Choosing the best travel management software is tricky no matter what you do, so if you are here right now, rest assured you have come to the best place at the right time. Besides planning and arranging trips, corporate travel management involves many other important aspects.
An ideal corporate travel management company should have your company’s best interests at heart and provide the ultimate travel solutions. It should offer the options that are advantageous to you.
What is travel management software?
Travel management software enables booking, planning, tracking, and analysis of corporate travel. A travel management platform is a framework that supports policy compliance, real-time reporting, and flight inventories.
Here, we will discuss important factors to look out for when choosing top-tier travel management software.
12 Factors to help you find the ideal travel management software
#1 Determine the kind of service provider your business requires
Companies want to look for expense management services that support their staff and accounting departments without hindering operations and day-to-day progress. Your business, like any other, has some special requirements.
Hence, businesses and their top management must assess the company’s individual necessities before shopping around.
But before you dive in, it’s crucial to have a firm grasp of all the software’s capabilities and functions. Each travel software has its packet of features, so pick one best suited to your organization.
Sure, multiple features can be beneficial, still if your company doesn’t require them, they may be superfluous. Similarly, look for a solution that provides the services your organization needs, not just the superficial frills or gimmicks. The software is now simpler to use, and you won’t incur any extra expenses.
#2 Comprehensive inventory
Maintaining travel compliance involves ensuring your inventory is accessible, your policy guidelines are understood, and that employees follow your approval process.
If the travel management software doesn’t include budget hotels and flight service providers, you are missing significant cost-saving benefits. Given that gen Zers and Millenials prefer affordable hotels, it makes sense to provide options.
#3 Integrated Expense Management
Look for the best travel and expense management software like ITILITE to manage and keep records of the company’s travel expenses. Companies deploying staff on business trips can use T&E management software to monitor traveling personnel, make bookings, and create reports.
#4 Makes bookings quickly
Booking a corporate trip does not need to be tediously long. If you store the details of every traveler in your travel management software, you can save a lot of time.
#5 Allows adherence to company policies
When travel policies are adhered to, the travel manager is relieved of significant responsibility. It decreases work anxiety and the expense of travel and streamlines approval requests. Your in-app policy should also be customizable based on factors relevant to your company guidelines.
#6 Ease of use
Reroutes are irritating when it comes to business travel, and they also make it extremely difficult to trace your work trip. You will end up searching every month to gather your receipts. With the right travel management software, processes should be easy for travel managers and employees.
#7 Avant-garde analytics
The ability to provide information on business trips is among the crucial aspects of any travel management software. So, you can make informed choices that will let you save costs by allowing you to determine areas you are overspending. The software should help you keep track of travel expenses by department or team, amount spent, and other factors.
#8 Features that are simple and efficient
If you are the end user, don’t seek travel management software that can’t offer seamless solutions. In a perfect scenario, you want to swiftly make new bookings and retrieve or modify old ones without needing to switch between countless suppliers.
#9 An omnichannel to keep track of all the trips
Arranging all your business travel in one location makes it simple to track. Integrating travel is the primary objective of a travel management solution. So what happens in a real-world scenario?
Generally speaking, the platform should allow you to sign in and view bookings, policy violations, and more. You’ll also need a single platform for approvals, schedule information, cancellation alerts, etc.
#10 Saved information and data management
It is not necessary to spend a long time arranging business trips. Ideally, it will be only a few minutes, provided you have software that automates and saves each traveler’s data in your travel management software. It may comprise the employee’s name, age, gender, ID proofs, birthdate, and other details.
#11 Excellent customer service
Whenever you plan a trip, try to remember anything can happen. Consequently, you will need a service provider who gives you the flexibility you need when schedules change and unexpected things happen. A platform that allows the flexibility to mitigate the issue swiftly and effectively. It should also have a friendly support team and charge minimal or no costs for any modifications.
Furthermore, your travel management software must include assistance at little or no extra cost to the company. The processes should be transparent without any nasty surprises because you’ll want to be aware of what you are in for at all times.
Also, travelers must receive the support they ask for when they require it without having to get anxious over disrupting their budgets with a barrage of service calls.
#12 User Management
Travel managers should have access to their travel management software and view what’s going on. Having control of the software and access to what the team has been scheduling helps you gain a quick perspective to take action when needed.
As a travel manager, you may be savvy with various scenarios. That may be whether you are managing your own travel plans or assisting people with making travel arrangements. You should be able to quickly pull up the booking or monitor to see who wants additional assistance.
Bottom Line: Ask for a Demo
A demo can assist you in determining how effectively the service functions and how your company would gain from using it. Before signing up, make sure your service provider answers all the pertinent questions and ensure you test the capabilities of the software.
The system you use to plan and manage travel will likely impact your experience as a travel manager and on every employee who travels for business.
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