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| Source: SAP Concur. View from a plane window. |
"Just like it’s possible − with the right method − to transform your chaotic home into a neat abode that sparks joy, it’s possible to turn business travel from pain to pleasure with some technological ingenuity," said Andy Watson, SVP and GM, Asia Pacific Japan and Greater China, SAP Concur.
Traditionally, before making their trips, business travellers need to:
- Manually conduct multiple searches for their desired flights and hotels. Bookings are done separately with the need to repeatedly key in personal and booking information.
- Manually consolidate multiple bookings in one place, often in a paper-based fashion with no capability for changes or real-time prompts and updates.
- Go through a tedious submission process for internal approval of the trip.
- Safekeep paper receipts collected along the trip.
- Go through the receipts and key in details for claims upon return.
"With modern, mobile-based travel and expense technologies, business travellers will be able to declutter all these processes, better organise their trips, and take more effective care of their own safety," Watson explained.
He said decluttering and going digital could mean:
Traditionally, before making their trips, business travellers need to:
- Manually conduct multiple searches for their desired flights and hotels. Bookings are done separately with the need to repeatedly key in personal and booking information.
- Manually consolidate multiple bookings in one place, often in a paper-based fashion with no capability for changes or real-time prompts and updates.
- Go through a tedious submission process for internal approval of the trip.
- Safekeep paper receipts collected along the trip.
- Go through the receipts and key in details for claims upon return.
"With modern, mobile-based travel and expense technologies, business travellers will be able to declutter all these processes, better organise their trips, and take more effective care of their own safety," Watson explained.
He said decluttering and going digital could mean:
- Using smart apps to book flights, hotels and rental cars, streamlining travel booking, claims and invoicing management from start to finish.
- Organising all travel plans in one place, including personal arrangements done with travel service providers like Airbnb and Uber.
- Receiving real-time flight alerts throughout their trip, even possibly getting notified when a better seat becomes available.
- Linking frequent flyer accounts and reward programmes on one platform, which lets travellers save time on bookings and leverage a B2C experience, while staying within the policy needs of their company.
- Keep their company in the loop with modern apps so it can render on-site assistance should the need arise. "Modern apps can help firms proactively monitor weather, violence, system disruptions or other risks that may impact their travellers, communicate with them and connect them to expert support," Watson said.
- Take pictures of their paper receipts, submit them instantly for claims and forget about the need to safekeep them. "Some apps can automatically create, itemise and categorise charges in expense reports," noted Watson.
- Use apps to auto-submit hotel, restaurant and transportation e-receipts, or enable these vendors to submit their receipts directly to the corporate expense system.
- Organising all travel plans in one place, including personal arrangements done with travel service providers like Airbnb and Uber.
- Receiving real-time flight alerts throughout their trip, even possibly getting notified when a better seat becomes available.
- Linking frequent flyer accounts and reward programmes on one platform, which lets travellers save time on bookings and leverage a B2C experience, while staying within the policy needs of their company.
- Keep their company in the loop with modern apps so it can render on-site assistance should the need arise. "Modern apps can help firms proactively monitor weather, violence, system disruptions or other risks that may impact their travellers, communicate with them and connect them to expert support," Watson said.
- Take pictures of their paper receipts, submit them instantly for claims and forget about the need to safekeep them. "Some apps can automatically create, itemise and categorise charges in expense reports," noted Watson.
- Use apps to auto-submit hotel, restaurant and transportation e-receipts, or enable these vendors to submit their receipts directly to the corporate expense system.
"This paperless approach aids environmental preservation," Watson pointed out. Other sustainable options exist for modern apps include the possibility of optimising routes based on emissions, or renting environmentally friendly cars from designated rental firms.
"Looking beyond travellers themselves, all these capabilities can tidy up operations for finance managers and make their work a breeze," he added.
On the back end, Watson pointed out that the data for employees’ bookings across multiple channels would all flow back to the finance team. With a digital strategy, that team gets more visibility and greater insights, so they can apply policy on direct bookings and better manage compliance and approvals.
"Looking beyond travellers themselves, all these capabilities can tidy up operations for finance managers and make their work a breeze," he added.
On the back end, Watson pointed out that the data for employees’ bookings across multiple channels would all flow back to the finance team. With a digital strategy, that team gets more visibility and greater insights, so they can apply policy on direct bookings and better manage compliance and approvals.
"With this same data, the finance department could anticipate needs, predict challenges, identify opportunities on the fly, and tackle everything from taxes and compliance risk to mobile phone expenses and fraud," he said.
"All in all, a company could create a best-in-class experience for its employee travellers while dramatically improving its financial controls and productivity organisation-wide," Watson concluded.
