Concept for a Multimodal Business Travel Portal: Identification of a Holistic Business Travel Process and the Required Functional Building Blocks

Business travels are an important component of our economy and essential in a globalized world. However, to date there are no business travel portals which support travelers over the holistic travel process -- before, during and after the trip. Thus, the aim of this work is to define the necessary clusters of services (building blocks) for a business travel portal that allows the traveler to satisfy his/her mobility needs by a single self-service portal. Through the structured analysis of business travel use cases this research identified seven building blocks to provide full support in all phases of the trip. Before the journey begins travelers have to be supported by routing (geographical routes and selection of adequate transport modes) and booking services. During the trip the travelers need navigation services, a real-time itinerary and payment tracking services. After the trip services for the travel expenses and a mobility reporting are required.