It is the business travel news at the end of 2023, and perhaps the start of a new era for the French SMEs on the eve of 2024: the launch of BusinessToGo in France as well as United Kingdom was made official at the end November. It extends the universe of possibilities for booking and managing business travel, by adopting a unique positioning in more ways than one.
Having gained experience and credibility in Lufthansa Group's 'home' markets of Germany, Austria, Belgium and Switzerland, the German carrier is continuing to diversify. Well-known to European business travellers for its airline business, Lufthansa Group is making a name for itself as a 'domestic' airline.travel agency business online. This is an unprecedented positioning for an airline, and comes against a backdrop of upheaval in the distribution sector driven by the NDC.
Above all, this deployment provides French companies with an alternative to the 'traditional' travel agency. This is particularly appealing to SMES who want to streamline business travel management while retaining the flexibility of a small organisation. And, as a result, generate substantial savings both time andsilver.
Especially as BusinessToGo is based on Navanwhich has proved its worth since its arrival in France under the TripActions name. The result is a modern, all-in-one online platform that combines attractive rates with compliance with travel policy. In addition to flight reservations - Lufthansa Group's traditional activity - BusinessToGo also covers other aspects of business travel. These include train, l'hotelsand the car rental. All backed by the Partner Plus Benefit from the Lufthansa Group, enabling travellers to collect points when booking flights on the Group's airlines and those of its partners. The platform BusinessToGo also allows PartnerPlusBenefit members to use their points to book their Reward flights.
A global travel and expense management solution
It is this ability to cover the different aspects of business travel that makes BusinessToGo an essential tool for optimised expense management. Faced with work habits that are more heterogeneous than ever, companies need to be able to turn to a global travel and expense management solution. Building on Lufthansa Groupwith the dynamism of a new entrant like NavanBusinessToGo has what it takes to convince companies that are sometimes held back by integration, which can be considered tedious. The time has come to turn the page on existing systems, that time-consuming patchwork that causes stress and frustration.
Simplicity, compliance, safety
Rapid training - 2 hours per employee - enables the company to get to grips with the tool BusinessToGo. And to enter a new era of business travel, rapidly reaping the rewards of this integration. The figures bear this out: an estimated 165,000 euros the resulting annual savings in expenditure, and to 45 minutes time saved per booking. Travel managers can expect to save up to 8 hours a week. Efficiency, compliance, visibility and also security - real-time flight tracking is part of a duty of care approach - BusinessToGo promises to fundamentally rethink business travel management within companies.
