BTI has launched technology which allows corporate travellers to manage their expenses online and will provide clients with rapid analysis of spending patterns.
The development is the latest manifestation of travel management companies' efforts to make themselves indispensable by providing customers with ever more sophisticated means of identifying potential savings and false economies.
An example of the latter would be a low cost airline booking which resulted in a longer journey from the airport and a higher taxi bill.
BTI claims its system “substantially reduces costs while improving management control of handling low value, high volume transactions”.
Typically such transactions, which include cash advances, mobile phone calls, taxi fares and train tickets, account for over 90% of such transactions.
BTI director Chris Fry says some technology designed to automate the process is so cumbersome that employees find it quicker to submit expense claims manually.
“We believe the market is ready for total T&E but most systems don't work efficiently or effectively. Some you have to buy and implement yourself. Some you have to apply to your whole organisation rather than just part of it.
“This is flexible enough to allow you to integrate it just with certain departments. It takes us further into the area of T&E management than we have ever been before,” he said.
The system has been developed in conjunction with Spendvision, which has offices in Melbourne, Auckland and London. It can cope with a range of languages and currencies.
BTI ceo David Radcliffe said: “Expense management is widely recognised as an area of increasing importance and focus for organisations, as confirmed by some recent in house research. Almost two thirds of clients surveyed in the UK alone have access to an electronic expense management system and those which did not have such a solution in place expected one to be introduced during the next two years.”