If the past few years have taught us one lesson, it’s that nothing is static. Everything is in flux - and in many cases the pace of change is accelerating. Nowhere is this clearer than in the world of travel and expense (T&E), and in the conversations we are having with our clients and prospects, is that the ongoing process of digitalization continues to gain momentum.
Legacy procedures, in which I include approval processes, paper receipts, reimbursements for on trip expense combined with the effects this all has on an entire organisation – are all gradually being called into question as employees call for change and business leaders are learning to respond and adapt to a new hybrid world of work.
To explore these developments, Amadeus recently commissioned Forrester Consulting to conducta surveyof 525 professionals across functions (Finance, IT, HR, Procurement and Travel) at large enterprises in nine leading markets. The work was designed to explore the challenges these industry leaders currently face when it comes to T&E, with the findings compared to the results of a similar study we conducted back in 2020.
The results revealed the post-pandemic hybrid world of work has left many organizations struggling to deliver the experiences employees expect when it comes to T&E. What can be observed (without any major surprise) is that processes are no longer seen as fit-for-purpose for those who have themselves saw their own world evolve rapidly over the past two years. As a result, new systems are required to connect people and teams, to create and boost efficiency, to address collaboration and to create end-to-end journeys which map the reality the world we now live in. Those who do not adapt may face being left behind.
The research finds many leaders understand how accelerating the digital transformation of T&E will be vital to improving the employee experience and achieving corporate goals next year. There is a growing awareness that, for their businesses to succeed, responsible stakeholders must design processes that support the workforce in our new world of work.
This evolution can take many forms. Firms recognize they need to modernize their T&E tools by boosting integration with other systems, for example, virtual payments, which surged because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is an exciting area which addresses the friction point in the travel and spend management process, making it a critical functionality in a T&E platform for organizations. Or take the actual traveller pain point, employees are no longer office based, this calls for an increased demand for the end-to-end experience when it comes to travel and spend management; it needs to be more efficient and more integrated with their day-to-day work applications while all the time creating the need and the opportunity to collaborate. This term is frequently addressed by leaders in the study who told Forrester Consulting they were looking for ways to make travel planning more collaborative.
Accelerating the pace of change
But there has been progress. Some 80 per cent of respondents to Amadeus’ study said T&E is more digitized when compared to other processes within their companies. This compares to a figure of 67 per cent when the survey was last carried out in 2020.
But current T&E management still presents several challenges. A third of our survey respondents cited managing compliance for travel, like visas and work permits, as well as privacy and security concerns, as issues today, while a similar number argued manual processes put a strain on employees’ productivity. The work found improving the integration between T&E technologies and other enterprise systems was top priority for more than two thirds.
Pressure for change is coming from all levels of corporations. Most corporate leaders acknowledge that challenges with T&E processes have a negative impact on employee productivity and engagement. At the same time, employees’ greatest complaint comes from having to pay out of their own pocket for travel – a situation which can be overcome by the deployment of virtual cards and other integrated solutions.
New solutions for a new era
Despite this desire for change, and what has already been done, there is still room for improvements when it comes to modernizing T&E, addressing the needs of travellers who still have to use and switch between multiple platforms and apps to log-on, search, book, pay and claim their travel expenses back, for example. The digital transformation is far from complete.
At Amadeus, we believe it is time for corporations to leverage this unique period to improve employee experiences and when we talk employee, we refer to all the corporate functions and not only those traveling! Alongside Microsoft, we are working to build improved solutions that enrich, excite and delight, unlocking new ways of collaboration. Together we are addressing the need from Corporations on how to be more productive and empowering them and their employees with a new experience.
A concrete example of this isCytric Easy for Travel & Expense, the Amadeus online booking and expense management tool, which is now embedded in Microsoft 365. Here, users can plan trips and share travel details with colleagues without leaving their day-to-day applications such as Microsoft Teams making the overall planning and booking and expensing experience faster, easier, and more collaborative than ever before.
As an industry we possess the tools to overhaul the T&E experience. Next year is set to be a transformational one for our industry. Watch this space.
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