Several studies have highlighted the effectiveness of automation in improving process efficiency and reducing process costs in the long run. Enterprises remain relevant and beat the competition by automating core and non-core business processes.
Travel management software helps businesses increase the ROI of business travel through the end-to-end automation of a complex business process. Additionally, it creates opportunities for companies to reduce upfront and ongoing costs through business process automation.
The software helps employees accomplish business travel goals by providing information, assistance, and tech tools. At the same time, a corporate travel manager can use the same software to reduce business travel costs and find cost-saving opportunities.
Hence, travel management software will continue transforming and shaping business travel in several ways. Companies and startups will leverage the special-purpose software in several ways to make different types of business trips successful in the future.
10 Ways Businesses Will Leverage Travel Management Software in the Future
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Implement and Enforce Policies
Enterprises make it easier for employees to book the right travel products and avoid non-reimbursable expenses by implementing precise travel and expense (T&E) policies. However, they find it challenging to prevent employees from violating preset T&E policies.
Travel management software will make it easier for them to ensure policy compliance. A corporate travel manager can use the software to implement granular T&E policies. Hence, each employee can access relevant rules while making business travel arrangements.
At the same time, the software will enhance policy compliance by allowing each employee to choose from in-policy travel products. Also, it will automatically flag out-of-policy expenses when employees submit expense reports.
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Streamline Approval Workflows
Enterprises make pre-trip approvals mandatory to avoid the cost incurred by booking cancellations and rescheduling done by work travelers. They will use the business travel software to streamline and speed up the approval workflow.
While configuring the software, the corporate travel manager can define multilevel approval workflows. Employees can use the software to know which authority can approve what type of business trip. Also, they can send pre-trip approval requests directly to the approver using the same software.
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Extend Travel Choices
Businesses will motivate work travelers by allowing them to book their choice of travel products. They will leverage the travel management software to enable each employee to access an extensive and diverse travel inventory.
The software will customize the travel inventory according to organizational travel policies. But it will allow employees to choose from direct flights and connecting flights. Likewise, employees will have the option to choose from hotels and unconventional accommodations like homestays.
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Facilitate Self-Booking
The business travel management software will enable employees to book their preferred flights, accommodations, and car rentals in minutes. Employees can use the software to compare in-policy travel products various suppliers provide.
Also, the software will enable them to book the desired travel products directly without visiting third-party websites. Modern travel management solutions boost business travel booking by supporting multiple currencies and payment options.
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Simplify Booking Management
As highlighted by several studies, work travelers cancel and reschedule bookings more frequently than leisure travelers. They have to visit multiple websites to cancel and reschedule bookings. Also, they escalate business travel costs by canceling bookings at the last minute.
The travel management software enables employees to manage bookings without visiting the websites of multiple suppliers. Also, employees can use the software to cancel bookings without paying hefty cancellation fees charged by suppliers.
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Mitigate Travel Risks
Travel management software providers offer 24/7 support to work travelers across communication channels. Also, they ensure the safety and security of work travelers by partnering with global health and security risk management firms.
The travel support and emergency assistance make employees engage in business travel confidently. They can use the software to mitigate emerging travel risks by getting the required information and support. Additionally, the software enables corporate travel managers to track the real-time location of each work traveler.
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Automate Expense Reporting
Integrated travel and expense management software enables enterprises to switch from paper-based expense reporting to automated expense reporting. Employees can access the software on mobile devices to generate automated expense reports in minutes.
The software eliminates data entry errors by capturing information directly from the scanned invoices and receipts. The automated expense reporting helps the finance review travel expense claims and manage tickets without requiring additional time.
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Speed up Reimbursements
The finance team can review and process automated expense reports faster than paper-based expense reports. Also, they can use the dashboard provided by the travel management software to track travel expenses in real-time.
The software enables them to transfer funds directly to an employee’s bank account using ACH payment. Hence, enterprises will leverage the software to ensure that no work traveler experiences stress due to delays in expense reimbursements.
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Make Data-Driven Decisions
The corporate travel manager can use the software to generate various custom reports. The software generates reports based on real-time data and the parameters the manager sets. The manager can share the words with decision-makers to facilitate informed financial decisions.
At the same time, the software provides a variety of data-driven insights by analyzing the T&E data using advanced analytics. The actionable insights help the manager understand trends and patterns in travel data. Also, the manager can use the insights to control costs by refining organizational policies.
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Reduce Average Business Trip Cost
The software helps enterprises reduce human resource costs through end-to-end automation of the T&E management process. Also, it helps them reduce the average business trip costs in several ways – ensuring policy compliance, making travel products available at negotiated rates, and enabling employees to use the best deals.
An enterprise also has the option to use the software to run incentive programs. The incentive programs will encourage employees to earn monetary rewards by making cost-conscious booking decisions. Hence, enterprises will leverage travel management software to increase business travel ROI consistently.
Conclusion
Travel management software helps enterprises generate incremental revenue by automating a time-intensive and cost-intensive business process. They make it easier for the corporate travel manager to boost business travel experience and safety while ensuring policy compliance and controlling costs.
At the same time, employees can use the software to make business travel expenses and claim travel expenses without putting in extra time and effort. However, travel management solutions have been evolving consistently.
The new-generation travel management software increases the ROI of business travel by leveraging real-time data. Also, it optimizes business travel management by leveraging cutting-edge technologies like AI and ML.
