The impact of COVID-19 on business travel was huge. 18 months later, clients are still getting to grips with the effects on business functions. To boost efficiency for our clients, we are working consultatively with travel managers across the UK and Ireland to refine the following areas:
- Overhauling of entire business travel programmes
- Rewriting travel policies and even the definition of essential business travel
- Reviewing the end to end travel and expenditure process, automating manual processes and bringing efficiencies
- Introducing new policies, processes and technology to ensure traveller safety and reduce risk in this new world and;
- Improving the business travel experience for the traveller
All this change needs to be monitored, and that’s why we have the best in data intelligence for our clients to allow better management of travel programmes. We can show you how Beyond Business Travel can help you better manage business travel data, analytics and reporting, so you can travel more easily and effectively in these ever-changing times.
What is Travel Data Intelligence?
Travel data intelligence refers to the practice of using smart technologies to analyse masses of information so it can be translated into focused insights.
Usually, it involves reporting on spend and how it changes over time. This data intelligence can help you control spending and, as a result, reduce it to save company resources. Not only can it help decrease spending, but it can also be used to improve services and experiences, depending on whether you’re a travel manager or a business traveller.
In the world of travel, we always have to adapt. As such, we cannot solely rely on spend data to provide us with robust insights. We need to look at different categories of information – as well as traveller behaviour to ensure the end result meets the expectations of all parties involved. With Beyond Business Travels analytics suite you will be able to gather information on supplier data, hotel data, traveller data, booking behaviours. There are over 3,000 reports that can be bespoke for your business.
The greater amount of travel data we have, the more able we are to make well-informed, quality decisions. Combine this with expert knowledge offered by the Beyond Business Travel team, and you can maximise your travel intelligence to accurately meet your objectives.
What Value Does Business Travel Data Bring to Businesses?
With the right data, businesses can benefit from enriched information, giving them greater knowledge to improve their practices and policies. This can cover anything and everything – from being more sustainable to complying with legislation and abiding by restrictions. These benefits are far from limited – here’s a select few that you can expect when you invest in business travel data:
Spend Optimisation
As we mentioned, spend is still a core element of travel data that can be used to control other operations within a business. By tracking travel expenditure in real-time in the one convenient platform, you can identify areas to allocate, cut and increase costs where appropriate.
With our smart data solutions, Beyond Business Travel can help you generate savings so that you can invest your money in the things that matter.
Budgeting
Due to travel being booked over many platforms, it is difficult for finance teams to accurately forecast and project the travel spend for the business. With all of your business travel data in one easily accessible place, this is an easy job with the Beyond Analytics platform and will allow this time to be spent on more value added tasks. Any report can be downloaded into xls or csv and therefore built into larger projection models.
Customer Profitability
Being able to capture all costs and calculate the true profitability of a customer or a contract is the wholly grail for the finance team. Now, all data collected can have cost codes, job codes, customer names attached to the spend. So, now all profitability can be calculated more accurately. All reports can be downloaded via xls or csv, to be built into larger projects.
Traveller Safety and Location
Our travel data suite can give travellers a concise overview of security, travel, political and health risks before booking any travel. During travel, they are kept informed with global 24/7 risk alerts that inform of any immediate hazards in their area. Precise location data helps managers see who is affected so the traveller always feels supported. This is especially relevant and vital for business travellers in the pandemic situation we are facing currently.
Information Requests
Time spent on gathering information for insurance purposes or tax purposes relating to travel is no longer required. Data on region, city or traveller stays is invaluable information which is now all available.
Digital Transformation and Automation
Business travel data gives you the freedom and flexibility to focus on more pressing tasks – rather than waste time and money manually drawing up reports post-trip. With automation, you can invest your energy in other ways to enhance your business, whether they be internally or externally.
How to Manage Business Travel Data and Analytics
Now that we know the benefits of managing business travel data, it is important to strategise so this information can keep businesses in line with their goals. We have been working with travel managers to streamline strategies for many years, and have found that the following practices are the best ones to follow:
Use Benchmarks to Measure Performance
By setting key performance indicators (KPIs) to compare to, whether it be to align with past performance, other competitors, or standards that you aspire to meet – these all provide a benchmark for your strategy. Doing this is the start of gaining real visibility and insight before you even begin planning your travel programme.
Set Goals to Meet
Data and reporting should always reflect travel programme objectives. With these above mentioned KPIs, you can then set realistic targets to meet. It could be that you want to reduce spend, minimise traveller friction, or be more sustainable – whatever they are, defining these will help you better streamline your travel strategy.
Gain Insights From Your Business Travel Manager
At Beyond Business Travel, our travel specialists are responsible for adding strategic value to travel programmes. Not only do we offer one-to-one support, we also show you the most innovative ways to use our digital solutions to give you the time to focus on making smart travel decisions.
All in all, a travel data strategy is essential to accurately manage business travel data and analytics. If you need help with managing your business travel data and analytics or creating a data strategy, book a demo with us to learn more.