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Corporate travel management (CTM) is the process of planning, organizing, implementing, and monitoring a business's trips and entertainment expenditures to help ensure that employee travel is efficient and effective and that employees comply with the company's travel policies and procedures. The word "corporate" in corporate travel management doesn't necessarily mean CTM travel programs are only for corporations. Mid-size and even smaller businesses can also benefit from a successful CTM program. The many benefits may include significant cost savings, better alignment of travel with company objectives, and improved travel experiences for employees.
How Does Corporate Travel Management Work?
A corporate travel management program can be flexible to help meet a company's needs as they inevitably change over time.
With that in mind, a CTM team's tasks and responsibilities might include:
Approving or directly booking airline flights, ground transportation, hotel accommodations, restaurant reservations, and tickets for entertainment venues
Assisting employees with passports, visas, and other travel-related documents
Approving or, when appropriate, denying reimbursement of employee business travel and entertainment expenses
Managing employee use of business credit cards
Coordinating, managing, or monitoring other business travel or entertainment-related activities
CTM teams aren't involved in employees' personal travel arrangements.
Staff levels for a CTM program can also match the company's needs. A small or new CTM program may do well with one part-time or full-time employee to help ensure compliance with travel policies and procedures, and an outside travel agency to research, recommend, and book travel services. A larger CTM program might need two or more employees and an additional, outside travel agency.
A corporate travel agency, sometimes called a travel management company (TMC), can handle a variety of travel tasks. These may include:
Planning itineraries
Booking flights
Making hotel and dining reservations
Securing tickets for entertainment venues
Renting cars or other vehicles
Arranging ground transportation or ride-shares
Some TMCs may also help their clients create travel policies, review travel advisories, shop for and purchase travel insurance, rebook missed flights, plan remote conferences, events, and meetings, and audit travel expenses to help ensure compliance with company policies and identify potential future savings.
Together, a company's travel specialists, whether they're employees, agents, or a combination of both, can manage both domestic and, as needed, global travel to meet the company's objectives. The latter might include lowering costs and helping to ensure that other human resources and finance personnel aren't unduly distracted or overly burdened by employee travel arrangements or travel management tasks.
Some CTM programs allow employees to make their own travel arrangements as long as they coordinate with the CTM team and comply with the company's travel policies. Others require that the CTM team make all the arrangements for all employees. The full-control approach limits employees' options, but may help to capture more discounts, enforce tighter spending caps, and help ensure that all arrangements are made through the company's approved vendors.
Some CTM program teams use sophisticated travel management software systems that can aid in booking travel, managing or capping expenditures, and reporting and analyzing expenses, among other features. Some systems can access current flight data, hotel room availability, and other real-time travel information.
Businesses with modest travel needs may choose to include their CTM program within their human resources or finance department. Businesses with extensive travel needs or farther flung operations may be better served by a separate, dedicated CTM program.
Benefits of Corporate Travel Management
A successful CTM program can provide valuable benefits, such as significant savings in travel and entertainment expenditures, reduction in non-CTM employees' time devoted to making travel arrangements, better alignment of travel activities with the company's objectives and goals, improved record-keeping for travel expenses, and better-informed oversight of travel-related risks and safety issues.
At a minimum, a good CTM program can achieve:
Cost savings. The CTM team may find better deals and negotiate bigger discounts for airline flights, hotel stays, travel insurance, and other travel-related costs.
Time savings. The CTM team can know how to make travel arrangements quickly and efficiently so employees who travel can spend less time figuring out how to get where they need to go.
Policy compliance. The CTM team can make sure the company's travel policies align with objectives and are top of mind for any travel planning.
Given these important benefits, a CTM program may be a smart move for almost all types and sizes of businesses.
How Business Credit Cards Help Simplify Corporate Travel Management
Some companies manage business travel expenses by requiring employees to pay their own travel costs out of pocket and then turn in expense reports to be approved for reimbursement. While this process can be common, it may prove difficult and time-consuming to manage due in part to the extensive paperwork required.
Fortunately, other business travel management solutions are available. Among those are business and corporate credit cards, which can be used within a CTM program.
Similarly to credit cards for individuals, business and corporate cards can help simplify travel management and reduce paperwork by making it easier to monitor expenses and reconcile transactions. Business and corporate cards can feature expense-tracking systems designed to enable managers to reduce paperwork, monitor spending, help ensure travel policy compliance, and integrate travel expenses into the company’s CTM and accounting systems.
Business and corporate cards may also have additional features, such as fraud protection, and can provide a myriad of perks, such as card rewards, eligible benefits on air travel or hotel stays, and access to airport lounges that can help employees stay productive while they wait to board their flights.
Simplify, Save, and Succeed with Corporate Travel Management
Business travel helps enable companies of all sizes to better manage remote operations, explore new markets, meet with valued suppliers, and secure new clients. While the investment of time and funds can be significant, there may be no better way to forge strong business relationships than to be out in the world, meeting face-to-face with other professionals.
Photo: Getty Images
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