Shirley Le Roux, MD of TraveluXion gives SmartProcurement her insights into the top challenges and key focus areas around Travel and Expense Management as per the Aberdeen Group Survey published in March 2013.
What was identified?
According to the survey the top challenges with regards to Travel and Expense (T&E) Management are:
- Poor visibility into T&E spending, compliance and suppliers – 51% of respondents
- Need to reduce expense processing costs – 40%
- Lack of spend control – 33%
- Need to eliminate manual/ paper-based processes – 30%
The key focus areas for 2013 are:
- Expense Management processes – starting with creation, submission, workflow, approval and reimbursement – 53% of respondents.
- Integration between systems – 20%
- Analytics and intelligence – 17%
- Travel-booking – 14%
Of interest in the findings is that these challenges have been around for a few years and as such have formed the cornerstone of why solutions such as TraveluXion were purpose built: to address these areas of concern, says Le Roux.
“I am extremely excited that, globally, this year’s key focus will fall on the areas mentioned above as TraveluXion’s standard application will assist and allow companies an opportunity to implement a solution that caters exactly for these needs.”
Considering that this is a global survey, one can assume that South Africa’s landscape faces different challenges, and depending on the sector you speak to, perhaps the priorities would change slightly, says Le Roux.
As such TraveluXion in conjunction with change management expert Michael Jackson will host four “Smart Paper workshops” on 2, 3, 9 and 10 May 2013.
The workshops will discuss the “road ahead” – based on Jackson’s indepth view and vision of what we can expect approaching 2020.
Furthermore, it will afford Buyers of T&E and industry experts an opportunity to collaborate and discuss the top challenges and key focus areas they encounter. Feedback will be documented and dispersed in the form of a white paper, based solely around the needs of the South African market. The feedback will be based on pre-determined qualitative and quantitative questions.
This workshop invitation is extended to any organisation that would like to send a specialist who focuses on this commodity. Specifically, the workshops are open only to:
• Buyers of travel spend.
• Suppliers of inventory – car hire, hotel and airline.
• Credit card companies that supply either lodged cards or corporate cards in pocket for T&E-based expenditure.
For more information on the application available and for TraveluXion’s assistance contact Shirley.leroux@traveluxion.co.za
