The Strategic Power Of Insight

Great quality data can do more than show how much you’re spending on employee travel expenses. While it is of benefit, you can have data do so much more for your company – it can bring real value with a wider range of information, and aid travel managers uncover trends and develop strategies.

Taking expenses as an example, two similar amounts of expenditure can actually relate to very different uses: it’s not all fuel costs! Expenses can be made up of taxis, meals, hotel cars, dry cleaning, shuttles, etc. By having the data to bring this level of understanding to travel managers, they can more easily see where strategies can be developed to rein in costs for certain areas. Without knowing how much a trip costs in total, it can be difficult to negotiate with suppliers successfully.

By looking beyond the obvious, you can make use of travel data spend to help achieve economies of scale. Being able to negotiate with vendors is a primary reason for wanting better data, according to JP Morgan. But the use of data can extend beyond this – using behavioural data to gauge whether travel policies actually suit the needs of an organisation’s frequent travellers! Or to project how expansions into new regions or countries may impact the organisation’s travel costs! There are major opportunities to be had with data-driven travel!

If travel managers rethink their priorities and use travel data to work towards their goals – e.g. savings – they can achieve them while developing new business opportunities, too.

For more information on how data is changing the global travel industry, read our white paper on data-driven travel here.