automatically pre-populates the traveller’s expense report. Meanwhile, KDS’s Neo system is now at the beta-test stage. Whether a traveller is off to Ankara or Anchorage, Neo will tell the travel manager not just the likely cost of the business class air fare and the three nights’ accommodation, but also the price of the taxi transfer from the airport, the going rate for a half-decent restaurant meal and – probably – the price of a nightclub mojito or two. To the travel manager and the chief financial officer (CFO), of course, this is manna from heaven. Joe Blow’s Anchorage trip will cost X, which is within budget. If Joe comes back with an expense claim for Y, there are corporate coals over which Joe can be hauled. If he fraudulently claims that the taxi transfer set him back a week’s wages, and the system shows it should have cost only a day’s wages, questions will be asked. So does the system have the potential to become prescriptive, deterring travellers from using their initiative to circumvent the travel gremlins? Heading for an important meeting at London Paddington, Joe Blow arrives at Heathrow to discover that the Heathrow Express – for whatever reason – is temporarily inoperable. Does he take a cab, knowing this will ring alarm-bells back at base, and fearing the fare might not be reimbursed? Does he call in to seek clearance for the additional spend (and how long will that take?), or
does he simply postpone, or even cancel, a potentially business- critical meeting?
“The easiest way to save money is often not to spend it in the first place,” KDS told Buying Business Travel. “Modern reporting tools have the ability to cut your costs: by seeing all the expenses in advance of someone booking a trip, you can then assess whether the business trip is really worthwhile.” And, in light of the concerns highlighted in the GBTA report, KDS stresses: “The next big opportunity for organisations is to unify their travel and expense management. A unified T&E process allows the management team to get an accurate view of the total cost of trip, but also means it’s
“The one thing nobody wants is a system so cumbersome that it becomes an inhibitor”
able, from the travel booking, to automatically populate an expense report and, therefore, remove all the pain from the end users, due to its complete level of automation.” So far, so good – but then:
“Ancillary charges are often a challenge for organisations, as you cannot truly forecast the cost of your trips, and you must be very flexible on your travel policy but without compromising on control.” So by seeing potential expenses in advance, travel managers can assess whether the trip is worthwhile, but then they cannot “truly forecast” the
price of that trip – thereby raising the spectre of cancelling trips on the basis of inaccurately-predicted costs.
HUMAN ERROR
Shane Bruhns, chief executive of Spendvision – now 100 per cent owned by HRG – is adamant that any shortcomings are more often the fault of people using the systems, rather than of the systems themselves. “It’s a tool. Any expense management system is a tool – how you use it is entirely up to you,” he says candidly. “There is the potential for any organisation to enforce
policy to the nth degree – but it’s not the technology that’s enforcing it.” However, Bruhns is unconvinced by the concept of predictive
technology. He argues that in most cases, corporates already know what their approximate average cost-per-trip is; TMCs already have that data, presented in the form of management information. “It’s happening anyway. Why do you need predictive technology?” The next big thing, he believes, is to move away from the idea of travel and expense management altogether, and focus simply on the ‘expense’ bit alone – embracing Spendvision’s parent company’s holistic “corporate services” ethos. “Travel is just one category of
spend,” Bruhns says. “So if you have a guy who buys travel as well as other goods and services, why does he need to use multiple systems?” Describing its products as “total transaction management solutions”, Spendvision’s latest coup is to
furnish Lloyds Bank with just such a system – technology that manages, processes and pays all expenses,