The Benefits of Integrating Travel Management Software with Other Business Tools

Introduction

Travel management software helps enterprises automate the business travel management process fully. Each travel management solution comes with built-in features and tech solutions to automate crucial steps in the complex process like business travel booking, travel expense management, business travel risk management, and travel data analysis.

The new-age solutions boost business travel management automation using Industry 4.0 technologies like artificial intelligence.

An enterprise can enhance the native functionalities of the travel management software by integrating it with existing business tools. The travel management solution will interact with other business tools seamlessly after integration.

Also, the integration will make the travel management software a part of a unified enterprise system. Your organization can integrate travel management software with various business tools.

Here are some prominent benefits your company or startup can leverage through travel management software integration.

8 Major Benefits of Travel Management Software Integration

1. End-to-End Process Automation

Many travel management solutions focus on automating the most crucial step in the process – business travel booking. They enable employees to book their choice of flights, accommodations, and car rentals. Also, they save money on business travel booking through negotiated rates and best deals.

Your organization can automate the business travel management process fully by integrating the travel management solution with expense management solutions and data analytics tools. The integration will convert the software into a unified travel and expense management system by extending its native functionality.

2. A Unified Enterprise System

As standalone software, travel management solutions automate a single business process. Integration makes travel management software a part of a unified enterprise platform. The unified enterprise system will store the data collected by various software solutions in a centralized location.

It will make the data collected by the software accessible to managers across departments. Hence, they can make informed decisions based on real-time data. Also, they can suggest measures to improve business travel management and control business travel spending.

3. Superior Business Travel Experience

The business travel experiences of employees impact the outcome of business trips directly. Your company cannot boost the business travel experience only by supporting self-booking or increasing travel choices. It must focus extensively on accelerating travel expense reimbursements and ensuring business traveler safety.

Integrated travel management software will speed up travel expense reimbursements by enabling employees to generate and submit automated expense reports. Also, employees can access the integrated software to manage business travel risks by getting real-time information and support.

4. Seamless Data Transmission

A travel management solution primarily collects employees’ data related to business travel and travel expenses. The integration will make the software share travel and expense data with other business tools like human resource management (HRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP).

Also, the software will share real-time data with other enterprise solutions regularly and automatically. Hence, decision-makers can access travel and expense data along with information gathered by other business tools from a single location.

5. Business Travel Cost Control

Your employees can curtail business travel costs significantly using special discounts and deals. You can make it easier for employees to find deals and discounts by integrating travel management software with airline reservation systems and hotel booking systems.

Also, the integration will enable you to identify the suppliers and vendors preferred by your employees based on the information shared by the travel management companies. You can negotiate with such vendors to control costs by getting better rates and special deals.

6. More Accurate and Reliable Data

Often enterprises unify data collected by standalone business software manually. The manual data unification process is prone to errors and inaccuracies. Sometimes inaccurate data makes managers make flawed decisions.

As noted earlier, the travel management software will share data with other business tools automatically after integration. The automated data transmissions eliminate the chances of errors and inconsistencies. Managers can access accurate and reliable data to make the right decision at the right time.

7. Better Reporting

Travel management solutions enable managers to generate custom reports based on real-time travel and expense data. A manager can generate and schedule custom reports effortlessly using the dashboard provided by the software.

But business travel management is one of the crucial business processes. An enterprise can achieve sustainable growth only by boosting multiple business processes, including travel management. In addition to unifying data collected by various business tools, integration facilitates seamless communication and collaboration between teams.

Managers can use the integrated travel management software to generate reports based on organizational data. They can generate custom reports that provide elaborate information about individual departments, teams, or projects.

8. Data-Driven Decision Making

Your business cannot become a part of Industry 4.0 without leveraging data analytics solutions. Data analytics solutions help you make sense of raw data collected by various business tools. Also, they share actionable insights that enable you to make informed decisions based on real-time data.

But the quality of insights shared by data analytics tools depends on the accuracy and completeness of the raw data. Travel management software integration makes it easier for your business to use data analytics tools by enhancing data accuracy and reliability.

Hence, integration helps you detect trends and patterns based on data collected by various business tools, including travel management software. Also, you can avoid making flawed decisions using insights gained based on organizational data.

Final Word

You can enhance the native features of travel management software by integrating it with existing business tools. But some travel management solutions are easier-to-integrate than others. You can integrate cloud-based travel management software with widely-use business tools using application programming interfaces (APIs).

While comparing and shortlisting corporate travel consultants , you must use integration as a primary criterion. You should prioritize software that can be integrated with leading enterprise systems without putting in extra time and effort. At the same time, you need to ensure that the travel management system delivers a seamless experience as part of the unified enterprise system.