Stewart Harvey: “What’s important is what you do with your data”.
HRG said one client with operations in 90 countries has more than 4,000 cost-centre owners, many of whom do not have a lot of experience with travel data.
The Hogg Robinson Group (HRG) predicts that 2015 is going to be about clients demanding more from their commercial agreements with TMCs and improving their travel risk management procedures.
Stewart Harvey, group commercial director HRG, said the macro economic situation remains largely unchanged and clients would seek to extract more from their spend without reducing the quality of their service.
HRG believes clients will focus on greater integration across their travel programmes in 2015, while smarter data analysis would lead to increased understanding of traveller behaviour, driving policy change and delivering wider visibility of travel spend.
“Clients are using their travel data in ways we could never have imagined three years ago. What used to be the realm of the data analyst can now by understood by anyone who can use a mouse and keyboard," Harvey said.
“We see this clearly in the way clients are using and shaping the development of HRG Insight, our mapping and reporting tool. Insight was initially designed with data specialists in mind, providing them the opportunity to pore over all types of travel data.
"However, feedback from clients revealed that they wanted to use this data in a meaningful way by placing it in the hands of their travel managers. Therefore we improved the relevance of the data through areas such as additional reporting functionality.”
HRG said one client with operations in 90 countries has more than 4,000 cost-centre owners, many of whom do not have a lot of experience with travel data.
The improved reporting from HRG Insight means HRG is able to supply these cost-centre owners with ready to use data ranging from year-on-year spend comparisons right through to individual traveller behaviour when booking travel.
“By providing smart, relevant and timely data, we are able to help clients increase visibility over their travel spend at a cost-centre level, drive policy compliance by focusing on traveller behaviour and benchmarking performance to deliver future cost savings,” Harvey said.
Travel risk management procedures would also be high on the agenda in 2015, Harvey said.
"Geo-political instability and weather related incidents are becoming more frequent; both represent greater risk to travellers. Clients have a legal requirement to ensure the safety and well being of their workforce. Improving travel risk management programmes is a growing requirement that we expect to see continue into 2015," he said.
“It is business critical for clients to develop a travel risk management policy that has the mechanisms in place to respond to a crisis. By developing and implementing an integrated travel risk management strategy that is clearly communicated across their organisation, clients can mitigate their vulnerability across four areas: corporate reputation, financial risk, duty of care and legal obligations.” Harvey said.
HRG believes that while single sourcing of travel technology and services is not always achievable, clients are looking to stitch together their technology to deliver a common and consistent programme in order to deliver compliance, control and cost savings.
“In itself this isn’t anything new," Harvey added. “What is exciting now, is how we are working with our clients to achieve them.
"One example of this can be seen across our Energy and Marine client base. Due to the unique requirements of operating in the most challenging of situations, clients in this sector have historically developed their own internal technology, such as contractor databases.
“They need the right contractors, at the right place, at the right time. And crucially with the right documentation. Travel is essential to their operational success and by integrating this standalone technology with their existing external reporting, booking and expense management tools, clients can reduce costly delays and ensure a common and consistent approach across their travel programme.”
HRG says consolidation has been a key feature of clients’ travel programmes in recent years and is essential for improved benchmarking and supplier negotiations, data management, traveller tracking and controlling costs.
As clients integrate additional markets, air and hotel expenditure and expense management data into their travel programmes, they are gaining increased visibility over their total travel spend, Harvey said.
“Having additional data is great. But what is important is what you do with it. Increased visibility of travel spend allows you to identify opportunities for the future. This may mean improved negotiations with suppliers, making more informed decisions over where to hold meetings or driving traveller behaviour.
“With the additional data, HRG’s team of data analysts can conduct more trending analysis. We are looking more and more at who is booking travel, when they are booking and whom they are booking for.
"By applying a “what if” analysis, our data analysts can make recommendations across a client's travel programme, identifying opportunities to make further commercial savings and make better use of travel budgets,” Harvey added.