Roxana Bressy is the CEO of travel and expense technology provider KDS connect with her...

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¡°There¡¯s an app for that.¡± This common phrase in today¡¯s digitalised world is just as true for business solutions as it is for consumer technology. The corporate digital revolution is upon us and companies have spent years implementing systems for everything from payroll to travel management. The result is that today there is a real need to consolidate and simplify enterprise technology stacks.?

For travel management, we are seeing a clear trend towards the choice for more integrated solutions. Our research shows companies are now twice as likely to implement an integrated solution for booking and expense management than continuing to operate separate systems and processes ¨C the opposite was true five years ago. We are also seeing a response to this trend in the market offering ¨C about 80% of the current expense management solutions integrate in some way with an online booking tool.?

Two-in-one solutions are clearly gaining traction. What¡¯s driving this increased uptake of integrated T&E systems? Companies recognise that they can do better. Most organisations admit they are not sufficiently optimising their T&E spend, while finance departments feel that less than half of current travel spend is being adequately controlled.

This lack of optimisation and control is clearly a problem for finance departments, who manage more than two-thirds of T&E budgets for the companies interviewed in our research. For finance teams, controlling this spend and better budgeting are top priorities, often more so than purely reducing direct travel costs.

The biggest hurdle to getting more control of T&E budgets is having easy access to complete and accurate spend data ¨C not just expenditures for hotels, trains, airfares, etc. but also on all the associated expenses such as meals and entertaining clients. The desire to have only one source of truth for all T&E data is one of the driving forces behind the preference for integrated tools.

Another consideration for finance teams is lost time and productivity endured by accountants, travel bookers and travellers in using separate systems. Accounting teams spend countless hours validating expense reports line by line. Bookers must constantly look up travel and expense policies ¨C often in two different places ¨C to ensure compliance. Finally, travellers can waste time after the trip going back into their calendars to check trip details and piece together the information needed to complete their expense claim.

It¡¯s more than cost savings

More organisations are recognising the value of integration and the multiple benefits it brings, notably the ability to easily see a holistic view of the travel programme that can improve areas beyond cost savings.

Travel plays an important role in other corporate priorities, such as reducing carbon footprints or improving employees¡¯ job satisfaction. Here too, automated systems can add value. With consolidated and complete reporting, companies can compile accurate figures on carbon emissions from travel to help define and set offsetting goals. An automated T&E solution also significantly reduces the time travellers, bookers and accountants spend on low value processes. They get more time to be productive in their day jobs, which leads to a more positive experience for employees and a better bottom line for businesses.?

Another positive for employees is better and faster reimbursement of employees¡¯ expenses. This was cited as one of the top two benefits of automated T&E solutions, in the 2019 Travel and Expense Management Insight Report, from Levvel Research. Other key advantages are the reduction in expense report errors and the improved ability to enforce policy.

When T&E solutions offer a more cutting-edge user experience than other enterprise solutions and one that¡¯s similar to what¡¯s available in the consumer market, travellers are more likely to book within the corporate tool rather than going off to a leisure travel-oriented website or platform. Not only does this create a higher level of booking compliance, but it also improves the quality of T&E data captured by finance teams. This empowers them to make better decisions, including forecasting future spending patterns, by seeing the real total spends of business trips.?

So why isn¡¯t everybody doing it?

Despite these advantages, there are still barriers to adopting T&E tools, the top reason being lack of budget followed by a lack of understanding about available solutions according to the Levvel research.

Other barriers include organisations not doing enough travel to justify using a T&E system, a lack of support from senior management and not having the technical resources to manage an automated solution, an issue particularly for SMEs.?

Smaller organisations were more likely to say their current and often manual-based processes were sufficient, while larger companies were happy with their ERP (Enterprise resource planning)-based software or homegrown systems were ¡°sufficient¡± to meet their needs.

Organisations that have grown through acquisition may also have become used to having a myriad of different software platforms and may be resistant to changing these practices through an integrated T&E system.

Tips for integration

Whatever the barriers are, the advantages of a unified T&E system are obvious both to the organisation and their travellers. But it often requires a change of mindset from the top to make the leap into this brave new world and reap these benefits.

Rallying the different stakeholders around this project is key. Many barriers can be overcome through a more in-depth understanding of how a unified T&E solution actually works.

For IT, a consolidated set of tools means that ongoing maintenance is reduced and there is only one number to call for help.?

Finance, accounting and travel managers should work together to create a unified approach to managing the process from booking to approval to expense reimbursement. Doing this at the outset will generate more benefits in the long run.

Get the users on board with a single source for travel booking and expense reporting.

Everyone is different, so take your user¡¯s personality into account for training ¨C classroom, online training, self-teaching and video tutorials, etc. all have their place and work for the different types of personalities within the organisation.

It¡¯s also vital to recognise that making this change will only work effectively with leadership and buy-in from the top ¨C if senior management do what they are asking their staff to do and lead by example, then the process will be a lot more successful.

Another consideration is how you want the mechanics of your integrated T&E system to work. Do employees need to submit expenses if you have a centralised payment system in place? T&E systems have the flexibility to meet clients¡¯ requirements around payment and other areas.?

Moving from siloed solutions to more cohesive systems and processes doesn¡¯t necessarily entail huge outlays in resources or time. When weighing the benefits with the challenges involved in making a change, more and more companies are recognising the scales are tipping toward a more unified approach.