Conferences: combating travel and entertainment costs

They provide an educational environment where you can attend sessions from industry leaders, an opportunity to hear keynote addresses from people who drive great changes in their sectors, and there is also the chance to gather with peers and discuss the industry and all it’s faults!

Why go to a conference? Attending a conference offers a time to share experiences and research that you might otherwise not get to hear. There is much to gain from other people in different stages of research, to hear different ideas and perspectives and there is also of course the opportunity to learn from others’ mistakes and find alternative approaches of doing things.

It is also an excellent occasion to meet like-minded individuals to inspire and motivate you, endorsing your work and giving you confidence to carry on and do the best you can do. Finally, it offers the opportunity to put a face to a name!

Although conferences are perhaps becoming less popular and the option of using the internet is becoming more frequent, you can’t beat attending a conference in person, being in a fresh, educational environment, experiencing the hustle and bustle of the conference, meeting new contacts and friends who have the same background or interests as you.

Travel and entertainment expenses

One reason that attending a conference could be a bit tricky is managing the entertainment and travel expenses involved. Despite the fact that billions of dollars are spent every year on business, travel and entertainment costs, many companies are not maximising the value of what they spend because of multiple processes and solutions to manage expenses. However, the traditional approaches to managing expenses, mostly the paper-based reporting style, are fading fast and increasing numbers of companies are looking at more practical ways to manage travel and entertainment costs. NGP has been investigating new technologies, when and how to implement them.

When should companies integrate booking and expense reporting software?

There are two levels to consider when thinking about integrating travel booking with expense reporting. The first is the consolidation of travel booking, corporate card and expense reporting data, which is relatively straightforward and can be used quickly without significant expense or user inconvenience. This provides benefits when negotiating with vendors.

The second level is the pre-population of limited itinerary data, such as airfares, from the booking to the expense reporting process. This system is significantly more complicated and prone to error. Several questions should be addressed before considering this level of integration:

• Is the use of corporate travel provider and online booking tool mandated?
• Is the travel booking tool suitable?
• How do you reconcile and reimburse travel expenses?
• Do you submit expenses by trip or for a designated time period? How do you reconcile travel booking data spread over multiple periods?

It is the answers to these questions that demonstrate whether or not this second level of integration is convenient and will add-value to the implementation.

An end-to-end solution

Every conference will begin with a travel arrangement booking and end with an expense report. However, an end-to-end solution enables an organization to management the entire travel and expense process seamlessly, meaning a more efficient process saving time and money. Rajeev Singh, co-founder and COO of Concur Technologies talks though the definition of end-to-end solutions, “we define it as one that unites the travel booking process with the expense reporting process into one tightly integrated solution that delivers cost savings, visibility and control. A truly end-to-end solution should leverage every aspect of the travel and expense process – from pre-trip approvals to online travel booking to capturing itinerary information and corporate card data to robust workflow that manages the entire expense reporting process to reimbursement and data analysis - delivering a 360-degree view of the organization’s spend that enables the organization to monitor travel vendor compliance and enforce company policy, all while simplifying the process for the business traveller. Anything less is not truly end-to-end.”

In order to have a successful implementation, certain practices can be employed. One essential practice is a close relationship between the client and the vendor – a clear understanding of the client’s processes, requirements and scope is the key to providing the right system. Client input is critical to successful implementation.

Lower costs

An automated travel management system means lower travel costs, lower transaction costs and increased corporate control and policy compliance. Online booking tools mean you can make the most of negotiated and internet only rates with a wider variety, more flexibility and more convenience for the user. Currently there is a lack of availability to enforce pre-negotiated rates and policies, and with the introduction of new automated workflow and approval mechanisms these will help ensure that controls will be properly enforced.

Increased productivity

With an automated system in place users will spend less time working on travel plans and therefore productivity savings are great - users employing an automated expense reporting system spend as much as 77 percent less time preparing reports than in companies who don’t have the system in place. There are also opportunities in larger companies to reduce costs in terms of processing each expense report.

Best business practices

A unified system taking care of spend and reimbursement creates a high degree of quality and consistency in the data collected for analysis and provides a cross-business functionality without the need for separate systems for individual tasks.

Automated travel and expense management solutions provide opportunities for organizations to make significant savings in both money and time. These end-to-end solutions also increase employee satisfaction by offering more choice, freedom, convenience and value. A single, unified system means that companies have greater corporate control and policy compliance and are able to enhance their business, travel and entertainment expenses to make smarter and speedier business decisions.

In terms of conferences, an end-to-end travel and entertainment solution means there is less time spent on making arrangements and bookings, and more time to decide on which conferences to attend!

“A truly end-to-end solution should leverage every aspect of the travel and expense process… delivering a 360-degree view of the organization’s spend” - Rajeev Singh, co-founder and COO of Concur Technologies

Fast Facts

• Aberdeen Group results from a recent study indicate that 26 percent of companies surveyed are planning on adopting and ‘end-to-end’ travel and expense management system by 2008.
• Business, travel and entertainment costs represent up to 10 percent of an average company’s annual operating expenses.