Direct Travel's "Next New Now" Digital Transformation (DX) Strategy Delivers Powerful Automation and Personalization

Denver, CO, Aug. 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Direct Travel, Inc. is advancing its digital transformation journey with the upcoming deployment of its AI virtual travel assistant, Simon, and through the integration of key products and services into enterprise-collaboration platforms.

Direct Travel is intentionally meeting its customers where they are by delivering Simon and key products, such as OBTs, duty of care, reporting, itinerary/invoice services and messaging within enterprise collaboration platforms such as MS Teams, Slack, Zoom and others.  

"The pandemic has fundamentally changed the pace of business, speeding up the adoption of digital technologies and emphasizing the need for process transformation," said Darryl Hoover, Chief Technology Officer, Direct Travel. "By deploying Simon in the channels that our customers use most, such as our website, mobile app, Microsoft Teams, Slack and others, this chat component of our customer engagement strategy allows us to remain even closer to the pulse of our customers. Integration with these endpoints also reinforces our ?know your customer' strategy enabling us to acquire personalization-related information from key data stores such as traveler profiles and customer relationship platforms, ensuring the delivery of a completely personalized end-to-end traveler experience," added Hoover.

Direct Travel's DX strategy allows the customer to determine how and where they engage with us based on their needs and specific situation. It also allows Direct Travel to extend management of specific activities, such as invoice/itinerary retrieval, profile updates and reservation processing, to both travelers and travel arrangers.

Key differentiators of this strategy include:

• Creating a robust conversational AI chat experience in Microsoft Teams, Slack, our mobile app, webchat and more 
• Maintaining an agnostic approach with the contact channels 
• Deploying commonly used applications within our customers' preferred enterprise collaboration platforms

"Redefining the customer and employee experience is more important than ever. At Direct Travel, we're meeting travelers where they are by bringing our services to them and we believe this will drive significant value in the future, transforming the way our customers do business with us," said John Coffman, Chief Financial Officer, Direct Travel.

By combining its virtual assistant, Simon, chat automation and self-service activities for the traveler and travel arranger, Direct Travel is delivering customer engagement at the highest level possible. For more information about this "next new now" DX strategy, visit www.dt.com.

About Direct Travel, Inc.
Direct Travel is a leading provider of corporate travel management services. The company has been providing travel management for over 40 years, working with clients to develop highly customized travel programs. By leveraging both the expertise of its people and innovative solutions, Direct Travel enables clients to derive the greatest value from their travel program in terms of superior service, progressive technologies and significant cost savings. Direct Travel has offices in over 70 locations across North America and the UK and is currently ranked 11th on Travel Weekly's Power List. For more information, visit www.dt.com.