This is the final post in our 6-part series based on a white paper with Harvard Business Review Analytic Services in association with U.S. Bank that examines the growing use of automation to manage corporate T&E.
Here are 4 tips to overcome common objections implementing automated T&E management tools and reap the benefits of a unified T&E management system.
1. Get a true read on ROI.
To help gauge the return on these investments, don’t look just at quantitative returns (such as reduced travel spending) but also at qualitative ones, such as greater efficiency for accounting teams and a better experience for employees.
As you evaluate and implement tools, try to measure the impacts on your finance operation and how it improves your business processes? Similarly, can a new solution serve internal customers in new ways?
2. Rethink old business processes.
It’s important to scrutinize the entire service delivery model. Many companies make the mistake of assuming technology will solve their problems, when they also need to improve T&E processes, including governance, information management, and service design. Make sure you fix every part of the end-to-end process and also listen to what employees care about. For example, if sustainability is important to your workforce, the travel policies should reflect this preference in the types of travel you incentivize.
>> Related: How Much Does Expense Management Software Cost? <<
3. Corral the potential savings.
There’s a lot of unmanaged travel—people booking trips with their own credit cards and then submitting expenses for reimbursement. The big ROI comes from keeping travelers in adherence with your policies and your budget so you can instantly detect when somebody is going rogue and encourage people to use your negotiated vendor rates, like at preferred hotel chains. If you can save a hundred dollars per night across 10,000 hotel stays, that’s a big advantage.
4. Seek executive sponsorship.
Advocates of unified travel and expense management solutions should be prepared to take their arguments to the executive suite. Breaking through the “we’ve always done it that way” inertia requires an understanding of the direct and opportunity costs of staying with an old- school approach. This is hard to do because the drag on productivity is largely invisible. This is where item #1 (the true read on ROI) will be critical: plan on presenting the potential cost and time savings, improved spend visibility, and more effective expense control that can be achieved with this technology.
Read the entire series with Harvard Business Review Analytic Services >