When it comes to streamlining travel management, technology solutions such as travel management platforms are often the go-to choice. However, since there are various options available, selecting the right platform is crucial as it can directly impact your travel program.
Travel managers strive to optimize travel processes, and choosing the wrong platform can result in issues and bottlenecks. On the other hand, the right travel platform plays a pivotal role in ensuring the efficiency of the travel program. It can save time, reduce costs, and enhance the overall travel experience for employees.
In this blog post, we will explore the importance of choosing the right travel management platform and its impact on your travel program.
Cost Savings
It’s important to choose the right travel platform so that your travel program operates in a cost-effective manner. One way it can help you in saving costs is by providing access to a global travel inventory. The inventory allows you to compare and choose the most economical rates for your travel needs.
Moreover, many travel platforms have partnerships with travel chains so that you get access to higher discounts than companies usually would. In addition, the platform automates processes that require significant time and effort. This reduces expenditure on human resources.
A travel management platform can also save your company money through gamification. This approach rewards employees who choose more economical travel packages by giving them a portion of the savings.
Increased Compliance
Selecting the right travel management solution for your business can greatly increase compliance. There are two key ways in which you can achieve this.
Firstly, a robust platform displays travel packages that comply with your company’s travel policy while also showing out-of-policy options in a separate window. This allows employees to see in-policy options in real-time and make decisions accordingly.
Secondly, the travel management platform can automate the detection of out-of-policy expenses. You can configure the platform to integrate your company’s travel policy as rules. Then, it automatically flags any expense report that does not adhere to the policy. This allows for the timely detection of policy violations and alerts the approver, who can then take corrective actions as needed.
Improved Efficiency
A travel management system can greatly improve the efficiency of your company by automating manual tasks. With this platform, employees submit travel requests online, which are forwarded to the approver directly. This eliminates the need for manual routing, reducing any delays.
Additionally, the travel management solution offers a user-friendly interface that makes it easy for employees to book flights, hotels, and car rentals with just a few clicks. This intuitive process saves time and effort for employees, allowing them to complete their travel bookings and focus on their job quickly.
Better Tracking and Reporting
An effective travel management platform provides a transparent view of employee spending. This allows managers to easily track and monitor expenses for better cost control. With access to detailed reports, managers can identify any suspicious activity or areas of overspending.
In addition, the platform allows managers to generate regular reports on a monthly or weekly basis. Plus, they can also customize the reports according to the needs. These reports can include total travel expenses, flight and hotel bookings, unused flight tickets, and more.
This provides managers with a 360-degree view of the company’s travel expenses, thus, enabling them to identify any trends that may require attention.
Enhanced Traveler Experience
The right travel management platform offers a user-friendly dashboard that is easy to use and understand. This means that it does not require much technical support for users to access it. Further, the booking process must be straightforward, making it effortless for travelers to book their travel arrangements.
The platform also offers a mobile app, allowing travelers to make bookings or change their itinerary while on the go. The mobile app must also offer real-time alerts, keeping travelers informed about upcoming trips and any changes in flight schedules..
Improved Risk Management
The right travel management platform enables travel managers to live track their travelers. This allows them to have better visibility and control over their travelers.
Further, the platforms facilitate pre-trip risk assessments, providing information about the security of the destination. This way, managers can make informed decisions about whether a city is safe for their employees to travel to.
In addition, the platform allows travel managers to block specific hotels that may be deemed unsafe. Plus, with the help of AI prediction, the platform can analyze data and provide insights into the risks of an area. As a result, managers can address any dangers before they escalate.
Data-driven Insights
The right travel management platform tracks important travel KPIs, such as the number of cancellations, last-minute bookings, and other metrics. These metrics offer valuable insights into the effectiveness of the company’s travel program.
The platform presents the travel data in the form of easy-to-understand charts, enabling managers to quickly interpret the data. These visual representations make it easier to identify trends and provide actionable insights for decision-making.
Some platforms also offer virtual travel consultants (VTCs) that can process the data and provide step-by-step guidance on how to improve the travel program. These VTCs can benchmark the company’s data against industry standards and provide insights into areas where you can improve your travel program.
Integration with Other Systems
By integrating with third-party software, the travel management platform ensures that data flows smoothly between different systems. Integration also helps in reducing the need for manual data entry, decreasing errors in the database.
Further, integration allows for real-time data updates, ensuring that travel data is always current and accurate. This reducing the risk of using outdated data, which can impact travel plans.
Traveler Support
The right travel management platform provides reliable support for business travelers. This can include round-the-clock assistance with general queries or critical situations such as theft or health hazards.
The support team is well-trained and knowledgeable about the right course of action to take, ensuring the safety and well-being of your employees during their travels.
Choose the Right Corporate Travel Management App
The key features discussed in the blog can help you choose the right travel management app that aligns with your travel needs. Here is a comparison of the most prevalent options to help you make an informed decision:
1) ITILITE
ITILITE is a coming-of-age Saas-based travel and expense management software that simplifies the process of corporate travel and expense management. The solution helps companies simplify travel bookings, ensure greater policy compliance, and get detailed data insights, all on a single platform.
