When time is money, this is how you bank it

Saving money is not just about best price. There are many other hidden costs in relation to business travel which very much focus around an organisation’s employees.

Sometimes those savings are about time. For example within my own organisation, Amadeus, we found that if we reduce the average time spent by each employee to make a booking by just three minutes, we free up the equivalent of one person’s productivity for a whole year. And having our people book their trips just one day earlier, on average, we will save up to 2.5% of our entire air travel spend.

It can also mean having the right technology in place to ensure that a company is attracting and retaining top talent.

Amadeus research found that almost half (44%) of all professionals would leave a job due to a poor travel policy, while 50% said a company’s policy would impact their decision to take a job.

But these are just part of the puzzle. There are many ways that businesses can manage hidden expenses and drive higher return on investment (ROI) by aligning their travel programs with the strategic priorities across the business.

The Amadeus-commissioned report by the London School of Economics (LSE), Managing Every Mile explores how corporations can get a better understanding of its T&E programs and spoke directly to unlocking a greater ROI.

The study identified six strategic priorities to address travel and expense (T&E) spend management — growth, cost minimisation, operational efficiency, employee productivity, risk mitigation and management information/analytics.

Pointedly, it found that there is a heavy reliance on expense to manage travel requirements, but that keeping employees within policy is as essential, and a huge opportunity to drive cost savings.

So how do you achieve that? By providing the best traveller experience.

Travellers want to get same experience whether they book leisure or business. They want their journey to be unique to them — they expect suppliers to take into consideration their wishes and preferences. They want to be able to book, add, change, claim an expense, anytime, anywhere through their device

Travellers need to be at the centre of the experience. They are looking for information, personalisation and choice — translated into content, best user experience and direct access from any platform used.

By giving travellers the best content in depth and breadth, organisations make it easy for them to stay within the corporation’s chosen applications when booking their travel.

This helps organisations manage T&E in a more holistic way, managing not just their cost when it happens (processing expenses that have already taken place), but actually influencing the amount of money that is spent thanks to the better sourcing, buying and booking decisions.

If you’d like to start saving time and improving your travel spend ROI, let’s have a chat.