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What is business travel management?
Business travel management involves coordinating and overseeing every aspect of corporate travel, including itinerary planning, reservations, and expense tracking. This encompasses arranging flights, accommodations, ground transportation, and monitoring the financial aspects of business trips.
Effective business travel management aims to provide employees with smooth travel experiences while also maintaining cost-control measures.
When selecting travel management software for your company, it’s essential to consider several key features:
- Easy Booking: Look for software that facilitates seamless booking of accommodations, flights, and other travel essentials.
- User-Friendly Interface: An intuitive interface ensures that your team can navigate the software effortlessly, saving time and reducing training needs.
- Expense Management Integration: Opt for tools that seamlessly integrate travel and expense management functionalities, streamlining processes and reducing the need for multiple software solutions.
- Integration Capabilities: Choose software that can integrate with your existing enterprise systems, enabling smooth data sharing and workflow automation.
- Cost-Effectiveness: Ensure that the software aligns with your budget constraints and offers transparent pricing with no hidden costs.
- Robust Reporting Features: Advanced reporting capabilities empower you to analyze spending patterns, identify areas for cost optimization, and make informed decisions.
- Reliable User Support: Select a provider that offers responsive and helpful customer support, as reliable assistance can significantly enhance your experience with the software.
By prioritizing these features, you can select travel management software that meets your company’s needs and enhances efficiency in managing corporate travel.
The following is a list of business travel tools to make your business trip easier:
- E-signature tool
- Video and audio conferencing tools
- Travel management software
- Online and offline maps
- Expense management software
- Flight tracker
- Business card scanner
Top 5 business travel management solutions and tools1) TripIt:
https://www.tripit.com/web
TripIt is one of the world’s highest-rated travel-organizing apps. Simply forward your confirmation emails to plans@tripit.com and TripIt will automatically create a new itinerary or add it to an existing trip.
- TripIt is a travel organization app that creates detailed itineraries by automatically importing and organizing travel plans from confirmation emails.
- TripIt helps you keep track of your flights, hotels, car rentals, confirmation numbers, and other details–all in one place–so you don’t have to search through multiple emails or apps to find what you need.
- TripIt Pro sends you helpful notifications, like check-in reminders, flight alerts, baggage claim information, and more, so you get a heads-up as things happen.
2) Expensify :
https://use.expensify.com/ - Expensify is an expense management tool that helps you track expenses by scanning receipts, logging mileage, and generating expense reports.
- It is a powerhouse platform that helps you manage your company’s spend — from receipt scanning and expense management to paying bills and booking travel. Expensify is there to help your business succeed every step of the way and provide valuable insight into your business’s spending patterns.
3) SAP Concur:
https://www.concur.co.in/expense-management - SAP Concur stands as the foremost global brand in unified travel, expense, and invoice management. Fueled by an unwavering commitment to streamlining and automating routine tasks, its solutions facilitate employees’ journeys during business trips, seamlessly transferring authorized charges into expense reports, and automating invoice approvals.
- It has unique solutions for business needs: sustainable travel, compliance and risk, business expansion, duty of care, etc.
- Whether you’re a small business or an enterprise organization, an investment in Concur Expense, Concur Travel, and Concur Invoice lets you track and manage every employee-initiated expense, travel cost, and invoice payment on one connected system. Check out the video to learn the SAP Concur basics.
4) Google Workspace:
- TravelPerk: TravelPerk is a next-generation travel booking and management platform that pioneers the future of corporate travel. It offers the world’s largest travel inventory along with powerful management and reporting features.
- Work-from-Anywhere Weeks at Google: Google now allows Googlers to temporarily work from a location other than their main office for up to 4 weeks per year (with manager approval).
- Admin Dashboard for Google Workspace: If you’re managing a team, Google Workspace provides a centralized administration dashboard.
How to use Google Sheets for travel planner spreadsheets: https://www.justchasingsunsets.com/travel-planner-spreadsheet/
Travel Itinerary Template: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yKgrf9nUzpJFokG2cABAShO4jrj62QLjUxGNDTdnk5U/edit
How to make a travel itinerary with Google Maps: https://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Travel-Itinerary-with-Google-Maps
Easy travel planning with travel mapper: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7mqECmexeI
5) Amex GBT egencia:
- Egencia, a division of American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT), delivers a comprehensive global travel management platform utilized by over two million travelers across more than 9,000 companies spanning 60+ countries.
- At the core of Egencia’s offering is its streamlined corporate travel management approach, facilitated by a user-friendly interface enriched with real-time travel data. This interface empowers users to effortlessly make modifications, and bookings, and navigate through a simplified employee travel approval process. The platform seamlessly handles expenses, itineraries, and travel policies, catering to organizations of all sizes.
- A standout feature of Egencia is its policy compliance tool, which enables the creation of pre-approved travel options, simplifying approval procedures and fostering adherence to company policies. The platform continually updates with comprehensive reporting and analytics, facilitating consistent evaluations of policy performance.
- Moreover, Egencia prioritizes traveler safety by providing robust risk management tools and partnering with leading security providers. Features like “Traveler Tracker” and “Incident Awareness” keep users informed about security risks, empowering them to make well-informed decisions.