How is the start of 2022 going for TripActions in France?
Zahir Abdelouhab - We're just getting started, we're starting to have interesting discussions with customers, the team is in place and we officially opened the offices in January: we got to the heart of the matter. The official launch was due to take place at the beginning of February, but in view of the restrictions imposed in recent weeks we have decided to postpone the event to 31 March.
Why this timetable: why are you launching now on the French market?
Zahir Abdelouhab - TripActions has been six years: that's a long time and a short time at the same time. We had a base in the United States that we needed to consolidate, and then there was the health crisis and all the uncertainties that that entails for a company that was only four years old at the time...
But that hasn't stopped you from winning almost a thousand new customers during the crisis...
Zahir Abdelouhab - That's right. And we've gone from a valuation of two billion to 7.2... Crises are moments of uncertainty and complication, but they're also moments of opportunity. accelerators for emerging playersand offer opportunities. According to a McKinsey study, in the 18 months of the crisis, we have experienced a technological leap of five years! And the business travel market is not going to escape this. We opened up Europe last year, investing first in London and winning our first accounts in the UK market. And now, of course, we're expanding into France and Germany. There is a TripActions' enormous focus on Europe, and in particular on the French and German markets. We are in the business of investing, but also oflistening to the local market. And we'll do everything we can to adapt the product and strategy to meet these needs.
How do you introduce TripActions to French professionals who are just discovering this new player?
Zahir Abdelouhab - TripActions is a Silicon Valley player with ambitions to revolutionising the world of business travel in the broadest sense. We intend to do this with a single platform that brings together the business tripswith the TMC and OBT components, the expensewhich means expense accounts, but also the payment with a "smartcard. The aim is to offer a seamless user experience for everything to do with business travel. Today, this is our primary motivation: to make business travellers happy. The satisfaction rate is over 95%, bearing in mind that adoption is intimately linked to satisfaction. It's all about generating satisfaction, which generates adoption, which generates economies of scale and which makes life easier for all the cross-functional departments.
What is the fundamental difference between TripActions and the business travel market?
Zahir Abdelouhab - TripActions has entered a market which was quite static in terms of supply, with a dissatisfaction rate relatively high. Customers feel that the world of business travel has not moved fast enough from a technological point of view compared to leisure travel. The excitement surrounding the arrival of TripActions is linked to this new experience. Our origins are very different from those of many players in the market who were created a long time ago on a travel agency model. Our model is based above all on a 'tech' company that has put this technology to work for business travel, with human service focused on high added-value tasks. In building our offering, we started with theuser experiencethetravel experience. I think that's where the craze comes from: customers want to see new things, new approaches.
What does this mean in practical terms for business travellers?
Zahir Abdelouhab - We are regularly asked about partnerships with suppliers and contents. Our answer is simple: we have agreements with suppliers, of course, but our approach is to work closely with them. agnostic. The content we offer is independent of our supplier agreements. We have no advantage in positioning one piece of content over another. Our point of view is focused on the traveller, relying on artificial intelligence for usage habits in particular. If a user lives near Orly and prefers easyJet because of its travel policy, for example, we are not going to offer them Air France at Paris-CDG as a priority because our margin would be better: we will mainly offer them this airline at this airport. The business model doesn't always put the user at the centre. TripActions' does.
What other practical uses are there for AI?
Zahir Abdelouhab - L'artificial intelligence is mainly used to detect consumer habits. The market is wondering whether the teleworking replaces business travel in the medium to long term. On the contrary, teleworking means that employees are much more dispersed across the country, and even between different countries, which means that more trips to get together. The real question is: "Where should a team based in Paris, Marseille, Dublin, Madrid and Frankfurt, for example, meet? A meeting in Paris is not necessarily the most appropriate, especially given the price of hotels and flights. The tool analyses the various parameters involved, and generates proposals.
As far as payment is concerned, what is this "smartcard" you mentioned earlier?
