It’s no secret that today’s economic environment is forcing organisations of all sizes to take a hard look at their budgets. Finding ways to cut costs and streamline operations is a priority and it often means that organisations need to examine their business practices.
Automating travel and entertainment (T&E) processes can result in up to 10 percent overall reduction in T&E spend.* And, for most businesses, T&E is one of the largest areas of controllable spend – second only behind payroll. Despite this, many companies still rely on multiple, disconnected processes to manage their T&E that are difficult to manage and inefficient.
The beginning of every business trip starts with gaining pre-trip approval from management, then booking business travel. From the cumbersome task of manually gaining pre-trip approval to travel agency fees to lack of corporate travel policy enforcement – manually booked travel arrangements can cost companies significant time and money. Plus, they don’t provide visibility into valuable travel data that online booking tools capture and provide. While this process may eventually result in travel being booked, it’s not efficient, and it only covers the first step.
As most road warriors will attest, the business trip isn’t really complete until the expense claim is submitted and out-of-pocket costs are reimbursed. Traditionally, paper receipts are gathered and expenses are manually entered into a spreadsheet – leaving substantial room for error or even fraud. Once the expense claim is finally filled out, it can take weeks or even months for the traveller to be reimbursed. And, throughout the whole process, the organisation likely doesn’t have visibility into – or control over – spend, and often lacks auditing and reporting capabilities.
Thanks to technology, what’s considered the ‘traditional’ way to manage travel booking and expense claims doesn’t have to be a lengthy process with minimal control. In fact, solutions are now available to seamlessly automate the travel booking process with the expense claim process – from the time travel is procured all the way through to payment and reporting.
Implementing an automated T&E solution empowers employees to adhere to company travel policies, because they can easily book travel and file their expense claims from one system.
For organisations of all sizes, automating the T&E process reduces costs – from an increase in compliance, to reduction in spend due to better control, to shorter reimbursement times. By automating this process, the time to complete an expense electronically is twice as fast as manually completing an expense claim.** Plus, because these automated solutions are delivered on-demand with no software or hardware to purchase and little need for IT support, they can be implemented within a matter of weeks for very little upfront cost and reasonable monthly fees that translate in very low cost of ownership.
Whether you see this uncertain economic environment as a mandate to drive down costs or simply as an opportunity to set your organisation up for quick success when the climate improves, one thing is certain: best-in-class organisations use technology to control the entire travel and expense management process. Cutting business travel is not an option. But, reducing spend is mandatory.
* Concur Client Success Metrics, August 2008
** Aberdeen Group, April 2008
For further information: Website: http://www.concur.co.uk/
