Travelit, Tourvest’s online technology, has evolved from a purely online booking solution to an end-to-end travel and expense management solution. Expense management forms a critical part of travel, providing companies and travellers with the transparency and visibility needed to understand and identify the true cost of travel.
Mobility has become a key factor for any traveller and company, to ensure ease and convenience for both receiving travel documentation and capturing expenses on the go. Travelit has developed its own mobile app to cater for this functionality, which has been exceptionally well received within the market place.
Phase one of the app was launched earlier this year and has already seen over 5,000 users. Phase two will be released in late November and will cater for full end-to-end travel bookability.
Philip Katz and Barry Painting, Travelit’s CEO and CIO respectively, believe that with their app, they’ve developed something unique and ground-breaking in a South African context.
Katz and Painting drew on their own experience as business travellers and identified all the different touchpoints along the corporate travel journey that might require a technical solution, and provide for the integration into an app. And then they built a solution that was user-friendly for customers, with a focus on producing something that required as fewer ‘clicks’ as possible.
The app begins with the traveller’s profile, which covers everything from personal information and contact details to preferences, loyalty numbers, policy group, card in pocket, and copies of ID, passport, visa, vaccination and car licence documents. Additional functionality includes all the traveller’s trips and itineraries and an easy-to-use expense claim section.
The app is an extension from the online portal, making it customizable to specific corporates and travel policies. It’s also been set up for online off line functionality and doesn’t require an internet connection.
“Ours is that corporate, that traveller, that policy group, those vendors,” says Painting. “It’s the same as Travelit does, and it’s very specific to the individual traveller, the company, and the company’s policy group.”
Travelit’s business strategy incorporates and provides solutions for the challenges that it faces within this very dynamic, unique and ever-changing continent, Africa. Payment solutions for suppliers, effective communication to travellers, providing the necessary inventory and delivering the necessary savings to clients, is all key to its success. With over 300,000 active users per month, 1,000 organisations, over 6,000 travel bookings per day and over 90% online adoption being achieved, Tourvest Travel Services remains the market leader in providing travel management services.