Used wisely data and analytics can help travel brands find the industry’s sweet spot – delivering the perfect trip

What ‘delivering the perfect trip’ means may vary from company to company but in the case of managed travel, it’s about finding a balance between a company’s financial priorities, the traveller experience, his or her safety and security, and policy compliance.

“Big data holds the key to this multi-dimensional puzzle,” says Catalin Ciobanu, director, Global Product İnnovation, Carlson Wagonlit Travel, a managed travel company.

However, due to the volume of big data and the need for speed, the challenge has been to effectively access and process it, so that it can also be used to upsell and cross-sell products.

Speaking from experience, Ciobanu has identified two avoidable myths and mistakes relating to big data. They are:

Myth 1: Managing data effectively is very expensive: In fact, the reality is that the situation is considerably better than it was ten to 20 years ago. In fact, storage and processing are not very expensive today, and a number of high-performance open-source tools exist for analysing data.

Myth 2: The data is ‘no good’:  Often data quality is blamed for a large range of business problems. In reality, this viewpoint comes from a misunderstanding of how the data was collected or processed. By default, travel data comes from different sources, which often follow different sets of standards and this creates mismatches.

Mistake 1: Putting tools before people:  Investing too much money into the tools, but not enough into human capital – in other words, the people with expertise in analytics.

Mistake 2: Failing to keep up: Not ensuring that the right big data governance structure is in place for a particular organisation and ensuring that this evolves to keep up with the progress and maturity of analytics.

Given that the volume of data that needs to be captured, stored and mined has soared, addressing these challenges is paramount. Here Ciobanu shares his three top tips for getting the most out of big data and analytics.

1.    Start with a hot topic:  

Big data and analytics are as important as the business problem they are trying to solve. If applied to isolated, small side-projects, the impact will be correspondingly small. So travel entities should start with one or two hot topics that have traditionally been challenging to address, and then let analytics guide them toward the right answers, he says.

2. Begin with clear business questions

With CWT Travel Stress Index (TSI), developed in partnership with CWT Solutions Group, the group started with clear business questions: Is travel stressful? Exactly how stressful and how does it impact productivity?

Then it built the analytics framework necessary to answer the questions. For CWT combining the large number of data sources, and conceiving and developing an algorithm to quantify travel stress, was a major challenge. However, the award-winning TSI launched in April 2013 and, so far, has been well-received.

3. Don’t operate in silos

As a member of the CWT innovation team, Ciobanu interacts with almost all departments across the business. This makes it relatively easy to identify potential challenges and opportunities, which can benefit different lines of business. “We collaborate with business owners to frame the problem, and then work together to solve the issue and deploy the eventual solution,” he explains. Examples include: a new product or service development, as well as incremental improvements of existing processes.

Catalin Ciobanu, director, Global Product İnnovation, Carlson Wagonlit Travelis scheduled to speak at the upcoming  Travel Distribution Summit Europe 2014 in London May 22-23, 2014.