How Connected Journeys Mean Better Business Travel

If you’re looking for ways to make business travel better, look no further.

IDC research, sponsored by SAP Concur, has the answers: The Connected Journey: Evolving to the Next Level in Business Travel takes a detailed look at what businesses need to do to keep pace with a rapidly growing, constantly evolving, travel ecosystem.

Among the top recommendations? Connecting travel to the cloud to improve the experience for your employees (thereby increasing productivity) can help you more quickly and accurately manage the following:

• Mobility: Most millennials prefer self-service technologies to manage their travel.
• Visibility: All your data is all in one place to spot new opportunities such as VAT reclaim.
• Compliance: Spot over-spending and non-compliance to travel and expense policies.
• Costs: Get consolidated data from multiple sources to negotiate more effectively with suppliers.
• Duty of Care: Get near real-time expense and travel data to locate and protect your employees.

So, what do these benefits look like? According to IDC, by managing travel with a cloud-based solution your business can realize a number of benefits including:

• 49% less time spent on travel planning
• 70% less time spent creating expense reports
• 35% more compliance with internal travel/expense policies
• 54% fewer lost receipts

IDC also describes what to look for in a cloud partner so you and your team can focus more on strategic growth and less on travel bookings and expenses. IDC goes on to outline challenges and opportunities before, during and after travel – from tighter controls over booking and improving productivity to reviewing, integrating, and reimbursing expenses.

The savings associated with these improvements are staggering. As an example, the InfoBrief highlights SAP Concur’s connected travel ecosystem, which can save the average business $97,300 in invoicing/auditing operations efficiencies, $122,000 in travel-related costs, and $728,000 in improved staff productivity.

Is your business ready to get connected?  Download the IDC InfoBrief to learn more about connected journeys for better business travel.