Most people who have ever travelled for business will have experienced a pre-trip request process. Often a painful experience, it’s where employers require business travellers to justify and gain approval for travel before booking anything.
I’ve certainly experienced it. Researching flights and hotels, filling in a form with all the details, gathering data for why the trip is necessary, sending it off for approval, waiting days and sometimes weeks for a response whilst the request is sent up the chain of command, eventually receiving approval, only to discover the cost of travel has gone up and having to start the process all over again.
Transforming the trip request process
A more intelligent trip request process can eliminate the frustration and cost implications of delayed approvals and simplify the endless loop of traditional pre-trip approvals.
With SalesTrip, employees can research costs and request budget directly against a business purpose such as a sales opportunity or customer project. Approval is sent to the designated manager, including multi-level approval if necessary, who is then able to see the exact reason for the trip and the potential return to be made from it in just one view. There’s no need for the traveller to submit a lengthy reason for the trip as it’s automatically displayed via the request.
Once approved, employees can book and manage their travel, within the approved budget – and against the same business purpose.
To understand intelligent trip request in more detail, watch our short video.