Zahir Abdelouhab - This is a payment card that will apply the company policy in real timeBy identifying where the user is, what they are doing, and whether or not the payment is valid at that moment. For example, when paying a bill at a restaurant, the tool uses the user's diary to identify that they are with a customer, and that the lunch spending limit is therefore not the same as for a team meeting, and the card rules are adapted in real time. Artificial intelligence can also continuously detect fraud. AI is therefore a major differentiating factor for TripActions in this payment area. It's not a "Yes card": it doesn't say yes all the time. And the expense is created automatically: a pop-up appears on the phone, a photo is added and the expense is submitted. We also offer the option of banning certain brands. For example, at TripActions, it's not possible to use a payment card in a fast food restaurant, for ethical and well-being reasons. It's not up to us to define company policy, but our role is to provide them with all the tools they need to make life easier for travellers and those who follow them on a day-to-day basis: travel managers, finance, HR, and so on.
TripActions' approach is not unlike that of Egencia in its early days...
Zahir Abdelouhab - Egencia was innovative in what it did at the time, as the first digital agency. It was a different time, the value proposition was a bit different. The main thing that differentiates us fromEgenciaOur main advantage is that we use much more recent technology and we remain independent, which means that we are not restricted in terms of content. We list everyone, including Booking. TripActions also invests heavily in support and human resources. We don't think we should do away with the human element. We want 80% of low added-value tasks to be carried out by self-service technology, with a seamless experience, and that in 20% of cases, when human intervention is required, we use ultra-qualified agents. The acquisition of Reed & Mackaywhich manages a VIP clientele, is a step in this direction. It really isoffering the best of both worlds : top travel agents for a premium VIP offer or to manage crisis situations, and high-performance technology.
shake things up, and make business travel a world in which users are happy
Aren't you worried that you might one day become the "Egencia" of a future player?
Zahir Abdelouhab - We are not afraid. We're only at the beginning of the story, and there's still a lot to do, both in France and globally. On the American market, we don't consider that we've arrived - quite the contrary. We're only six years old, and our ambitions go far beyond what we've already achieved in the United States. What we want is to moving the linesand make business travel a world in which users are happy. Our arrival on the market is being viewed positively, including by many of the incumbent players, as it will enable them to challenge their in-house teams on the development of new functionalities. Our aim is not to step on anyone else's toes - that's healthy competition - but to steer the market in the right direction, in terms of technology, pricing and so on. If we manage to move the lines on these issues, that's already a victory, and if new players come up with good ideas, that will only be positive.
Will TripActions' profile lead you to seek out accounts that used to work with Egencia, or will you venture into the territory of other TMCs, such as American Express GBT?
Zahir Abdelouhab - We don't play on the field of one player or another. Our value proposition is different. The world of TMCs is rich, and customer needs vary widely, as does the degree of maturity. We are not better than this or that agency, we simply believe, humbly, that our proposition better matches the expectations of certain customers.
Your youth is an asset. Isn't that also a hindrance when it comes to major accounts, which may be wary of entrusting travel, expense and payment to a single player who is new to the market?
Zahir Abdelouhab - We already have some major customers, such as Heineken. The expense, travel and payment components can be separated. On mid-market accounts, many companies want to simplify what often looks like a veritable millefeuilles. Depending on the case, there may be a TMC, a hotel supplier, an OBT, an expense provider, a payment system, a payment card, etc. SMEs do not want to have to manage such a system. complexity. Some key accounts will want to maintain this level of detail to manage each link in the chain. In these cases, they can start with our travel component and then extend the experience to the other components. There are a lot of preconceived ideas about the positioning of each player, but it's important to remember that there are several thousand accounts in France with totally different typologies, and a huge diversity in terms of geographical coverage, business lines, habits, and therefore needs. As a result, no one player will be able to meet all the needs of all companies from one day to the next, but there are different approaches, and TripActions' approach is echoing today.
Have you identified any specific features of the French market?
