Imagine this – the flights are booked, the accommodation is prepared, and your traveler has reached the airport. Just as you breathe a sigh of relief, you receive a distressing call informing you of a sudden flight delay, threatening to throw the entire schedule off balance.
Navigating the world of business travel can be demanding and time-consuming. From booking flights and accommodations to managing itineraries and handling emergencies like the one above, the complications can easily overwhelm even the most seasoned professionals. This is where the power of outsourcing business travel management shines.
By entrusting your travel management needs to a dedicated team, you can streamline your travel operations and enhance productivity, cost-efficiency, and employee satisfaction.
This blog will explore the innumerable benefits you will receive by outsourcing your corporate travel management.
8 Benefits of Outsourcing Business Travel Management
1. Expertise and Industry Knowledge
Outsourcing business travel management allows you to leverage the expertise and industry knowledge of Travel Management Companies (TMCs). TMCs have extensive experience in managing travel programs.
They stay current with the latest trends, regulations, and technological advancements. Their expertise ensures that businesses get access to the best practices and strategies.
TMCs offer valuable advice on cost-saving measures, travel policy compliance, and employee satisfaction. They can also guide you in selecting cost-effective options, negotiating contracts with suppliers, and implementing efficient travel policies.
2. Cost-efficiency and Savings
According to the How Travel Managers Will Succeed in 2023 Report, 54% of travel managers and 65% of the senior leadership prioritize cost savings in business travel. And this is exactly what outsourcing corporate travel management can achieve.
With their experience and connections, TMCs can manage travel budgets and help you optimize your travel spending. They can negotiate discounted rates with airlines, hotels, and car rental agencies. They use advanced analytics tools to provide insights into your travel spending and identify areas for reducing costs and improving policy compliance.
TMCs can also help simplify expense management processes by streamlining reporting, consolidating travel expenses, and providing in-depth analysis of costs. This enables you to make informed decisions.
3. Travel Support
Emergencies like natural disasters, pandemics, or baggage loss can happen during any travel, including business ones. In such a situation, your employee must receive instant support and assistance regarding their next steps. However, it can be challenging for companies to provide such support 24*7.
Outsourcing your business travel management needs to a TMC ensures that your employees receive prompt, 24*7*365 assistance. Most TMCs have a skilled workforce trained to provide the best support possible during emergencies. Your employees can use any channel to reach their support services, including calls, emails, or messaging.
4. Risk Management and Duty of Care
TMCs play a crucial role in ensuring the safety of your traveler by providing a comprehensive set of risk management services. They have access to real-time travel data, advisories, real-time location of your employee, and emergency services.
Outsourcing your business travel management to a TMC ensures you get expert help with risk assessments, developing and implementing safety measures, and even travel insurance.
You can also improve your risk management capabilities, better protect your employees, perform duty of care, and show your commitment to employee safety.
5. Compliance with Travel Policies
TMCs can help you ensure better compliance with travel policies. They work closely with your travel managers to develop and enforce travel policies that align with your goals and cost-saving policies.
By leveraging technology, they help you enforce compliance at different stages of the travel process. This includes implementing policies during vendor selection, monitoring bookings for policy violations, and showing only the budget-approved options to employers.
TMCs also provide training and education to employees, ensuring they understand and adhere to travel policies. All this will help you improve policy compliance, ensure efficiency, and save costs.
6. Enhanced Traveler Experience
Outsourcing corporate travel management can enable you to provide your employees with a seamless and enjoyable travel experience. TMCs utilize advanced technology to simplify the travel process, increase convenience, and personalize the experience.
Online booking tools and mobile applications allow your employees to easily search and book flights and hotels at their convenience and choices. TMCs ensure that only the most suitable and cost-effective options are available on the applications and personalize them per the employee’s preference.
Many TMCs also provide travelers access to all their trip details in one place, including hotel reservations, flight information, and car rentals. They also help with rebooking flights, arranging alternative accommodation, and providing travel advice. This streamlines the travel experience and helps improve employee satisfaction.
7. Reporting and Analytics
One of the major benefits of outsourcing is that you get access to reporting and analytics tools. TMCs can provide valuable insights regarding your travel program with these tools. This will allow you to track and analyze travel spending, identify cost-saving opportunities, and measure the effectiveness of their policies.
They also have advanced reporting dashboards that can help you view expenses comprehensively, such as expenditure by category, department, or individual employee. In addition, analytics can also help you identify travel patterns and trends, enable you to forecast future needs, and evaluate the ROI of your travel program.
8. Integration with Third Party
Business travel management often requires collaboration with several other departments, including finance, risk management, security, etc. According to a report, 69% of travel managers most commonly collaborate with finance and accounting.
While collaboration is beneficial and important, it can also be time-consuming without proper integration capabilities. TMCs offer these capabilities by integrating their solution with your third-party software, thus allowing easy data synchronization.
This means you can easily integrate the solution with different systems, including expense management software, enterprise resource planning system, or HRMS tool. This allows you to get better efficiency, accuracy, and data visibility and improve financial management.
Final Words
More and more organizations today are outsourcing their business travel management to TMCs due to their multitude of benefits. The two main tasks that occupy a travel manager’s time include managing communication with their travelers and overseeing their relationship with TMC.
Outsourcing enables businesses to access the expertise and knowledge of industry professionals, specialized insights, best practices, and cost-saving strategies. It allows them to focus on their core objectives while leaving the complexities and worries of travel management to trusted experts.