What are the Advantages of a Travel Management System?

Now that the COVID-19 pandemic is subsiding, business travel is once again on the cards and many companies have realized that their old systems are perhaps not suitable for managing business travel at scale.  Too often, businesses rely on manual processes that take up valuable time and resources – rather than investing in technology that can automate much of it and streamline every aspect of the process.

This is where a travel management system can be so valuable and in this article, we’re going to explore why this is the case – and why your travel management system needs to be integrated with the rest of your expense management if you are to maximize its impact.

What is a Travel Management System?

A travel management system is a software product that manages all components of your business travel.  Typically they are integrated with travel service providers, offering real-time quotes, bookings, and trip logistics in one place.  Managers can track bookings, cancellations, adjustments, and rescheduling in real-time, eliminating a lot of the manual back and forth that previously had to happen through email. 

When done well, these systems help to enforce consistent company guidelines, maximize air miles and other loyalty programs, and find cost savings whenever global business travel is required.  In today’s modern era where travel is such a crucial part of operations, this is a must-have for any company that takes their travel seriously.

Here are some of the key advantages of using such a travel management system:

• Makes life easier for travel managers

  Travel managers are often inundated with requests and the sheer number of moving parts can make things difficult to handle.  Being able to rely on a robust and efficient system makes their lives a lot easier and frees up time and resources to focus on higher-value tasks.  Travel managers can get away from some of the more tedious work and focus instead on optimization – which can make a big difference in terms of travel budgets.
  

• Improves operations management

  A high-quality travel management system will significantly improve the quality of your operations because it centralizes key data and decision-making around travel – while also allowing for integration with other components within your business.  By managing everything in one place, you can reduce the room for errors and streamline the process to get results quicker and more accurately.

• Automation saves time which can be used in better ways

  Travel management systems help to automate away lots of procedural tasks that previously were done by travel managers.  Not only does this remove the risk of human error, but it frees up time that can be better deployed elsewhere.  Travel managers can focus on where the human touch is required, rather than dealing with tedious procedures that are required for administrative purposes.

• Improves business reporting

  Having a good travel management system will also allow the company to get a better grasp on how their travel is impacting the business more generally.  Being able to pull sophisticated reporting on travel activities is a great way to monitor business travel and ensure that it is delivering what it needs to be in line with strategic objectives.  By measuring this more carefully, wastage can be identified and eliminated, while subtle fine-tuning can also help to improve profitability over the long term.

• Simplifies expense report management

  A good travel management system will plug into the wider expense report management system and allow for seamless data transfer between systems.  This helps to simplify expense report management and ensure that everything is being recorded for quality assurance purposes.  This simplification also makes a big difference in terms of remittances and reimbursements when required, not to mention the benefit of better visibility into key travel budgets. 
  
  

As you can see, the benefits of travel management systems are vast and they compound across all sections of your operational infrastructure.  For any company with substantial global business travel, this is an absolute no-brainer.  It can drastically improve internal efficiency and deliver cost savings across the board.

Harmonizing Expense Management and Travel Expenses

We’ve spoken briefly about how your travel management system can interface with your expense management and that’s exactly where Jenji comes in.  Jenji is a full-featured expense management platform that helps companies manage their business expenses and provides better visibility into how your money is being spent. 

We’ve built the platform in a way that it can seamlessly integrate with your travel management system of choice – providing effortless data transfer and important synergies that make for a much smoother user experience.  By harmonizing your travel expenses within your larger system, you’ll have one integrated platform that can handle everything that your business throws at it.

In addition, Jenji can also integrate with various online banking tools which help to optimize your payments around the world regardless of which provider you’re choosing to use.  All in all, this is a platform that can help you gain full visibility into your travel spending – giving you the information that you need to make better decisions.

If you’d like to explore this further, be sure to get in touch today, and let’s set up a personal demo so that you can see how we can help.