Zahir Abdelouhab - I think there is a need forlocal supportThis is a real issue in the French market. So we're going to recruit local teams, including technical, sales and marketing experts, as well as French-speaking agents. It's also important that the tool is in French. We plan to go out into the regions and meet local players to find out what their needs are. We also want to go further than 'just' providing the technology and service: we also need to act in terms of recommendations, for example on the definition of travel policy, card policies, etc.
no transaction fee but a single fee per journey
How is your business model different?
Zahir Abdelouhab - There is a need for simplification and optimisation in the business travel market. Our approach, our line of conduct, is based on the concepts of transparency andfairness. This guides our entire supplier strategy. What sets us apart on the travel side is that we don't charge a fee per transaction, but a single fee per trip. This provides much greater transparency and visibility on the real cost of the trip, and guarantees much better cost control, because there are no surprises. This aspect of pricing is part of our DNA, and we also want to move the yardsticks on this issue.
TripActions is talking about savings of 30% on travel budgets. How can this be achieved?
Zahir Abdelouhab - We carry out case studies with our customers, and we find that we manage to generate savings of between 15 and 30% according to customers and uses. These savings are mainly generated on content, because we have much richer and agnostic sources, which therefore give access to more competitive prices and significant economies of scale.
How do you see your business developing? Could you diversify your activities, for example into meetings and events, as other TMCs have done?
Zahir Abdelouhab - We already cover a very broad scope, wider than any other player: in addition to the travel, l'expense and the payment we already do meetings & eventsand we cover personal travel employees. In France and Europe, we have to support our first customers, make sure they are satisfied and make any changes they would like to see in the solution. These requests don't put us in a difficult position, quite the contrary: they push us to improve. We don't claim to have achieved perfection. We need to be able to develop new modules and new functions. That's our DNA. We are coming out of new features every month.
Could you tell us more about the acquisition of Germany's Comtravo, which became official this week?
Zahir Abdelouhab - TripActions reached an agreement on Tuesday to acquire Comtravoa leading travel management company serving the German, Austrian, Swiss and Scandinavian regions, with a wealth of regional expertise, localised support and a large inventory. This is the second acquisition in Europe in less than a year for the TripActions group. It illustrates our commitment to investing in the European market as the only all-in-one global travel, corporate card and expense management solution.
You talked about independence from suppliers, but Lufthansa has invested in TripActions...
Zahir Abdelouhab - Lufthansa has decided to change its positioning and target end customers directly, by offering more than air travel, potentially hotel accommodation, to the German SME marketwhich is very important. The idea is to 'bypass' the TMCs by taking on this role themselves. Lufthansa did not have the tools to do this. That's where TripActions comes in, which Lufthansa will use on a white label basis. However, we are not favouring Lufthansa content, and this does not change our positioning in any way. We're just supplying the technology to Lufthansa, which has therefore gone from supplier to customer.
What about the environment, where many travel managers are looking for tools to measure and take action?
Zahir Abdelouhab - As far as the carbon footprint is concerned, if we don't have a tool that allows us to measure the impact every time someone travels, to compare, to set a budget, to control, it's impossible to manage effectively. Like any new subject, we need to go step by step, equipping companies properly to enable them to achieve their CO2 reduction targets. The first point is to be able to measure the CO2 cost of each journey. We do this very well with the TripActions tool. The second point is budgeting. On the platform, each user will be able to consult his or her carbon impact, and the cost to the company in terms of compensation. We can therefore define budgets per employee. Third point: control. This means, for example, offering an alternative to air travel. This is something we're working on and which will be coming out very soon.
So you can play a prescriptive role?
Zahir Abdelouhab - Exactly. We really want to encourage travellers to make these choices, based on the gamification. In practical terms, this means telling the traveller: "if you stay below a certain CO2 threshold, you will be rewarded". There are many ways of doing this, depending on local legislation and the objectives of each company. Gamification is also used to make savings on bookings. In the United States, for example, companies have no problem giving money to employees as a reward for savings. Part of these savings are paid back to the employee in the form of "travel vouchers", as TripActions also includes a "Lemonade" section for personal travel.
