Contents of CPA Practice Advisor - MAR 2012

Today's Technology for Tomorrow's Firm.

Page 31 of 38

TRAVEL Tools and Apps to Help aools A nd pps t H o elp W
hether you are heading to Greece for a holiday with the family or off to visit a client, traveling can be challenging, and even just planning your travels can be time-consuming and frustrating. Nothing
is more unnerving than to arrive two hours late for a connecting fl ight and have no idea whether you are going to make it to your fi nal destination in time for an important event or meeting. And this can happen no matter how many hours you spent working to fi nd the best fl ight connections at the best prices. Whether you are traveling for business or pleasure, the last thing you want to do is be given an inadequate food voucher or be sent to one of those nearby airport hotels with sticky carpet! Today there are many tools,
including websites and internet-enabled devices using travel-related apps that can rescue you from unpleasant out- comes. Tools such as Google Maps are useful for fi nding directions and checking out public transportation and, if you have a smartphone with GPS, products such as NAVIGON MobileNavigator provide high-quality maps for your phone and allow voice communication for hands-free directions. Products like Evernote and Microsoſt OneNote can help organize all the small details travelers have to keep up with. In practical terms, these tools can help you know where you are and keep track of all your up-to-date travel details. In this article, I give you a view
"from 30,000 feet" of the types of tools available for empowering travelers. I
Leading Travel Price
also provide insights into some of the powerful new features that we could not even imagine only a couple of years ago.
Types of Tools Unlike traditional soſt ware solutions wherein you usually get all your modules from the same vendor, cloud solutions (i.e., those for which there is no on-premise soſt ware to load) are services, not products, and fragmen- tation is the rule. For instance, you might choose one product to keep track of airline travel details and another to keep your appointments and cal- endar. Fortunately, the new cloud apps integrate well with other cloud apps in addition to traditional applications. For example, if you are currently an MS Exchange user, almost all these new cloud-based apps work well with
32 March 2012 • www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com
Outlook and Exchange for email, calendaring and contact management. T is article will cover three travel tool categories: • Discount and bargain sites • Tracking and reporting for business travel
• Credit card and club memberships
Discount and Bargain Sites T e recession has made the travel
marketplace very competitive, and there are a number of sites that can help you benefi t from this competitive environment. If you are a frequent traveler you know these sites well, because they probably have saved you thousands of dollars over the years.
Search Engines ☛ Travelocity.com ☛ Orbitz.com ☛ Expedia.com ☛ RentalCars.com ( Just got an
☛ Hotels.com (Prepayment in full can save a lot for those who are sure of where they want to stay.)
intermediate-class car in Seat le for $13.32 per day from a "top 5" vendor!)
☛ OpenTable.com ☛ Priceline.com ☛ Kayak.com (Search using several search engines at one time.)
☛ IWantaCruise.com ☛ Travelzoo.com ☛ Cheapoair.com
(You have to love the names of the
last two!) If you are a seasoned traveler, you also know that it pays to shop around