What clients want in 2015: HRG’s industry predictions
Better integration across travel programmes, smarter data analysis and travel risk management will be hot topics on the agenda for corporate clients in 2015, according to international corporate services company, Hogg Robinson Group (HRG).
The company predicts more detailed analysis will lead to a better understanding of traveller behaviour, which will coincide with driving policy change to deliver “wider visibility” of travel spend – key important factors for clients next year.
“2015 is going to be about clients demanding more from their commercial agreements with TMCs and improving their travel risk management procedures. The macro economic situation remains unchanged on the whole and clients are seeking to extract more from their spend without reducing the quality of their service,” HRG group commercial director, Stewart Harvey said.
“Meanwhile, geo-political instability and weather related incidents are becoming more frequent; both represent greater risk to travellers. Clients have a legal requirement to ensure the safety and well being of their workforce. Improving travel risk management programmes is a growing requirement that we expect to see continue into 2015.”
Ways in which HRG plan to tap into these insights is to increase its integration across client travel programmes to enable the company to gather “smart data”.
While acknowledging, “single sourcing of travel technology and services is not always achievable,” UK-based Harvey said clients will focus on attempting to deliver compliance, control and cost savings in 2015.
“They need the right contractors, at the right place, at the right time. And crucially with the right documentation. Travel is essential to their operational success,” Harvey said.
“Clients are using their travel data in ways we could never have imagined three years ago. What used to be the realm of the data analyst can now by understood by anyone who can use a mouse and keyboard.”
Meanwhile as consolidation in the sector grows, Harvey said it was now “essential for improved benchmarking and supplier negotiations, data management, traveller tracking and controlling costs”.
“As clients integrate additional markets, air and hotel expenditure and expense management data into their travel programmes, they are gaining increased visibility over their total travel spend,” Harvey said.
“Having additional data is great. But what is important is what you do with it. Increased visibility of travel spend allows you to identify opportunities for the future. This may mean improved negotiations with suppliers, making more informed decisions over where to hold meetings or driving traveller behaviour.”
One agenda item that will gain momentum across the board in 2015 is clients’ duty of care in light of increasing political unrest and extreme weather conditions seen in 2014.
“Travel risk management is an area that clients know they should be doing more in order to meet their duty of care requirements, however as risk covers multiple business areas it is difficult to ascertain who is responsible for each component of a travel risk management programme. This means when something goes wrong the response is not as prompt or effective as it should be,” Harvey said.
Harvey said it is “critical” for clients to develop a travel risk management policy that is both flexible and clear for clients to understand the internal structure and responsibilities when an incident occurs.
“It is business critical for clients to develop a travel risk management policy that has the mechanisms in place to respond to a crisis. By developing and implementing an integrated travel risk management strategy that is clearly communicated across their organisation, clients can mitigate their vulnerability across four areas: corporate reputation, financial risk, duty of care and legal obligations,” Harvey said.
Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au
business clients corporate customers hrg risk-management smart-data tmc tmcs tourism travelLatest News
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