Traveling for business can be a luxurious experience- from the free air tickets to the five-star hotels, and the sightseeing and entertainment that fits seamlessly into even the busiest schedules. Popular and frequent, business travel is a global phenomenon that occurs across companies, be it a SOHO, an SME, or a large corporate with multiple offices globally. In 2017, business travel made an economic contribution of $1.23 trillion across the globe- that’s as much as Australia’s GDP! Additionally, the GBTA (Global Business Travel Association) predicts that by 2020, worldwide business travel expenditure will reach $1.6 trillion.
But the positive impact of business travel can only be leveraged if it’s properly managed- i.e. if every rupee and minute spent on it can be tracked and accounted for. Else, employee travel expenditure can become a burden to a company.
That’s where AI-driven automated travel expense management software can (and have) come to the rescue! Tess360 is one such tool, that can closely track business trip expenses and replace archaic manual expense management procedures, so that freed up manpower can be channeled into more productive tasks.
Once you have chosen a solution to proceed with, here are a few things you should keep in mind before you deploy.
Integration Levels:
Integration of an expense management software must take into consideration the entire financial ecosystem. An expense management system would integrate expense tracking with other applications and corporate functions such as accounting, travel maps, policies, and third-party systems like hotel and travel booking as shown in the figure above.
Security:
Equally important are security features that a travel expense management software offers. How is the company’s data protected? Does the new vendor have any certifications, accreditations, or standards regarding data privacy? As a general thumb rule, an ISO 27001 is a well-accepted standard.
Certain other factors influence the purchase of a travel expense management software.
Travel Compliance Policy:
The company must have well-defined travel policies for each grade of employee.
The Right Choice!
Marking preferences can help make a good choice. Here are a few examples.
Cloud-Based Software: Attractions – high accessibility, maintenance-free, highly cost-effective.
SaaS Integration: Attractions – smooth, quick integration and implementation.
Pain-point: Extent of customization, or integration.
On-Premise Software:
Advantage: Scores high on data privacy and customization levels needed by the company.
Pain-Point: High cost of purchase and installation of additional software or hardware.
The integration, implementation, maintenance and recovery require additional manpower.
It’s about time to invest in a good travel tracker, fix that expensive leak and see profits rise! With the obvious benefit of cost savings, comes another, of guiding employees towards smarter choices!
Data Migration:
Years of manual billing and data cannot be discarded for a new automated system. This data is important for research and analysis to identify spending patterns. Integration must set aside time to migrate all the manual data into the automated system for future analysis and course corrections. Plus, getting your employees comfortable with a new software will take time, and the more time you spend solving their problems, the less they’ll have!
Back-up Processes:
It is good to invest in training your IT team for system failures and back-up and explore how the expense management software handles failures.TESS360 is a next-generation, cloud-based corporate travel solution that provides true mobility and makes travel expense management safe, secure and paperless. It can simplify several travel reporting processes for you, as a manager, and for your employees. We would be eager to give you first-hand experience to see how it can transform travel for your business. Please connect with us on sales@tess360.com or click here to schedule a demo.
