: “We are extremely proud to bring Zenmer out of their home region and make this CBT available to our clients across the world. The team at Zenmer have developed and built a great platform that gives TMCs the CBT they have been looking for”

Through its TMC clients Zenmer drives business travel for more than 200 corporates. This flexible platform allows TMCs to self-manage the commercials, suppliers, back-office, and management information while corporates are able to configure the travel policies, approvals, and reporting.

Nikunj Agrawal, CEO Zenmer:“There’s a huge synergy between Zenmer and element. in the thoughts, vision and strategy going forward. Gavin and Lizzie Dakin, element’s director of technology, have the experience needed for this partnership to be successful and we are proud to be associated with their passion. This agreement provides opportunities for both parties, from sales to marketing and technology. We are looking forward to working together to develop time and cost saving technology focused products with the new traveller in mind.”

Gavin added:“Nikunj and his team have an in depth understanding of the Corporate Travel Market which is clear by the attention to detail delivered through their technology. We will be supplying their technology, backed by our experience and ability, to those TMCs looking for alternatives to existing CBTs.”

ENDS

About element. Travel Technology

In an ever-evolving technological landscape, Travel Management Companies can find it hard to keep up with the increasing demands of their client base and prospective new customers.

Element helps Travel Management Companies run better by lowering the barrier of technology adoption. Our expert team are also on hand to offer a variety of review and process improvement services, ensuring organisations can get the very best ROI from their business travel programmes.

To find out more, visit www.elementtech.co.uk, email enquiries@elementtech.co.uk or call 07939874635

About Zenmer Technologies

Zenmer is a Travel Technology company building innovative booking solutions for the TMCs and corporates by powering it with most advanced technologies that are shaping the travel industry today. The team has specifically focused on giving the product a consumer-grade user interface and design that lacks in most of the legacy booking tools.

Zenmer provides a front-office client facing Corporate Self booking Tool for the corporates clients of the TMCs and a Mid-Office Tool for the internal team members of the TMC over both web and mobile apps, giving everyone a seamless one-stop cloud solution on the go.

It interfaces with the ERP/HR systems of the corporates and the TMCs invoicing systems (the back-office) as well, to complete the entire loop of automation from setting up a client to making real-time bookings to delivering automated invoicing.

To find out more, visit www.zenmer.com, or email at contact@zenmer.com.

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element launches 'accelerate'

Tue, 10 Mar 2020 09:00:09 +0000

accelerate. , professional services for SAP Concur Travel TMCs

10 March 2020:

element. Travel Technology today announced ‘accelerate.’,

professional services delivered for SAP Concur Travel partner TMCs and their clients.

element. will provide TMCs and their clients with optimisation, advisory and support services now and in the future, helping the TMC to focus on their core business and keep an edge in the market.

Gavin Smith, Director element. said

“Having worked with many TMCs globally, we experienced their challenges around solving operational issues within their business. Over time, process changes and the introduction of innovative technology will have a knock-on effect on how SAP Concur Travel works in the operational environment of the agency. Our aim is to future proof agencies and their clients by keeping them fully up to date and conversant with the latest Concur technology.”

element. can supply refresher training on Concur travel and the TMC set up, enabling TMC to get the most from Concur technology and better support their SAP Concur direct clients.

Concur travel resellers

For TMCs that have recently joined the Concur reseller programme, element., through the accelerate services, can supply implementation training, configuration, and system support. This will ensure that the tools and the TMC teams are fully enabled and confident to work with the Concur solutions and offer the best possible service to their clients.

Gavin added:

“Our expert team understand the challenges TMCs face and because of this experience, we felt now is the right time for element to provide ‘accelerate.’ to TMCs around the world.”

END

In an ever-evolving technological landscape, Travel Management Companies can find it hard to keep up with the increasing demands of their client base and prospective new customers.

