The study published on Tuesday by Concur, carried out at the end of 2012 by research firm Raffour Interactif, points to "room for improvement in the existence of a travel policy". Unsurprisingly, the report confirms a lower adoption rate among SMEs: "69 % of business travellers who work for an organisation with more than 1,000 employees state that their travel expenditure is defined by a travel policy, compared with only 27 % of business travellers who work in an organisation with fewer than 100 employees", the study points out. On a global scale, barely six out of ten business travellers (61%) would say that their business travel expenditure is governed by a travel policy. Business travellers also enjoy a high degree of autonomy, since half of them systematically organise their business trips themselves, and 15% even have the possibility of defining their travel budget. "Organisations are relying more on their employees to book their own business trips," sums up Pierre-Emmanuel Tétaz, Vice President, Product Management & Strategy, Travel at Concur. "Providing them with a self-service tool capable of managing end-to-end business travel and expense reports, and accessible on the web or their smartphone via a mobile application, is essential. The entire process, from trip preparation to expense claim reimbursement, must be able to be integrated into the business travel and expense claim system. Employees can book their trips more quickly and easily, and manage their travel more flexibly. Purchasing and finance managers get the data and visibility they need to better manage travel policies and costs," adds Pierre-Emmanuel Tétaz.
