successful” managers are using a system that consolidates both travel and expense data. Consolidation is key. Those who are dealing with multiple sources of facts and figures, according to the GBTA, spend 442,000 man-hours, worth some US$22.7 million, manually reconciling and cleaning data. The GBTA report suggests 64 per cent of those wasting all that time and money don’t even trust that they have all the data they need to calculate the total cost of a trip, and only 37 per cent believe their data is completely accurate. Another 44 per cent would like it to be more timely, and a massive 82 per cent “strongly” or “somewhat” agree they have to manage multiple data sources to answer questions from management about travel spending. Nearly three- quarters (73 per cent) say they have challenges reconciling differences
in reports because of variations in formatting. “Capturing data is of the utmost importance for travel managers, as they rely on that information to drive supplier negotiations,” says CWT senior vice-president Nick Vournakis. “Without an accurate picture of their overall spend it’s difficult to prove the benefit that strategic deals can offer to both suppliers and corporations.”
Buying travel, the argument goes, is not like buying loo-rolls or flip- charts, because travel is “emotive”
Joseph Bates, senior director of research at the GBTA Foundation, the association’s research arm, says: “Corporate travel managers need accurate, timely and complete data to manage effectively the multitude of responsibilities they have. From
this study, we’ve learned that the data management industry needs to provide consolidated, clear data so travel managers can control spending, deal with compliance issues, and better leverage the plethora of data they currently receive.” The GBTA report concludes that
travel data consolidation, where disparate data sources are combined into a single system, “may be able to solve many of the issues travel managers experience”. The problem is that only 15 per cent of the GBTA’s respondents say they currently consolidate all their travel data sources into a single system.
COSTLY BUSINESS
And the effects of joined-up expense systems – or lack thereof – impact on seriously large sums. Alan Gillies, head of UK sales for American Express Global Corporate Payments, says “indirect costs” are estimated at E1,300 billion annually for European companies. He says having the right card and expense programmes in place means “savings of between 5-10 per cent on processing and sourcing costs are easily achievable”. Creating products that target those desirable savings is what all the key players in the field are working on. Expense management market company SAP is working with Airplus International to develop a new near-field communication (NFC) system of payment processing which, SAP says, will save travellers’ time and streamline the back-office task of clearing credit card transactions. The new partnership was one of a string of new initiatives, announced at GBTA in Boston, to add to SAP’s Travel On Demand travel and expense (T&E) management solution. Working in conjunction with Open Text, described as “the leader in receipt recognition services”, the SAP system now automatically recognises expense receipts, no matter what language or currency they are in. Travel On Demand turns the receipt images into machine- readable information and