A Travel Manager’s Guide to a Multi-Channel World

Like it or not, corporate travel is changing. New supplier distribution strategies mean organisations are confronting and at times confused by new content distribution channels, while continuing to juggle challenges including cost, duty of care, and business travellers’ demands for choice and flexibility.

You can choose many paths – and technologies – to access content, with online booking tools, travel management company agents, alternative GDS solutions, and supplier direct booking sites and apps among the options. All the choices have pros and cons based on your company’s specific needs, but a choice must be made on how content is accessed. The one choice travel managers probably should avoid is taking a wait-and-see approach.

The stakes of change are high, in terms of control and visibility, as 46% of global business travellers make supplier-direct bookings1 and 60% of spending data lacks visibility.

Our new whitepaper – A Multi-Channel Future: Are You Ready? – is built upon independent research SAP Concur commissioned with consultancy FESTIVE ROAD. The whitepaper is designed to help travel managers and their companies determine a path forward amid the disruption and opportunity. It delves deep into the current landscape, discusses common misconceptions, helps assess where your operation now stands, and examines strategies and paths that can prepare you for change.

Myth: I don’t need to address blind spend; it’s minimal. With direct and outside bookings rising, the ability to account for blind travel spend brings greater spending control and understanding of how your programme works.
 

The Trends Fueling Change

A push and pull: Airlines are executing on New Distribution Capability (NDC) by delivering content through more channels than ever – traditional distribution systems, supplier-direct websites and apps, and API connections via third parties. At the same time, business travellers are pushing their companies for flexibility and choice in where and how they book. Those travellers are a loyal bunch, too, wanting to stick with and earn points from their favorite suppliers. The challenge for travel managers is to balance business traveller desires while retaining fare visibility, achieving discounts, and ensuring policy compliance.

The tech stack is growing: With technology enabling greater connectivity among business travel players, travel programmes can access a wider variety of options and corral more useful data. New solutions also capture supplier direct bookings and enable NDC connections. However, business travellers who are accustomed to the consumer experience in their personal lives want that level of user experience in whatever corporate travel tool they’re using.

Some managers are taking control: With so many tools available, some travel managers are taking the lead on technology, harnessing the array of options to provide flexibility but retain control of duty of care, compliance, and data. Depending on the approach, you can categorise a programme as a closed shop, open shop, department store, or build your own (BYO).

Myth: It’s too hard to capture all your travel data. Actually, you can access tools that will capture the data, driving policy decisions and enabling better savings and negotiations.

Steps to Crafting a Strategy

Pioneer? Early adopter? Capture and control? Focused mandate? These are the four programme types that FESTIVE ROAD discovered in its research and is using to describe travel managers and the range of strategies they’re using amid the multi-channel environment. As you might imagine, these types range from those all-in to those sticking to traditional sources like agents and online booking tools.

Travel managers seeking to craft a response should start by taking a close look at the current state of their programme. This involves asking questions such as, “How often are supplier-direct bookings made?” and “Are the patterns of business traveller demands influencing content choices?” Then digging down to put numbers to the questions and see what traveller surveys and interviews tell about your programme and the choices business travellers make.

Next, investigate what your current suppliers say about access to content and possible implications involving cost and reporting. Having gained a better understanding of the current state, start exploring and considering what’s to be gained from new technologies and service channels. With considerations and information in hand, you can decide whether being a pioneer, pursuing a focused mandate, or something in between is the strategy that best fits the goals and needs for your company and its business travellers.

Learn How to Develop a Strategy That’s Right for Your Company

Download a copy of the whitepaper to learn more about multi-channel trends, move beyond common misconceptions, and discover how you can build a multi-channel strategy that delivers the flexibility, compliance, and control your company requires today and in the future.

1. Global Business Travelers Report 2023, SAP Concur
2. Global Business Travelers Report 2022, SAP Concur