TRIPBAM unveiled new features of its Smart Sourcing offering at the Global Business Travel Association + VDR Europe Conference in Hamburg.
Features include a project tracking dashboard, an office geo-location dashboard and automated renewal of dynamic discounts, all activities that until now could only be handled manually by travel buyers.
The product updates are now in pilot with select customers and will be made available to clients by the end of the first quarter of 2024.
The Project Tracker dashboard gives companies that rely heavily on project-based travel, such as professional services, a way to easily source negotiated rates and discounts with properties in a specific area for a set time period.
Typically, this activity is either overseen by a special project desk, so travel buyers lose the ability to track it, or travellers book whatever rate is available within the program, which leads to overspending.
The Office Geo-Location dashboard addresses the pain point of rapidly-expanding companies that frequently need to source corporate rates at hotels near new office locations.
Buyers simply provide TRIPBAM with geographic coordinates for their offices and then receive a streamlined report detailing nearby properties already within their program and properties where they should source a new corporate discount.
Meanwhile, automated renewal of dynamic discounts eliminates the need for buyers to go back to hotel partners to extend a dynamic discount for the following year. At the click of a button, the renewal is done for them, saving time for buyers and suppliers.
TRIPBAM, which is now a division of Emburse, says its Smart Sourcing tool tripled its customer base this year and expects a similar trend in 2024 as more buyers adopt the offering as an alternative to traditional sourcing and RFP methods.
