Improving the value of a company's travel and expense
program can be accomplished through tighter integration between travel and
enterprise systems, consolidation of travel and expense data and more frequent use
of preferred vendor relationships, according to a January survey by SAP and CFO
Research.
Conducted in January among 173 senior finance executives at
large and midsize North American and European companies across various sectors,
the survey found that a plurality of respondents, 39 percent, indicated that "the
single largest barrier to accessing robust, timely and comprehensive
information on travel expenses is a lack of integration among different systems
and process."
Twenty-two percent of companies surveyed said their travel
systems are tightly integrated with enterprise research planning and general ledger
systems. Fifty-two percent indicated some integration, while 25 percent said
there is no integration between their systems.
Of the surveyed senior finance executives who work at
companies with tightly integrated travel systems, 49 percent agreed that travel
systems contributed substantially to their ability to meet travel expense
management goals. This figure was lower among respondents at companies with "somewhat
integrated travel systems" (11 percent) and executives at firms with no
integration between their travel and other enterprise systems.
Consolidating travel expense data into a single source also
tends to offer better value, according to the survey; 25 percent of polled companies
reported using a unified source of travel expense data.
"With this level of complexity, collecting, aggregating
and analyzing travel-related information can easily be as much of a time-sink
with siloed systems as it is in companies that do it all by hand," according
to researchers.
Of the respondents who indicated their companies have a
unified source of travel expense data, 84 percent said management decision
makers have access to "robust, timely and comprehensive information"
on travel expenses. Among executives working at companies that have multiple
data sources, 57 percent indicated as much.
Three-quarters of respondents indicated their companies use
preferred vendor relationships to receive special products, services, prices or
business terms for travel-related purchases, and 77 percent agreed that using
preferred-vendor relationships would "yield a meaningful financial benefit
for companies."
"Fully leveraging such relationships is most often a
question of consolidating purchasing volume and better enforcing employee
compliance," according to the survey report.
Respondents pointed to some remaining travel cost-control
challenges. One company further restricted employee travel to better control
costs, one respondent reported, but the new restrictions brought additional
difficulty in managing them.
An associated challenge is that the need for speed and
maneuverability outpaces the degree of control companies seek. Simplifying the
administrative burden for employees may come at the expense of the more
detailed reporting that finance executives need to better control spending. Also,
automating the processes is not enough, according to researchers. It has to be "done
right," by offering more integration and consolidation between systems, as
well as more communication to employees.