The key to future travel payment is with the traveller Turning spend into gains


CORPORATE TRAVEL AND ENTERTAINMENT (T&E) programmes have grown in size and sophistication over the decades. Companies now spend an average of up to 12%* of their entire budget on T&E, and many have implemented truly global T&E payment programmes, despite local and regional fragmentation. But the greatest progress may lie ahead, as innovative technologies, policies and partnerships lead to significant new gains for both companies and business travellers.


Embracing the digital agenda As cutting-edge payment options begin to disrupt the consumer world, the way forward for T&E programmes begins to emerge: both companies and providers seeking to optimise must begin thinking in terms of leveraging new technologies, challenge existing preconceptions and be prepared to rethink the connectivity that is supporting their T&E model. Different industry participants have begun to embrace the digital agenda with varying levels of enthusiasm and success. Understandably, most have assumed that their interests are best served by extending their reach or increasing customer touch- points. The expectation of being able to make bookings, payments and expense submissions on the move aligns with the rise of mobile apps from travel management companies (TMCs) and other providers. But this has been at the risk of


fragmentation and sometimes confusion for end-users. There is a significant opportunity to integrate much more deeply across the booking, payment and accounting chain to provide a far greater level of automation, control and convenience. Instrumental will be partnerships, of which some compelling examples have been seen. However, there is


still an absence of consensus on which roles different participants will play. Moreover, too often, T&E programmes


are unduly constrained by corporate policies that have barely changed in a decade or more. A stranded traveller, for example, needing to re-book a flight and a hotel at short notice can be unnecessarily frustrated in their endeavours by the policy and operational demands of a traditional T&E model. This is a symptom of legacy thinking around policy, but also innate limitations in booking and payment processes that have yet to fully realise the potential that technology has to offer.


Data is key


In an ideal world, the competing, and sometimes conflicting, needs of the corporate and its travellers must be balanced. The company wants control, simple reconciliation, and low administration overheads. The traveller, on the other hand, increasingly demands flexibility, speed and independence. Key to reconciling these priorities lies in the way we leverage data. There are remarkable parallels, for example, between the mechanisms payments providers use to


There is a significant opportunity to integrate much


more deeply across the booking, payment and accounting chain


prevent fraud and how corporates monitor and enforce their travel policy. Yet too often the real-life experience has been a struggle to achieve compatibility between the two, let alone realising meaningful synergies. Much can be done to address this by simply revisiting existing policies and factoring in a risk-based approach. Yet the dawn of the digital age offers new options. The ability to integrate powerful data, such as real-time schedules, weather conditions, business enterprise data and geolocation data – to name just a few, presents completely new possibilities for far more sophisticated solutions for booking and reconciliation.


Integration as the norm Smart companies are increasingly requesting as part of their T&E programmes the integration of their enterprise resource planning (ERP), expense management and even human resource (HR) systems. Sourcing platforms and TMC solutions are frequently added to the mix, too. Realising the potential of data, however,


will require much broader perspectives on integration. Further exploration of


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