BCD Travel prepares for the arrival of the solution BCD Pay in the business travel sector, expected by 2022 in certain markets. The TMC therefore surveyed around a hundred international travel buyers last October. The aim was to identify their practices, issues and expectations in the field of business travel. travel & expense. According to the study, published on 30 November, travel expenditure is one of the top priorities for travel managers. In fact, 76% of them consider it to be an extremely or very important issue. Only issues relating to duty of care (93%), at traveller well-being (88%) and compliance with travel policy (83%) are attracting more attention from companies.
According to data compiled by BCD Travel, travel managers are above all looking for simplicity when it comes to travel expenses. One professional in two (48%) considers it to be extremely important, and 43% consider it to be very important, proof if any were needed that the field of travel & expense still too often involves tedious, and therefore time-consuming, processing. " Businesses are hampered by cumbersome payment forms, manual processes, siloed systems and a lack of visibility over expenditure. "says Ajay Singh, Vice President Digital Payment and Expense Products at BCD Travel. The satisfaction of the end user, i.e. the business traveller itself, would be the second priority for travel managers, ahead of data visibility and direct savings. It should be noted that the fight against fraud is also 'extremely important' for almost one in two travel managers, according to BCD Travel.
Logically identified as a key player in the dossier, the department finance However, in one company in four (26%), it is disconnected from the department responsible for business travel. When it comes to business travel, its decision-making status most often concerns the choice of expense management tool (45%), VAT recovery (41%), and the choice of payment solution (39%). Far, far behind this top three are the reporting and analysis of business travel data (11%), the creation and updating of travel policy (8%), and a fortiori the choice of preferred suppliers (6%).
Hidden costs still poorly identified
Another lesson from the BCD Travel study is that the global approach to "Total trip cost remains a minority in the travel management sector. Only 27% of companies would have adopted this more exhaustive method of calculation, although there seems to be a definite interest in it. Indeed, the majority of respondents (52%) would like to adopt this approach. In addition to the tip of the pricing iceberg made up of direct costs, linked to travel, meals or roaming charges - costs cited by 94% of those surveyed - other factors inflate the cost of the trip and can be integrated into the total. For example, 44% of those surveyed cited the costs of attending a conference or meeting, 17% the costs of offsetting carbon emissions and other environmental measures, and only 6% identified hidden costs such as the time taken up by the trip and its impact on the traveller's productivity and health.
