BEST OF BOTH WORLDS

Wings Travel Management gives SME clients dedicated local servicing backed by global travel risk management support

Managing a travel programme within an SME company can often be a juggling act of balancing the day-to-day requirements of your travellers with compliance, whilst seeking out the best value.

Often missed or overlooked is planning a strategy for travel risk management. Yet traveller safety is just as important for an SME as a large corporate.

Wings Travel Management has wholly owned operations around the globe – from London, Lagos and Luanda to Dubai, Durban and Damman – and the TMC’S staff are experts in handling complex travel, logistics and traveller safety for corporates of all sizes in the finance, construction, security, energy and marine sectors, particularly those travelling to high-risk destinations.

Notably at Wings’ office in London, staff are also experts in looking after the travel needs of SMES as some 60 per cent of customers have an annual business travel spend of up to £1million.

“Our Uk-based SME clients have the best of both worlds as they receive local, personal and dedicated offline service from their Wings travel consultant, backed by the capabilities and risk management expertise of a leading independent global TMC,” says Colin Goldney, Managing Director UK, Europe & Russia, Wings Travel Management.

“As part of an SME’S duty of care as an employer, it’s vital that they can locate their travelling employees quickly in an emergency and that they have access to immediate assistance,” he added.

“Most SMES don’t have the resources in-house to handle traveller safety and risk management, so they rely on us to provide this critical support. Our services and expertise in this respect are especially suited to SMES due to the menu of options and flexible pricing we can provide.” But travel risk management isn’t the only advantage SMES gain from working with Wings. Because the TMC owns all its operations globally, this means it operates off a single GDS technology platform as well as a proprietary front/mid-end reservations system TMA (Travel Management Application).

“Most other TMCS do not own their own operations in high-risk markets such as

Nigeria and Angola; they use partner agencies or franchisees. But the difference at Wings is that we own and manage all of our global operations,” explains Goldney.

“This means that our clients – whether Uk-based SME or large multinational corporate – not only benefit from consistent technology and servicing across our standardised global operational platform, but in times of emergency, our teams can access travel records regardless of where or when the reservation was made and provide support immediately.”

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