Why Your Travel Program Is Like a New Vehicle

Today’s travel programs have a number of moving parts and an argument can be made that the servicing of these parts is best left to industry experts. Savvy travel managers know a travel program is so much more than booking tickets, reserving hotel rooms and facilitating expenses. Today, the well managed travel program provides proactive account management, data-rich reporting, and technology-driven solutions.

Just as it makes sense for a trained professional to service my new sedan, protecting my investment, it makes sense for an experienced Travel Management Company (TMC) to manage your travel program, optimizing your travel spend.

Today’s TMCs are partners with their clients, acting as program stewards to your executives and advocates with your suppliers. More than finding the cheapest fare – and a reputable TMC will always offer the lowest logical fare - a travel program offers technology, analytics, partnership, and a voice at the travel table.

Managing a travel program, like servicing the family vehicle, used to be less complicated. Everyone could do it! But just as vehicles have become sophisticated computers on wheels, requiring a very specific skill set to maintain them, so has the travel program evolved into a complex entity, with numerous moving parts and ever changing inputs.

A travel program touches numerous parts of an organization. The executive team looks for compliance to achieve program objectives; finance looks for savings and reporting; operations looks for efficiencies; the travellers look for service, support, technology, and ease of use and the entire company wants a partner they can trust.

You wouldn’t give your brand new vehicle to just anyone to fix or maintain. Why wouldn’t you treat a program responsible for your company’s travel spend and the well-being of your travellers the same?