Accelerating the digital transformation of travel and expense (T&E) will be vital to improving the employee experience and achieving corporate goals next year.

That is according to a new study conducted by Forrester Consulting, commissioned by Amadeus Cytric Solutions.

The study, released today, finds global leaders increasingly recognize that, for their businesses to succeed, they must design processes that support their workforce in a new, hybrid world of work.

It was based on a survey of 525 decision makers involved in travel and expense management for large corporations, across nine markets and five in-depth interviews.

It revealed there has been progress in the drive toward automation, with 80 percent of global respondents stating that T&E is more digitised compared to other processes within their companies.

This compared to a figure of 67 per cent when the survey was last carried out in 2020.

But current T&E management still presents several challenges, including manual and fragmented processes, compliance and security.

Some 34 per cent cited managing compliance for travel, like visas and work permits, as well as privacy and security concerns for 31 per cent of them, as a main challenge today, while 30 per cent argued manual processes put a strain on employees’ productivity.

The work found improving the integration between T&E technologies and other enterprise systems was top priority (72 per cent).

On average only 37 per cent of systems integrate with organizations’ T&E solutions leading to sub-optimal performance and poor employee experience.

Rudy Daniello, executive vice president, Amadeus Cytric Solutions, said: “Accelerating the digital transformation of travel and expense is a top priority for many organisations as we head into next year.

“As the world of work recalibrates for a hybrid future, processes, technologies and culture need to be updated to drive increased engagement and facilitate better collaboration among employees when planning travel.”

Successfully implemented, new solutions can increase compliance with travel management policies and ease reporting.

The risk of not implementing digital solutions is also real, with just 41 per cent of surveyed finance and travel management decision makers stating they audit all expense claims – leaving more than half open to fraud, human error, and compliance concerns.

Pressure for change is coming from several directions – from all levels of corporations. Employees’ greatest complaint comes from having to pay out of their own pocket for travel – a situation which can be overcome by the deployment of virtual cards and other integrated solutions.

More Information

The study was conducted across Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, India, Nordics, Spain, UK & Ireland and the US & Canada. Each of the 525 senior decision makers questioned represents a corporation with revenue ranging from $100 million-$5 billion and from 1,000+ to 20,000+ employees.

The survey was carried out between July and August this year.

Take a look at the full report here.