Element helps Travel Management Companies run better by lowering the barrier of technology adoption. Our expert team are also on hand to offer a variety of review and process improvement services, ensuring organisations can get the absolute best ROI from their business travel programmes.

To find out more, visit www.elementtech.co.uk, email enquiries@elementtech.co.uk

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Welcome to Element Travel Technology

Sat, 12 Oct 2019 22:19:27 +0100

About Element Travel Technology ( Now Element Tech Services)

We start off as Element Travel Technology and changes to Element Technology Services a few years ago, as we widened our offering to include Zoho Products to the Corporate Travel Sector inc TMCs and their clients as well as Travel Tech. Our founding mission and vision is still the same today as it was then - We are here to help smaller businesses work better with Technology

Element is a value-added re-seller (VAR) of travel technology to small and medium enterprise (SME) travel management companies (TMCs). What does that mean? We sell, implement and support technology for TMCs who are not able to get access to the technology or alternatively don’t have the resource to support their technology strategy. We provide consultancy services to these TMCs specifically focused on travel technology.

Our Vision

Element is a service provider with a focus on exceptional customer experience at its heart. We help TMCs to understand In turn, they help their clients understand the value of the technology they offer, including the chargeable services that are product implementation and ongoing tech support.

Our vision is to be our client’s business partner supporting them with all their travel technology needs, technology that will scale with them as they grow and enable our clients to be self-sufficient in the technology.

Our Team and Services

With some of the most experienced consultants in the industry, Element enables its TMC clients to gain access to cutting edge, barrier free travel technology complemented by the peace of mind that results from our unparalleled level of experience.

Element is in the UK, with UK-based support. We have over 20 years’ experience in corporate travel, corporate payments, travel technology and TMC operations. Our expertise covers all major online booking tools (OBTs), global distribution systems, agent desktops, ERPs, AI, Chatbots, Mobile itinerary and booking solutions and mid-office automation technologies.

What makes the product or service innovative? Why we’re here?

“The lesson I take.... is that the absolute number one priority of travel management has become managing technology to help travellers.”

- Amon Cohen, Buying Business Travel, May / June 2019.

In an ever-evolving technological landscape, TMCs can find it hard to keep up with the increasing technological demands of their existing and prospective customers. Travel technology companies don’t always have the capacity to support new TMC partnerships (especially SME TMCs) even though plenty of these companies want to introduce their technology to corporate customers.

This is where we come in. Where previously SME TMCs were overwhelmed by technology options, under resourced to effectively evaluate tools as they came to market, unprepared to tackle the numerous technology disruptors our industry has recently undertaken and unable to provide the solutions their clients were demanding (such as NDC-enabled content), they now have an expert provider to turn to for the support they need (which the suppliers themselves are increasingly unable to offer).

Unique Services

Acting as a VAR and / or Certified Implementation Partner (CIP), Infiniti offers these organisations with:

1. The ability to provide new technology to existing and prospect clients

2. Support for purchased technology where it is not being provided by the vendor

3. Consulting for ongoing technology strategy
4. On-boarding of new technology into existing systems
5. Sales / account management training and support
6. Implementation services
7. Product management support
8. Professional services

The Benefits

This enables our clients to compete with their larger industry peers and to effectively continue to grow their businesses in line with client demands for technologies and associated services. Key features of our business model include:

• Agility – by providing TMCs with access to technology that was previously unavailable to them both quickly and without the need for large capital investment
• Expertise – by delivering practical implementation and configuration via our in-house industry experts
• Peace of mind – by offering support, products and marketing materials for technology platforms via our direct relationships with each provider
• In-depth understanding – of the needs, operational and commercial requirements of corporations and TMCs alike
• Flexibility - by ensuring our clients can scale at a pace that makes sense for them

We understand that in order to succeed tomorrow, our client must act today – and keep at it. Our tailored services ensure TMCs get the most from their travel technology by training and empowering their resources or taking care of their entire technology strategy.

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