Stewart Harvey, group commercial director at HRG, calls for the industry to stop over-engineering corporate travel and to simplify the entire process

WE ARE living in complex times with ever increasing demands on our time, our resources and our business. And corporate travel is no exception. It has changed from a service that enables
clients to make travel arrangements into a business process in its own right

But why has corporate travel become so complex? The principles of business travel have remained the same since the very first commercial flights: a business traveller needs to get from A to B, on a certain date, at a specific time, for a specific reason, in as good a condition as possible.

The purpose of the trip is to meet people and conduct business – not to take a flight on an airplane, stay in a hotel, hire a car or to book a taxi.

The process of arranging this travel can be summarised quite simply: it is to find the right travel solution at the right price, and be able to book and pay for this travel, account and report for expenses.

The key difference between business travel of the past and business travel today is the volume of travel involved. There are now many more issues at play than simply booking a flight at a
published price and reserving a room at a quoted rate.

We have gone beyond the simplicity of volume-related discounts (once just the domain of the larger clients) because travel is now a dynamic marketplace where fares and rates are linked to demand and prices are changing constantly. Travel management
today requires higher levels of management care. And let’s not forget that travel management is not simply about understanding
the cost of a trip. It is also about the value of a trip, which is why I’m adding another crucial dimension into the mix: time.

How long will the trip keep a traveller away from home? Is it
worth travelling a day out and a day back for a three-hour meeting? If it’s to clinch a multimillion dollar deal, the answer is probably yes; if not, the answer may be no. However, there is more to this complexity than just the nuance of travel. The corporate environment has added layers of process and control.

There are now many more stakeholders involved, each with a valid interest in the company travel programme. The layers of corporate complexity are driven from many different perspectives:

Finance: controls and data drive these experts as they consider the impact on expense management, measurement and performance.

Procurement: savings and data underpin the drive from procurement experts as they review commercial agreements and savings.

IT: systems, self-booking, unified communications and traveller devices, not to mention data and security, are the key drivers for these professionals.

Business users: the total cost of the trip, data and performance will all be analysed by this group.

Individual traveller: wellbeing, performance, policy, travel experience and comfort all matter to travellers, as well as complying with policy.

HR: wellbeing, performance and corporate social responsibility are factors to be considered under conditions, policy and standards.

Legal: liability, traveller conduct, and security of both the individual and the corporate make up just some of the triggers from a corporate law perspective.

Executive: all of the above matter to the c-suite of every origination as they seek assurance about total costs, total data, strategy and savings.

We can add to this the challenges created by the travel industry itself: new ‘models’ providing different fees, content spread across a variety of distribution channels, and suppliers with diverting strategies.

Is it time to simplify the process? Perhaps in complex times our
watchword should be simplicity

Together we must find a way to remove the confusion from our
industry. Not to dumb down our industry or the needs of our travellers and businesses, but rather to be certain that we are not guilty of overengineering corporate travel.

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