A corporate travel management tool should enable a company to manage its employee business travel and associated costs.
For post-pandemic business travel, a corporate travel management tool will need to do more than just allow employees to book travel. It’s highly likely that business trip requests will be assessed closely and fewer trips will be approved. Only those that can clearly demonstrate a real return on investment will be authorised.
To allow companies to adapt to post-pandemic business travel requirements, a corporate travel management tool should include the following features:
1. The ability to manage your company’s travel policy and ensure compliance
Whatever your company’s travel policy, your corporate travel management tool needs to be able to implement those policies so that any travel booked falls within the policy. The Covid-19 pandemic has also made it clear that a travel policy needs to be dynamic so that a business can implement emergency travel measures should the need arise.
2. Allow you to book your business travel, whether it’s flights, accommodation, trains, car rental and so on
Your corporate travel management tool should offer a full range of travel booking services, with no additional booking fees. From flights and accommodation, to trains and car rental, your tool should allow you to search, sort, get approval for, book and expense your travel in one place. Even better, is when the tool automatically assigns the travel booking against a specific business purpose. In SalesTrip you can book your travel against one or more objects in Salesforce such as opportunities, accounts, campaigns or contacts. This helps managers understand the impact of any travel spend on customer acquisition and retention.
3. Consolidate travel and expense management in the same place
We’ve covered the booking of travel but what about claiming the associated expenses? A corporate travel management tool combined with expense management saves significant time for employees. Trips can be booked and related expenses created automatically.
4. Monitor spending
A corporate travel management tool shouldn’t just be about travel bookings. An important element of it is the reporting and monitoring of spend, so sophisticated analytical capabilities are a must. This will be particularly important when business travel starts to pick up again. Businesses will need to be asking: Are we travelling too little or too often? Is business travel contributing to revenue?
By using the comprehensive data and advanced analytics available through a modern corporate travel management system, a business can estimate the spending needed for different types of activities such as to win new deals. With a system that allows you to monitor spending in this way, businesses can ensure travel spending is more than just an uncontrollable cost but actually contributes to growth.
5. Duty of care
Essential for companies looking to restart their business travel in the current pandemic situation is traveller safety and compliance alongside Covid travel rules. A corporate travel management tool should keep track of who’s travelling, where and when. Flexible travel policies should allow emergency decisions to be taken by travellers and their managers should the need arise.
6. Security and compliance to policy
When you have a travel policy, you want to ensure employees comply with those rules. A corporate travel management tool enables automated checks and warns employees if they’re out of policy. Management teams can intervene and take action if the tool tracks requests for spending outside the travel policy.
7. Mobile enabled tool
A modern corporate travel management tool must be mobile-first. Employees should be able to search, book and expense their travel from a native app on their mobile device. They should be able to access booking details, tickets and other important information whilst on the move.
Managers should likewise be able to review and approve travel through their mobile device and easily look at reports and dashboards to ensure travel is being managed correctly.
8. Scalable
You need to ensure that your corporate travel management tool can scale with your organisation’s needs. By using a SaaS travel management tool, you can easily add new users when your business travel starts to increase again.
When choosing a corporate travel management tool, make sure that at a minimum it has the above features, and especially for post-pandemic travel, ensure that the tool can tie back travel expenses to business outcomes.
To find out how SalesTrip allows you to align travel spend with business growth, download our latest report.
