White paper on mobile travel technology future

i:FAO, a major provider of business travel electronic procurement software, has published a white paper on mobile commerce and business travel. The white paper, titled Personal Travel Assistant, addresses the current disorganization in the delivery of information to the traveler, and it also spells out the great potential for the mobile travel industry.

The white paper is published as the latest edition of the company's Business Travel Update series and can be downloaded from the i:FAO Web site free of charge. The paper is available in English and German. i:FAO has given a vivid and expert summary of the knowledge and scenarios on the topic of wireless travel management.

According to i:FAO, the future of the Internet is mobile. Intelligent terminals will establish access to the network. To illustrate the mobile potential, i:FAO demonstrates with an example of a business trip how real value-added is created, when mobile communications devices, online services and targeted information merge in the Personal Travel Assistant concept. The PTA concept combines travel planning with scheduling, travel booking and travel expense reporting. The PTA actively supports the business traveler making the required adjustments to prevailing conditions.

Business travel software

The publicly listed  i:FAO AG  integrates diverse information technologies to establish leading global standards for business travel software. i:FAO is market leader for neutral, worldwide available standard software for business travel procurement. More than 1,200 companies worldwide use i:FAO business travel procurement software. i:FAO is headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany.

The i:FAO white paper says that market experts agree that the basic structure for a mobile Internet is developing right now. In the future, information and service transactions will make up the core content of the mobile Internet. Mobile access to the worldwide Web will grow rapidly in those areas where time- and location-relevant information and service transactions are supplemented in a sensible way.

"Business travel combines the possible uses for mobile services and information in an ideal way," the report says. "Where else but on a business trip is it so essential to obtain time-relevant information and use it as the basis for transactions, such as reservations and bookings?"

New optimized model

i:FAO is firmly convinced that, as a result of a combination of multiple functions and equipment, a new model for optimized communication and interaction will emerge. i:FAO coined the term "Personal Travel Assistant (PTA)" to describe the concept.

"We are not taking about a remote future scenario here," according to the white paper. "This is the vision for the business travel of tomorrow. There are already mobile, Web-based applications for services on the market. They are in the trial phase, evaluation phase, or they are currently limited to regional use."

i:FAO's vision is that the future traveler will have an important electronic assistant: the PTA. This is not just a single device, it is a combination of a handheld personal digital assistant (PDA), mobile telephone and notebook, which is always connected to the mobile Internet via fast data services, such as GPRS or UMTS.

Trip information

The PTA enables business travelers to access important information on the trip. Adapted to their travel status, travelers continuously receive all necessary planning and scheduling information that might influence their trip: traffic reports, weather information, booking updates, airline schedules, delays and other information.

The use of a PTA makes it possible to change airline reservations, check in at the airport and find restaurants, bars, theaters and shops. To date, these services are still provided separately.

The white paper notes that the most important prerequisites for the supply of information en route are already met. Equipment is being built today by Nokia, PC ePhone, Motorola, Siemens, which combines the mobile telephone, PDA and the capabilities of notebooks. Many electronic services are already available using existing equipment: weather reports, stock exchange quotations, current news and traffic congestion reports. However, many services are not yet adapted to travel planning or as a general rule they do not take into account the current location of the traveler and the relevant time, according to i:FAO.

At this time, there is a great deal of data on the Internet. However, these data are spread all over the place, they are uncoordinated and users are left to inconvenient manual searches, i:FAO said. New mobile travel services assemble the requested data, prepare information accordingly and present it promptly and in a visually clear form.

Preview phase

The first PTA systems are already in the preview phase, such as in the automotive industry. Since 1994 the company Berner & Mattner in Munich, Germany, has created PTA systems, which integrate travel information in a friendly way. BMW and other car manufacturers are partners for the research and development for PTA systems. 

As another example of what the future holds, i:FAO cites the collaboration mobile portal Iobox with ehotel AG. These companies make it possible to inquire about hotel accommodations and make reservations via SMS. Once a hotel inquiry has been sent, Iobox will return a hotel recommendation as SMS message, which the user can accept, also via SMS.

Further, the car rental agency Sixt allows car rental bookings via WAP telephone and SMS.

Arnitz, 45, founded i:FAO 1977. He is also known outside of the business travel circles as an expert in Internet technology. Arnitz served from 1990 to 1998 on the board of directors of the travel agency consortium Woodside Travel Trust, Bethesda, Maryland., and from 1999 until 2000 on the board of TRIP.com, Denver, Colorado. Arnitz is also the Chief Executive of the i:FAO Group and the Chairman and President of i:FAO of North America, Inc. He is a graduate of the Wharton Business School in Philadelphia.

Karin Froese, 39, i:FAO's chief operating officer, joined the corporation in 1981. Under her supervision the eHotel Service has established itself as a leading brand for business hotel reservations. Among other managerial responsibilities, Froese also directs  i:FAO subsidiaries in Bulgaria and in Switzerland. She is a management graduate of St. Gallen, Switzerland.