Get spend visibility with CWT Travel Consolidator
How much does a business trip really cost? It may be a simple question but most travel managers have not been getting satisfactory answers – 64% say they cannot see the total cost of a trip, 73% have difficulty reconciling differences in the reports they receive and 58% think they spend too much time reconciling and cleaning travel data.
Fortunately, the rapid advancement of technology and data analysis is now producing new disruptive solutions to solve this problem for travel managers – creating the kind of visibility they have been seeking for years, potentially with significant savings. Traditional booking data from travel companies only produces a partial view of travel costs, particularly if employees book outside TMC channels.
The new CWT Travel Consolidator consolidates and aggregates data from multiple sources (TMCs, credit card, expense systems, suppliers reporting and HR) into one platform with a single overview of travel spend. “It’s a web solution that provides travel managers with a comprehensive view of how much they spend on travel and expenses,” explains Christophe Renard, Vice President of CWT Solutions Group. By using this tool, Renard estimates clients can make savings of up to 7 % on spending by providing more accurate data about bookings made with a supplier and competitors. This data can then be used as leverage to secure a better deal with suppliers.
The platform presents the trip data through a series of dashboards allowing greater insight into how and where the travel budget is being spent. “It shows the travellers who are booking outside the TMC, and the price difference between booking inside and outside the TMC,” says Renard. Designed to help clients with a mature travel programme and high travel spend, the platform is already used by several global CWT clients. “We’ve had very good feedback so far; they really like the ability to track everything,” he says. “Data is the next frontier which is going to drive the travel programme towards full visibility on spending.”
This article was written by Rob Gill and originally published in Connect Winter 2018.
