We welcome guest contributor Tony Carter, Managing Director at Amadeus IT Pacific to share his views on changes within the corporate travel industry.

The high level of global uncertainty means it’s more important than ever for corporate travel managers to see and understand their organisations travel patterns, spend and risk in real-time, and be able to quickly adapt. Legacy systems and processed aren’t up to the challenge. Businesses must have integrated cloud and mobile technologies at the heart of their corporate travel program if they are to remain competitive.

The emerging Millennial business traveller – for whom smartphones, social media and online shopping are the norm – have already embraced a technology-powered travel experience and expect the same seamless, personalised and flexible experience when they travel for business.

The rise of ‘Bleisure’ travel and the ease of self-booked travel is increasing out-of-policy bookings. This affects a business’ ability to manage risk and meet duty of care obligations, especially with the increase of volatile world events, both natural and man-made.

At the same time, businesses are struggling to strike a balance between cost savings, efficient operations, regulatory compliance and a good employee experience.

These trends highlight the need to adopt a customer-centric offering and optimise the travel process through technology. By adopting agile, integrated technology solutions, corporates and TMCs can exert more control over business travel to benefit not just the travel and finance teams, but all employees and the business overall.

Here are four reasons why technology needs to be at the heart of any corporate travel program.

1. Save time and money through process efficiencies

While there is rapid change in many areas of corporate travel management, one challenge remains constant – sourcing relevant, reliable vendors and securing the best pricing. To keep costs down, it’s important to have strong content partner so you can negotiate the most competitive pricing for your company.

At the same time, tracking and managing travel and expenses remains a top challenge for finance. A report from GBTA found the average cost to process an expense report for a single night hotel stay is US$58, but if that report has an error in it (which 19% do), that cost doubles. By integrating mobile travel booking and expense technology, with receipt capture for recording other expenses like meals, you automate the creation of expense reports, saving the finance team valuable time and money. At the same time, it empowers employees to make smarter decisions and comply with company travel policies.

2. Empower your employees to be productive

Flexibility continues to be a major priority for business travellers—whether it’s the flexibility to choose which technology will best serve their needs on the road or the travel itinerary that will best meet their business objectives.

The key to flexibility is having choice – your employees need to have access to a wide range of travel providers to find what they need and where they need it. Flexibility also means autonomy. By making the entire corporate travel experience – from planning to reimbursement – available to your employees online and on the mobile, you can give employees the flexibility and control they need to get the most out of their business travel. They can book and make changes anytime and anywhere, choose the options that best suit their situation, and cut out valuable time that would be spent liaising with a travel arranger.

3. Increase travel policy compliance

In the age of traveller power, there is a high risk that employees will book outside the remits of your travel policy. A lack of compliance can result in significant missed savings through unauthorised or noncompliant travel bookings, which over the course of a year, or even a few months, can significantly impact the bottom line. By optimising your travel policy design and improving traveller compliance via an online booking tool, corporates can save more than 30% on their travel spend, according to FCM Travel Solutions.

4. Meet Duty of Care obligations

Recent changes to occupational health and safety laws in Australia and New Zealand mean that the term ‘workplace’ now encompasses anywhere your employees are located and carrying out their work duties. Therefore, businesses must ensure their risk-management plan works hand-in-hand with their corporate travel program in order to meet their Duty of Care obligations.

As well as developing an effective corporate travel policy, companies must assess the risks of each location their employees are travelling, identify any high-threat locations and adopt proactive risk management and security measures. Should disaster strike, employers must be able to locate their travelling employees and respond quickly and effectively to provide immediate assistance if needed. Mobile technology that utilises GPS functionality, interactive mapping and messaging solutions provides one of the best ways to manage your duty of care.

Business travel pays off when it’s supported by the right tools. By simplifying, optimising and integrating end-to-end travel processes through the power of technology, corporates and TMCs can realise the benefits of better cost controls and processes, while empowering and liberating their employees.