Nearly every executive and corporate professional relies on business travel as a means of fostering relationships with key customers (and future clients) and staying up-to-date with other global regions of the enterprise. Business travel expenses are, to borrow a saying from the past, an “unfortunate cost of doing business,” with associated processes for managing these expenses relegated to the back office.

In my many years as an industry analyst, I’ve been a proponent of the notion that travel and expense management can be an extremely strategic series of processes when executed effectively. Years ago, it was difficult for the majority of organizations to begin thinking about travel and expense management as anything but an annoyance, with the few organizations that embraced technology and automation as the ones that found true value within the function.

The very future of travel and expense management is an exciting one; there have been several interesting developments in this space that will allow enterprises to not only drive more efficiency within travel and expense management processes, but gain the ability to extract real business value. Here’s what’s up ahead for this complex spend category in 2014:

• The convergence of financial management and travel / expense management. While expense management is an inherently-financial-type function, it is rare for enterprises to apply true financial management rigor to processing expenses. Aspects such as forecasting, planning and budgeting can reap many rewards when utilized in the travel / expense management stratosphere. Remember: travel encompasses a significant portion of the average company’s total budget, and any insight into spend patterns / trends, as well as future spending, can help boost the strategic value of business travel and expense management.
• Mobile becomes an accepted aspect of the business travel experience. It’s no secret that mobility has been invading the travel industry for several years now; however, in every organization, there are always those travelers that are reluctant to embrace this portable technology for creating, submitting and approving expenses. Mobile expense management apps can truly transform the scope of this function by enabling business travelers with the power to alter travel plans, book ground transportation and restaurant reservations, and harness the strength of greater travel / expense management technology in a handheld manner. The new year will see a sharp increase in the number of executives and travelers that leverage this groundbreaking form of technology.
• Travel data transforms into corporate intelligence. I’ve written about Big Data and this industry in the past, and while the notion of analytics / reporting have been slowly making their way into the travel and expense world, 2014 will see travel data utilized in new and exciting ways. In fact, travel data culled from financial, ERP and expense management systems will become true corporate intelligence that can be leveraged for the greater good of the greater enterprise. Insights into employee actively, status of key sales / business development projects, and a keen eye on company finances are all direct results of transforming travel data into corporate intelligence.

Publisher’s note:  Chris mentions the convergence of financial management with travel and expense management above. Convergence is also theme for our 2014 CPO Rising report. The survey for this report is now live. If you have 15 minutes to spare and want to participate in this year’s study, click here.

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Tagged in: Christopher Dwyer, Complex Categories, Finance, Predictions, T&E