Top Features:
- All-in-one booking solution: empowers travelers to book flights, hotels, and rental cars from the same platform prioritizing company-preferred options during the booking process.
- Granular policy configuration: enables admins to customize travel policy guidelines according to departments, employee levels, trip duration, etc.
- 7-star rated free travel support: provides 24/7/365, free of cost, live customer support via calls, chats, and email, with the industry-best response time of 10 seconds and resolution time of 60 mins.
- Third-party integration: integrates seamlessly with Finance, HRMS, CRM, and other systems for smooth sailing data sharing and reimbursement.
- Advanced travel data reporting: collects and summarizes the entire travel data on a single, dynamic dashboard and multiple custom reports, all available free of cost.
ITILITE also offers the world’s first virtual corporate consultant- Mastermind. The AI-powered travel consultant conducts industry benchmarking of travel expenditure and suggests ways to help optimize your company’s travel spending to increase savings.
Pricing:
- Travel:
The travel-only plan costs $9.99 per trip. A trip may include any number of flights and hotels booked in one request.
You can also get a discounted pricing of $6.99 per trip if you opt for the pre-paid wallet as the payment method.
- Travel and Expense:
The integrated travel and expense plan costs $9.99 per trip and $7.99 per active user on a monthly basis. However, you can get significant discounts through wallet payments or with an annual payment cycle.
To learn more, get in touch with the experts.
Ratings:
- G2 rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars
- Capterra rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
2) Egencia
Established in 2002 as a subsidiary of the Expedia Group, Egencia is a prominent travel management company offering comprehensive solutions for businesses and individuals seeking efficient and streamlined travel arrangements. Egencia provides various products and services, such as online booking platforms, travel policy compliance monitoring, and 24/7 customer support.
Top Features:
- itinerary management, all on one platform.
- Compliance solution: the solution allows multi-level policy configuration, synchronizes traveler profiles and policies, enables agile policy monitoring, and suggests booking options according to the policy to increase compliance.
- Risk management solution: partners with security providers to offer advanced safety measures such as traveler location tracking, incident awareness, and geographic risk level indicators.
Profile Management: Egencia enables travelers to create their profiles through self-registration links and sync the profiles across multiple devices.
Pricing:
The pricing is custom. Hence, you need to contact Egencia’s team to get a quote.
Ratings:
- G2: 4.4 out of 5 stars
- Capterra: 3.9 out of 5 stars
3) SAP Concur
SAP Concur offers a comprehensive suite of products and services designed to simplify and automate travel management. Their solutions include online booking tools, travel policy enforcement, travel risk management, and more.
Top Features:
- Travel platform: Concur enables travelers to book flights, hotels, trains, and rental cars. However, per user reviews, the platform has an outdated interface and is difficult to use.
- Policy configuration: The software enables businesses to define and enforce travel policies by setting rules and restrictions for bookings.
- Mobile access: The software offers a mobile app that allows users to manage their travel and expenses on the go.
- Sustainable travel: provides detailed reporting of travel sustainability metrics.
Pricing:
The pricing is different for bookings done online or through support. Support-led bookings cost between $25-$40. For a detailed breakdown, you need to contact Concur’s team.
Ratings:
- G2: 4 out of 5 stars
- Capterra: 4.3 out of 5 stars
To Sum Up
Here is a parallel comparison of all the significant features of ITILITE, SAP Concur, and Egencia :
| Feature | ITILITE | SAP Concur | Egencia |
|---|---|---|---|
| Personalized booking options | Yes | No | No |
| Organization preference-based search results | Yes | Yes | No |
| Pricing | $9.99 ($6.99 with wallet) | Different pricing for bookings done online or through support. The price for booking through support is between $25-$40 | Custom |
| 24×7 free of-cost support on chat, email, and call | Yes | No | No |
| In-house travel support | Yes | No | Yes |
| Dedicated accounts manager | Yes | Depends upon the plan | Depends upon the plan |
| No binding contracts | Yes | No | |
| Custom travel data reporting | Yes | No | No |
| Industry benchmarking of metrics and live savings view | Yes | No | No |
| Team-level travel budgets & alert emails | Yes | No | No |
| Incentive for saving | Yes | No | No |
| Pre-trip, multi-level approvals | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Parallel, Rule-based approvals | Yes | No | No |
| Fixed price policy limits | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Dynamic price policy limits | Yes | No | No |
Why do Users Prefer ITILITE?
ITILITE provides a one-stop solution for all corporate travel needs. Travelers can book flights, hotels, and rental cars, from a single platform. Moreover, unlike SAP Concur, ITILITE’s user interface is accustomed to modern users’ needs, making the experience seamless for travelers and travel managers. Even if your travelers need some hand-holding and choose to book through live support, ITILITE does not charge any fee.
ITILITE also provides the industry-best emergency support 24/7, even during off-work hours. The support is completely free of cost, unlike Egencia or Concur, and the response time is 10 seconds.
Other than that, you get advanced features like parallel, rule-based trip approvals, dynamic flight, and hotel policies, incentive-led savings, etc.
To learn more, book a free demo today!
