Are you tired of spending countless hours managing the entire company’s travel arrangements manually? Is scanning multiple websites to find policy-compliant flights and hotels proving to be excessively time-consuming? If yes, it’s time to say goodbye to the hassle and embrace the benefits of travel automation software.
In this blog, we explore eight compelling reasons why travel automation software is a game-changer for businesses compared to traditional manual travel management.
Increased Productivity
Travel managers who rely on manual methods of travel management often recognize the limitations of such processes. Such methods involve repetitive and often time-consuming tasks like finding the right flights and hotels, creating itineraries, and getting them approved by the right authority.
As a result, most travel managers find themselves constrained. They are unable to fully dedicate their expertise to more strategic tasks, such as improving the ROI of business trips.
Travel automation software solves this problem by automating most of the manual tasks. Such solutions auto-suggest policy-compliant flights and hotels, create itineraries and streamline approvals. This reduces the administrative load on travel managers. Ultimately, the software helps in increasing the productivity of travel managers.
Streamlined Bookings
Traditionally, employees are supposed to fill out travel request forms and submit them physically or via email. However, without a proper tool, it can be difficult for travel managers to track the status of each request. This can also cause delays in approvals.
Another drawback of manual travel management is that travel managers may struggle to fulfill the needs and preferences of each employee. This can result in a decrease in satisfaction amongst business travelers.
However, travel automation software streamlines the booking process by allowing employees to self-book their tickets according to their preferences and forward the travel request on the app itself to the approver.
The app then notifies the approver regarding the request, which he can approve or deny with just a click. This streamlined process reduces response time, enabling faster decision-making and avoiding delays in travel arrangements.
Centralization of Data
In manual travel management, travel managers often rely on spreadsheets to store and organize data, while documents are stored in various files and folders. This fragmented approach can make it challenging and time-consuming to locate specific information when needed.
Travel automation software provides a centralized platform for storing all travel-related information, ensuring easy access and efficient management of data. Instead of scattered spreadsheets and files, all travel data, including trip details, itineraries, and expenses, is securely stored in the cloud.
An important benefit of centralization is that any changes made to the data are immediately reflected across the platform. This ensures data consistency and prevents confusion.
Deeper Visibility Into Employee Spending
Travel managers cannot access real-time travel reporting’s when using manual methods of business travel management. This prevents them from effectively monitoring travel spending or detecting suspicious expenses in time.
Travel automation software makes managing travel expenses more efficient and accurate compared to manual methods. With this software, employees can easily submit their expense reports from anywhere as soon as they incur expenses.
Furthermore, if employees link their corporate credit cards to the software, their expenses are automatically recorded and displayed on the dashboard. These real-time expense insights enable managers to make informed decisions. It also equips them to identify ways to save costs and ensure that resources are allocated properly.
Improved Policy Compliance
In traditional travel management, travel managers are burdened with the task of manually verifying whether employee bookings adhere to the company’s travel policy. This process becomes even more challenging when dealing with exceptions to the policy.
Additionally, employees sometimes struggle to understand or be aware of the policy. This usually results in non-compliance.
However, travel automation software addresses this issue by displaying travel packages that align with or deviate from the policy in separate windows on the application. This allows employees to view the policy in real-time, allowing them to make informed decisions.
Moreover, the software enables travel managers to easily identify employees who have not followed the policy. Then, they can decide whether to approve or reject the travel request.
Enhanced Cost Savings
In manual travel management, there are various costs involved, such as paperwork, files, physical resources, and storage spaces. These things, along with the expenses incurred on human resources, contribute to the increased cost of manual travel management.
Another area where cost leaks occur is when travel managers are unable to identify opportunities for cost optimization due to the absence of comprehensive expense reports.
However, travel automation software helps eliminate these costs. It reduces the need for paperwork and eliminates the human resources expense spent on repetitive tasks.
Moreover, it provides access to real-time travel and expense analytics. This enables travel managers to quickly detect expense fraud, identify excessive spending, and pinpoint areas where costs can be improved.
Some advanced software solutions like ITILITE take business travel analytics to the next level with advanced technology. ITILITE offers the world’s first virtual travel consultant-Mastermind. This AI-powered virtual assistant has the ability to analyze your company’s historical travel data, identify the cost leakage avenues, and suggest a step-by-step action plan to fix those leakages.
Hence, with Mastermind, you will know the ways to maximize savings in corporate travel.
Integration with Third-Party Software
In manual travel management, travel managers often face challenges when it comes to collaborating and coordinating with different departments. For instance, synchronizing information between the travel department and the finance department becomes difficult, leading to problems like duplicated data or errors.
However, travel automation software offers a solution to these issues. The software can integrate with the HR and finance software, enabling real-time data synchronization.
Whenever information is updated in the travel management system, it automatically reflects in the finance system as well. This integration ensures that everyone has access to real-time information, preventing any confusion.
Improved Travel Risk Management
When manually managing trips, travel managers face multiple hurdles in ensuring the safety of employees. Firstly, it becomes difficult to monitor the location of employees during their trips. This lack of visibility hinders the ability to locate and assist employees in case of safety concerns.
Secondly, travel managers do not have comprehensive travel data to assess the risks associated with a particular trip.
Travel automation software overcomes these problems by providing tools for analyzing travel risks. Plus, the software allows travel managers to block unsafe hotels, preventing travelers from booking them.
Moreover, the software includes a live tracking feature, enabling managers to monitor the whereabouts of employees in real time. This capability ensures that managers can quickly locate and reach out to employees in case of an emergency.
Switch to Travel Automation Software
With its time-saving capabilities, reduction of errors, and enhanced cost savings, travel automation software assists businesses in achieving higher levels of efficiency in their travel processes.
ITILITE is one of the leading travel automation software solutions that helps travel managers reduce administrative workload. It automates policy compliance, simplifies bookings, and provides deeper visibility into employee spending. Our intuitive interface empowers you to effortlessly navigate through bookings, approvals, and reporting, saving you valuable time and effort.
To know more about the benefits, book a free demo today.
