Amadeus says that many companies continue to miss leveraging the benefits of integrating self-booking and expense management tools.
Speaking at this week”s Association of Corporate Travel Executives conference in Munich, Amadeus director corporate and distribution channels, Marcos Isaac, unveiled the findings of a study commissioned by the travel technology company in conjunction with Cranfield University.
”Many corporations are still missing tangible benefits and although certain ones such as Daimler are very focused, in general large companies need to undertake major studies,” he said.
Cranfield surveyed 168 travel managers and ”deep dived” into five of them with responsibility for spend of more than $100m (”48.9m).
While 45% had already integrated a self-booking tool (SBT) with the corporate intranet and 32% with their Human Resources database systems, only 9% overall of companies had integrated their SBTs with an expense management system.
”Integration pays off,” insisted Isaac, adding: ”There is a reduction in time spent reporting travel expenses and a drop in the need for manual input of travel data.
”With a fully-automated system, there is a cost of $15, whereas companies with a manual process incur $31 of cost on the reconciliation side.”
Senior management support is key in this regard, noted Isaac, while the backing of internal IT resources ” not always the case - is also crucial. ”It is no secret that when a manager wants to complete a travel management project, the IT department might not consider it important,” he said.
Survey responses indicated that most companies preferred a modular approach rather than one that was tailor-made. The latter solution can involve considerable additional time and cost of development, as well as ongoing IT support.
”Our recommendation for any company looking to pursue an integration project would be to first evaluate the existing travel and expense management processes, measuring the time from pre-trip to report submission to reimbursement,” said Isaac.
”This will give a clear picture of where enhancements to productivity can be made and help win senior management support. Benefits in productivity can reach 50% and create a better overall travel experience.”