As corporate travel continues to evolve, managing trips efficiently has become a priority for many businesses. The complexities of booking, tracking and overseeing business travel can be costly, time-consuming and prone to errors without the right tools.
Travel management software addresses these challenges head-on, offering a streamlined, automated solution to the usual corporate travel woes. If you’re curious about what travel management software is, what it does, and how it can benefit businesses of all shapes and sizes, our guide has you covered.
Travel management software: the basics
A travel management system enables businesses to book, track and manage corporate travel. Usually, these capabilities are housed in one bespoke platform, serving as a comprehensive, one-stop-shop for managing corporate travel logistics.
By centralising data and providing real-time insights, travel management software helps businesses:
- Make informed decisions
- Enhance employee travel experiences
- Ensure safety and compliance
- Save time and reduce operational complexities
The core features of travel management software
While travel management software offers a wide array of features, its functionality is built upon a few core pillars that define and power its effectiveness. These foundational elements help businesses customise and enforce company travel policy, maintain control over budgets, and book each stage of the travel journey in one place.
- Policy customisation: every business has unique travel guidelines for managing employee travel plans and expenses. Travel management systems allow businesses to edit and then enforce these policies automatically, flagging non-compliant bookings to ensure workers adhere to company protocols.
- Expense management: managing travel expenses can be a headache, but travel management software simplifies this by automatically capturing receipts, tracking expenses, and generating reports.
- Centralised booking: travel management systems often integrate with international travel suppliers, helping businesses compare prices and book flights, hotel and transportation all in the same place.
Why is travel management software so important to businesses?
Corporate travel is a critical component of business operations, enabling companies to build relationships, secure deals, and facilitate employee development. But managing travel efficiently can pose a significant challenge, especially when juggling costs, compliance, and worker satisfaction. This is where travel management software comes in.
- Reducing costs: by flagging non-compliant bookings and assessing spending behaviour, travel management software ensures that all travel expenses align with the organisation’s budget.
- Improved efficiency: managing business travel manually can be time-consuming, and having to manage multiple different systems for booking and tracking expenses makes errors more likely. By centralising the travel process, these unwieldy processes are automated, reducing error rate and saving time.
- Saving opportunity: most travel management systems offer real-time tracking and reporting. This helps identify opportunities for savings, such as optimising travel routes or taking advantage of updated vendor rates, reducing financial waste in the long run.
Another major reason travel management software is so important is the various benefits it provides to employees. Read on to find out more…
Travel management software: a boost for employee satisfaction and safety
Travel management systems don’t just make corporate travel easier, more efficient, and more cost-effective — they also elevate the experience for employees, and enhance safety.
Features like mobile apps, real-time updates, and other user-friendly tools help employees arrange travel within company guidelines. Whether they’re booking a last-minute flight or navigating unexpected changes, travel management software ensures employees have a stress-free travel experience, leading to happier, more productive workers.
Additionally, many travel management systems offer risk alert tools that provide real-time updates on travel disruptions, health alerts, or geopolitical risks. The state of the world changes every day, and travel management software enables companies to keep their employees safe without devoting significant resources to doing so.
Who would benefit the most from travel management software?
By now, it’s probably clear that businesses of all shapes and sizes could benefit from travel management software. From small businesses to multinational corporations, managing corporate travel can be a stressful, time-consuming experience — and one most companies want to optimise wherever possible.
Whether you’re one of those small businesses trying to reduce cost or a forward-facing company aiming to lessen its carbon footprint, travel management software offers solutions tailored to a wide range of needs.
Smaller to mid-sized businesses:
For smaller organisations, managing expenses effectively can be the difference between a fruitful year and a disastrous one. By automatically enforcing cost-optimised travel policies, travel management software gives smaller to mid-sized organisations the tools they need to operate efficiently, without the need for a large admin team to handle logistics.
Large businesses:
Larger businesses tend to have more complex travel needs, with employees travelling across multiple locations and time zones. By centralising all aspects of travel, travel management systems allow large businesses to oversee the sprawl of daily, weekly or monthly travel with ease.
Industries with high travel rates:
Certain industries like consulting, sales, tech or healthcare demand frequent travel. Travel management software enables businesses in these industries to keep up with that demand, ensuring trips are planned and executed seamlessly.
Sustainability-focused businesses:
Organisations that want to reduce carbon footprint can leverage certain features of travel management systems to identify eco-friendly travel options, such as greener transportation or sustainable accommodations.
Travel management software: making business travel easier, cheaper, and safer, one feature at a time
By handling every aspect of business travel — from booking flights and accommodation, to tracking expenses — travel management software empowers businesses to operate more effectively. Just as crucially, these systems create a seamless, stress-free travel experience for employees, and by enforcing policy guidelines, make it a safer journey too.
Whether you’re looking to save time, reduce operational costs, or elevate / safeguard the employee experience, travel management software can provide a range of solutions tailored to your unique needs as a business.
Want to learn more about how to build a company travel policy that boosts efficiency and employee safety? We’ve got the guide for you.