business travel

Business Travel

We help our clients to achieve best value in Business Travel while meeting in full their Duty of Care obligations to employees.

We help our clients by compiling and maintaining Travel policy; establishing and reviewing systems and training to ensure policy compliance; advising on selection of a Travel Management company; establishing and reviewing Travel and Entertainment expense management systems; and advising on preferred supply arrangements in individual Travel cost areas.

Cost areas include:

• Air
• Hotel
• Ground Transportation (Rail, Taxi, Coach, Short-term Car Hire)

Business Travel Services

For many businesses and organisations travel is a key business-enabling activity and a significant generator of cost.
Managing the purchase of travel and related services in a way that allows travelling employees to maximise their effectiveness, while both minimising cost and ensuring the health and safety of the traveller is a fine art. The elements of optimising travel purchasing include:

• Clear objectives
• A robust and enforceable travel policy
• Management and staff “buy-in”
• Integrated systems of information and control

Technological and market change have provided growing challenges to the classic model of centralised negotiation with key suppliers and enforcement of buying policy through TMC arrangements. Travellers have become familiar with use of apps and websites to make personal travel arrangements; airlines and others increasingly target individual travellers to by-pass corporate channels. Companies such as Google begin to experiment with devolved models of booking to give greater empowerment to employees in making travel choices.

Just as these external drivers are rapidly changing the landscape of travel buying, so for most companies the internal challenges remain. Total costs of trips not well reported, because of fragmentation of underlying information; missed savings opportunities through poor trip planning; lack of control through systems not permitting prior authorisation of expense; poor VAT reclamation through inadequate expense management systems; “maverick” travellers who resist conformance with policy; and so on.

Our approach

To meet these challenges it is essential that the business takes a methodical approach to developing its travel buying capabilities.

It must, therefore, become well-informed of the range of options available in services and technology, as they are experienced in real situations in the market; and also understand well its own situation and needs. Expense Reduction Analysts provides its clients with an objective and expert source of input about available options through its work with a range of clients, its dialogue with key suppliers; and participation in industry fora such as the Institute of Travel and Meetings. Our consultants have an unrivalled depth of experience on both the buy- and sell-side of these services and as consultants, which enables us to work quickly and effectively with clients to establish their real needs and to make good value for money choices.

Get in touch today to find out how ERA can help with your Business Travel costs.

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