A challenge for travel and meeting managers
 
The roles of corporate travel and meeting managers

Business travel alone is usually the 3rd or 4th biggest controlable single expense account for the company. Let us look at the traditional role of the corporate expert persons who are held responsible for travel and meeting expenses. It may be the same person, it may be different persons and it may be a rather un-structured group of people.

When I say controlable I mean an account which by means of management can be verified, analysed and changed.

Considering this it seems logical to review the tasks for the manager or management team responsible for travel and meeting management. Analyse the travel and meeting business of your organisation to see how co-ordination of these activities can provide improved efficiency and reduce costs.

  1. Study the present business activity (secure statistics) and set out a target for the future

  2. Produce strategies and priorities and request acceptance from your executive management

  3. Produce a policy for travel and meetings and request acceptance from your executive management

  4. Communicate the policy and make sure it is widely understood and supported by all concerned parties, including your travel agency and your suppliers

  5. Do you have full access to the statistics generated by your corporation/organization ?

  6. Are you sure the management information you have is correct and complete ?

  7. To what extent is the implementation of your policy depending on action of your own organisation and who else is conducting influence ?

Do you have full control ?

Collect as much information as possible on the past and present travel and meeting activities, analyse and double-check everything. 

 

Does the organisation accept the guidelines ?

Once the organization has a policy, the difficult task is to make sure it is known, understood and accepted. That can be achieved through continuous and consistent communication with management at all levels, employees and all parties that are concerned with the travel process, including the authorized travel agency. Do you have routines to make sure all feed-back is taken care of.

 

Review the entire travel process

Are travel request, authorization, administration, invoicing and expense reporting compatible with systems used by travel agency, suppliers,  credit cards etc ?
Can the processes be improved ?