Leading global travel distribution platform TBO Tek Limited has announced the launch of Paxes, a SAAS based platform for corporates and travel management companies (“TMCs”) to upgrade their business travel experience. The platform is all set for a Pan-India launch after roll-out of their beta phase.
In an exclusive interview with ETTravelWorld, Gaurav Bhatnagar, Co-Founder, TBO.com shares more details on the company’s new corporate travel booking platform and the idea behind its inception. According to him, Paxes will revolutionise business travel management with its mobile-first corporate travel automation and self-booking solutions. Here is an excerpt from the conversation.
Idea behind Paxes?
TBO has introduced Paxes as a purpose-built platform for TMC’s powered corporate travel. “We launched Paxes as a purpose-built platform for TMC-powered corporate travel. With rapid digitisation, a platform like Paxes is highly appropriate for managing corporate travel. It is mobile-first corporate travel automation and self-booking solution focusing on the business travel market,” Bhatnagar said while sharing the idea behind inception of Paxes.
The mobile app on iOS and Android enables corporate employees to manage bookings, approvals, flight notifications, post-booking support, etc. The corporate administrators can set up multiple billing entities in different currencies, dynamic policies, approvals, hotels, guest houses, and airline deal mapping. The platform also offloads the work of finance controllers with GST and invoicing automation.
Tech-first initiative for travel trade
“We have used cutting-edge technology to provide an effortless experience to our customers. We use a widely adopted cloud platform – Amazon Web Services (AWS). It is the most flexible and secure cloud computing environment available today and allows you to automate manual security tasks,” informed Bhatnagar while talking about the technology behind Paxes.
Getting out of the virtual meetings and re-entering the realm of ‘in-person events’, the Indian corporates are now finally on the go, with more MICE spending and new corporate sentiments in 2022. Even though the MICE movement saw a sharp decline in the European countries caused by visa issuance delays, it observed a strong divergence in South-east Asia, Thailand, UAE and more due to easy accessibility.
He added that Paxes enables TMCs to collect online payments with 120+ integrated payment gateways. “Paxes caters to all stakeholders in the ecosystem. They can also manage the entire line-up of functionalities like corporate profiling, multiple plug-ins to run a customised travel program implementation, B2B inventory type, forms of payment, etc. The platform offers multiple invoice profiles and helps corporates and TMCs undertake return on investment calculations,” he mentioned. Paxes users can also create dynamic custom fields for granular reporting and analyze expenses through the spend analyser. The company claims that the systematised architecture of Paxes can help TMCs and corporate customers save a lot through its technology and innovation.
Omnichannel strategy to tap corporates
Paxes is a made-to-measure solution for all TMCs and their go-to corporate customers for Business travel needs. While talking about the marketing and promotional plans, Bhatnagar said that Paxes is pursuing an omnichannel strategy to reach out to TMCs and corporates. “Our target audience is anyone planning and enabling business travels. We currently have a network of 20+ TMCs globally, managing fulfilment of 50+ corporates through the platform only. Paxes platform gives the opportunity to corporates to work with their choice of TMC’s. It can be their existing TMC or Paxes network TMC,” he commented.
Digitalising business travel
Sharing his thoughts on the revival and growth of corporate travel industry, Bhatnagar expressed optimism that business travel is set to reach the pre-pandemic levels soon. “It translates into massive growth potential for the corporate travel industry ahead of us. People have also become more tech-savvy in the wake of rapid digitalisation during the pandemic. The success of the platform depends on both product and customer service experience. We are confident a platform like Paxes is bound to grow as we are digitalising business travel, helping corporates save money, and TMCs deliver curated fulfillment services to Paxes customers. With Paxes, TMCs also grow their business quickly and increase profitability,” he concluded.
With consumer travel sentiment returning to pre-Covid levels and the onset of the upcoming festive season, the travel industry has seen an uptick in advance bookings. According to various reports, travel agencies are reporting large influx of bookings with heightened demand for travel and vacations. The travel period from October to December looks promising as industry stakeholders express optimism on bumper business and consecutive revival of the industry.
