Expense management
HIGH VISIBILITY COST CONTROL
The holy grail for buyers – the total cost of travel – is coming closer now that expense management tools are being integrated with travel booking tools. Linda Fox has the detail
booking tools recently suggest small to medium-sized companies are beginning to see value in the technology. This is supported by research from the
M
Aberdeen Group published in November showing half of UK businesses want to reduce the time employees spend on entering expenses. There are other forces at play as well, not least that corporates want greater visibility on spend. Air and hotel spend has been driven down and now travel managers are looking to reduce costs in other areas too. The Aberdeen Group's research
also backs this up, revealing that only 28 per cent of UK businesses have real-time visibility into their travel and expense spending against budget.
oves from a number of travel management companies to integrate expense manage- ment technology with their
While there are lots of buzzwords being
thrown about such as 'total cost of travel', 'door-to-door', 'end-to-end systems' and 'one-stop-shops', what it boils down to is a desire from corporates to capture pre-trip information and expense information that is as comprehensive as possible, in order to analyse what has actually been spent and where improvements might be made. Hillgate Travel has just integrated an
expense management tool within its GateWay travel portal. The company’s head of strategic business development, Julian Munsey, says, “There is demand, and research shows 80 per cent of companies want to improve their end-to-end process. “Some companies are highly compliant
and book everything through us but some are not, so by working with an expense management partner, we can empower managers to have access to data that allows them to identify leakage, authorised or unauthorised,” says Munsey.
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CRITERIA FOR CHOOSING A SYSTEM
• Get a good overview of what the system will do for you. Does the supplier know your company and the wider business travel market?
• Will it make yours and your travellers' lives easier? If it adds processes, then think again
• Is it quick and easy to set up, easy to use and will the technology supplier support its implementation?
• Does it integrate with existing systems such as your online booking tool?
• Does it allow for multi-language, multi-currency and local regulations, e.g. per diems
• Will it help get your company towards the ‘holy grail’ of the total cost of a trip?
• Will it improve access to data? • Does the supplier have a mobile strategy? • Does it involve a long-term contract?
Source: Meridian Global Services, Hillgate Travel and Traveldoo
THE BUSINESS TRAVEL MAGAZINE 63
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