The entire planet became inaccessible, and a pandemic took over. A few months later, though, international business travel increased once more. This demonstrated that corporate travel is here to stay and will be more challenging to manage than ever before.
Corporate travel management is the organization of a company's corporate travel-related operations, such as scheduling, reimbursements, travel data management, pre-trip and post-trip expense management, compliance, etc.
Corporate travel management seeks to optimize business travel procedures by developing a travel infrastructure supported by policy. The primary objective of corporate travel management is to ease the pre- and during-travel experience for employees and save the company money by reducing false reporting, overspending, and overstatements.
Why do organizations require an efficient procedure for managing business travel?
Companies are constantly seeking to enhance their operations. Effective corporate travel management streamlines the structure for travel expenses and reimbursement and improves the employee experience. Here are three other reasons why corporations require effective corporate travel management.
Savings
Infrastructure for systematized travel management greatly minimizes the critical staff time spent on tiresome expense filling. Consequently, this boosts employee productivity and contributes indirectly to a higher ROI per employee.
Faster operations
When you deploy a corporate travel management platform, the never-ending email threads and unreturned phone calls vanish. It eliminates the need for external communication regarding the trip and gives a more transparent channel.
Happy employees
Traditional travel and expense management solutions place most of the administrative burden on employees. They must continuously save receipts, justify spending, and pursue approvers to receive reimbursement. As a result of system inefficiencies, reimbursements are delayed.
A reliable travel management system allows employees to concentrate on their primary responsibilities without worrying about trip schedules and policy infractions.
How do business travel management systems function?
Corporate travel management systems supervise, organize, plan, and coordinate the entirety of the travel structure for one or several business visits. Travel management companies (TMCs), in-house travel planners, self-booking travel platforms, and corporate credit cards are the three primary corporate travel management systems types.
Travel management company
Frequently, corporations outsource travel planning to TMCs. They have knowledgeable travel agents who ease the planning process. Travel agents have the contacts and knowledge of the travel business to find you the greatest deals. Also, they may advise your organization on the most effective means to protect visitor safety.
In-house travel planners
Many organizations, particularly small enterprises, have in-house travel administrators who organize travel for all personnel.
Self-booking tools
For large organizations, employees plan their travel arrangements. They initially reserve the tickets, lodging, etc., and then submit a claim for reimbursement.
Corporate credit card
Several firms provide their staff with corporate credit cards. These cards eliminate the laborious reimbursement process and nearly double the visibility of expenditures.
