Zogix Promotes Green Practices and Social Networking Through Corporate Travel Management
by Alison Weiss
Zogix, an enterprise software company based in London and San Mateo, CA, is getting attention for how the company’s on-demand, web-based travel and entertainment solution addresses increasing demands to embrace next-generation business practices.
By helping managers enforce corporate travel policy, Zogix is also helping reduce expense spending and carbon emissions through an employee incentive program that drives compliance. And support of social networking functionality, allowing employees to share tips and tricks they’ve learned while managing travel budgets, displays a creative example of Enterprise 2.0 thinking. Indeed, These creative applications made Zogix a recent award winner for the November 2007 Oracle Partner Network (OPN) Innovation Awards for Europe, The Middle East and Africa (EMEA).
The Zogix Employee Services Application is just the type of solution to appeal to the growing number of companies focused on “Going Green.” A recent study by Harris Interactive that surveyed more than 300 IT decision makers, found that 39 percent believe that corporations should go beyond governmental requirements in their efforts to be environmentally friendly and 32 percent of respondents believe that firms should be environmentally friendly even if they have to sacrifice some of their profitability goals.
According to Zogix CEO Sam Bose, the Employee Services Application uses Oracle SOA, Oracle Fusion Middleware, Oracle Identity Management and Oracle E-Business Suite, and it complements an enterprise's existing IT infrastructure and ERP applications. Bose says, “Our solution focuses on introducing the fact that ’Going Green’ initiatives can improve an organization’s bottom-line while providing users with an incentive which goes beyond their social motivations. When they book travel, for example, they can compare the carbon footprint of a service provider relative to others and also compare their performance against their colleagues in making savings for the organization and contribution to reducing carbon emissions.”
Bose points out that the Employee Services Application’s use of Web 2.0 capabilities, such as networking and incentives, are important. He says, “Seeing what other people are doing will help drive behavior and improve policy compliance. The application focuses on personalization and customization—not one size fits all. We’ve built it in a flexible way that’s very interactive.”
Amit Zavery, Vice President, Oracle Fusion Middleware concurs that Web 2.0 features are increasingly critical. He says, “Web 2.0 is important because it’s how people want to interact. They’re doing social networking and are used to richer user interactions. When they go to enterprise applications, they expect similar functionality. Applications like Zogix allow users to get data very quickly, be more productive and share information easily.”
Zogix is introducing a software as a service (SaaS) version of its Employee Services Application in March 2008. Bose says, “We see a growing on-demand market, focusing on the small and medium-sized business (SMB) market because SMBs rarely have in-house travel arrangements and can benefit from achieving economy of scale by using the application. These companies can automate the process of creating in house company policies related to business travel and engage with their employees to manage this cost base resulting in higher policy compliance.”
According to David Rajan, Oracle Director Emerging Business, Oracle has an in-depth understanding of the innovation agenda in the UK, which is reflected in the development of its Emerging Business Partner Program. “We understand the needs of a start-up company as it grows through different phases, and we have provided Zogix with a platform to achieve its potential. It can be a daunting challenge trying to demystify whom to work with to help a business grow, but Oracle offered Zogix the technical and industry expertise to support product development and had a wide network of contacts that enabled them to meet investors. Mostly importantly, Oracle has provided them with access to the best form of investment for any start-up – customers and marketing presence.”
