If you’re one of our clients (or even just a follower of one of our social channels), you’ve probably heard us talk a lot about helping you adapt to the new business travel landscape COVID has created. It’s pretty much all we, and everyone else in the travel industry for that matter, have been talking about for nearly two years. And, if you’ve heard us talk about it, and you’re busy championing a travel program for your company, there’s also a good chance you’re wondering exactly how we can help you “adapt and overcome” because you could really use some help with both right about now.
When the pandemic first hit the United States in March 2020, anyone with travel booked for that spring probably remembers the precariousness of their existing plans.
Some of you might have even kept that flight to Seattle “just in case” COVID cleared up after two weeks of lockdown. And since that didn’t happen, you most likely cancelled that trip and most if not all of your other trips throughout the rest of the year (and banked a ton of unused tickets in the process). While you’re now probably accustomed to the stress of tracking hot spots, travel restrictions, and quarantine orders, it doesn’t mean that pandemic travel has gotten any easier. Plus, if you’re a travel manager or program champion, all of this work is multiplied exponentially based on the number of travelers on your team.
Now, as the world opens back up, people are booking trips for business again. Does that mean business travel has returned to 2019 norms? Not even a little bit. Many of the changes are here to stay, most of the extra work is going nowhere, and thanks to the Delta variant, travel plans continue to feel a little tentative.
In summary? That incessant uncertainty coupled with all the extra duties and duty of care are “the new normal.” They’re also exactly what you can expect Gant to help you “adapt” to and “overcome.” We have the tools and support you need to manage your travel program with confidence – even in the midst of an ongoing pandemic.
We’re not just saying that, either. We have real resources to help real clients make real changes in their travel programs.
The Gant Gateway
For starters, we have the Gant Gateway—a permission-based tool that every single traveler, travel manager, and program champion on your team can access. From the Gateway command portal, travelers can book complex travel accommodations and grab their own itineraries (directly from their phones). But the really great part is that managers can use the Gateway to access live-data dashboards full of important data about their travel program, view and reassign unused tickets with waivers attached, track whole-team reservations and cancellations, and even monitor upcoming and previous destinations for outbreaks and hotspots.
Ticket Retriever
If you attempted any travel at all in 2020, you are probably more familiar with unused tickets and airline waivers than you ever wanted to be. Located in the Gateway, Ticket Retriever helps champions manage and utilize unused tickets. With Ticket Retriever champions can view all the unused ticket vouchers in the organization and reassign them if necessary. Then, when an employee books flights with Gant, Ticket Retriever automatically applies their available unused ticket vouchers. Plus, applicable waivers are automatically attached to help ensure your company recoups as much value from those vouchers as possible.
GRID
In addition to Ticket Retriever and booking capabilities, the Gateway also offers access to robust analytics dashboards. We launched the GRID live-data presentations last fall, and they’re an “enhanced for COVID” version of our old reporting system. GRID is for travel in, during, and after the pandemic. These targeted, permission-based dashboards are designed to help manage travel, visualize booking behaviors, and leverage company travel spend. Champions even have access to rolling twelve-month business reviews that update quarterly.
We’ve also integrated COVID case data right into the reservation detail on GRID. Travel Champions can see a live data view of the company’s bookings, cancellations, voids, refunds, and active trips in conjunction with COVID case data in the travelers’ destinations.
Travelers on the Road
Along with GRID, champions also have access to Travelers on the Road in the Gant Gateway. We’ve had Travelers on the Road long before the pandemic started, but we modified it in 2020 to fit the new travel challenges that came with COVID. COVID taught us all the importance of tracking cancellations. With Travelers OTR, champions can see a live geo-mapped view of where their travelers are, have been, and are going within a 30-day window. It also shows all reservations in a filterable, point-and-click map showing reservations as active or canceled. This tool is critical for monitoring business travel in potential problematic destinations and identifying travelers that need to quarantine before returning to the office from a hot spot.
Gant Together
On top of all the other useful tools, we’re relaunching Gant Together soon to help champions, meeting planners, and attendees efficiently plan travel for meetings. While you might not have had many in-person meetings in the past year, the newest version of Gant Together will allow for virtual and hybrid meetings. It allows planners to stop spending so much time on how attendees are getting to the meeting and more time on the actual meeting. Not only does Gant Together have customizable invitations, but it also allows attendees to book their travel accommodations within corporate policy directly from their email invite. Whether attendees are going in person, staying behind, or splitting up with some going in-person and some attending virtually, Gant Together simplifies all of that.
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Seriously, when we say Gant can help you adapt, we mean it. We’ll help you leverage travel spend, manage business travel, boost duty of care efforts, and combat the ever-changing travel landscape of the post-pandemic world.
Ready to get back to business travel? Send your account manager an email, they’re ready to help. Not a current client? Our team is always happy to schedule a no-pressure demo our products and services. [email protected]
