You can centralize and automate business travel booking by implementing a corporate booking tool. The special-purpose software will enable your employees to book their choice of accommodations, flights, car rentals, and other business travel products.
Also, it will control business travel costs by helping them get corporate flight discounts and corporate hotel rates. But you must remember that employees often increase the average business trip costs by violating travel and expense (T&E) policies set by you.
Likewise, they sacrifice their safety and security by booking the wrong business travel products. Hence, your company or startup can make the most of the corporate booking tool when it ensures policy compliance and enhances business traveler security.
You can accomplish these goals by using a set of tactics while configuring or customizing the corporate booking software. Here are some tactics that will help you ensure policy compliance and enhance security while using the corporate booking tool (CBT).
5 Tactics to Ensure Policy Compliance When Using a Corporate Booking Tool
1. Configure Granular Travel Policies
The CBT allows you to configure custom T&E policies at the time of implementation. You can leverage the feature to implement organizational policies fully. But you can enhance policy compliance by implementing granular T&E policies for employees, departments, and business travel destinations.
The granular policies will make it easier for the software to show and recommend in-policy travel products to each employee. Also, employees can compare multiple travel products without violating organizational policies.
2. Keep T&E Policy Accessible
In addition to configuring granular T&E policies, you must enable employees to access the organizational policies seamlessly. It is always advisable to enable them to access policies using the CBT. The CBT will display relevant business travel booking rules and guidelines to each employee on demand.
3. Consider Pre-Trip Approvals
Employees often cancel bookings and reservations when they book business trips due to a lack of travel authorizations from relevant authorities. The cancellation charges and fees escalate your recurring overheads despite the employee not traveling for work.
You can avoid extra costs by making pre-trip approval mandatory for employees. An employee can start business travel booking only after his business travel request is approved by the designated authority. The CBT will enable the employees to book business travel products only when the necessary authorization or approval is in place.
4. Define Approved Suppliers
The CBT will enable your employees to access a destination-specific travel inventory. Hence, employees will have the option to choose from many airlines, hotels, hotel chains, and car rental companies. But they can save money on business travel booking only by opting for an airline that offers corporate flight discounts or a hotel that offers corporate hotel rates.
Hence, you can get corporate flight discounts or corporate hotel rates only when the employee chooses the right supplier. The CBT allows you to show a list of approved vendors to each employee. Hence, you can control costs by making employees choose approved vendors or suppliers at the time of business travel booking.
5. Receive Policy Violation Alerts
The CBT enables you to ensure T&E policy compliance by providing features and options. But you must remember that employees these days violate organizational policies in a variety of ways. Hence, you need to track T&E policy violations committed by employees proactively.
The CBT helps you track policy violations by sending real-time alerts. It sends automated alerts each time any policy violation is detected. You can enable these alerts to track and prevent policy violations by taking the appropriate action.
5 Tactics to Enhance Security When Using a Corporate Booking Tool
1. Increase Travel Choices
The CBT enables employees to compare and book business travel products according to your T&E policies. But your employees can enhance safety and security during business trips only when they make safer travel choices.
In addition to increasing travel choices, the CBT must help your employees compare business travel products using multiple parameters, including safety and security. You need to ensure that the software displays airline safety ratings and explains the safety and security measures implemented by a hotel.
2. Recommend Safer Travel Products
Many business travelers these days book business travel products recommended by the CBT. The CBT shortlists and recommends business travel products to an employee based on his booking history and travel choices.
You can enhance the safety and security of employees when the CBT recommends safer travel products and solutions to employees. Hence, you should ask the provider to make the software focus on safety and security while making personalized recommendations.
3. Safeguard Sensitive Information
Your employees have to share their personal and financial information while booking business travel. The sensitive information can be misused by cybercriminals for identity theft and financial fraud purposes.
You must protect employees’ sensitive information by implementing a CBT that stores and shares information in an encrypted format. Also, you must check if the provider optimized data security using firewalls.
4. Enable Two-Factor Authentication
You can enhance data security by eliminating the chances of unauthorized access to the CBT. In addition to imposing access restrictions, you must ask employees to use strong passwords. At the same time, you should enable two-factor authentication to add an extra layer of security to the business travel booking process. The two-factor authentication will make an employee access and use the CBT using the unique code sent to his mobile device.
5. Update the Software Regularly
Cybercriminals these days execute identity thefts and malware attacks using cutting-edge technologies. Software companies boost the safety and security of their software offerings by releasing security patches regularly.
You can protect the sensitive data of your employees and business only by installing security updates early and regularly. You must update the CBT frequently to combat the latest security threats.
Conclusion
The right corporate booking tool will help you ensure T&E policy compliance. Also, it will make it easier for you to protect business travelers and data. But you can leverage these benefits only by customizing or configuring the software properly. You can use these tactics while implementing the corporate booking solution to increase the ROI of business travel.
