A Better Understanding

There’s no doubt that travel and expense (T&E) is a big, not to mention complex, cost driver for companies, so it’s not surprising that Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT) has launched a new strategic framework – the T&E Decision Tree – that’s designed to help clients understand and analyze their travel and expense (T&E) spend.

For many companies, T&E spending is a significant expense, so controlling T&E costs is critical to the health of a business. However, the sheer volume of related data makes it challenging to process, manage and interpret.

Catalin Ciobanu, senior director, Data & Analytics, CWT Solutions Group, said: “The T&E Decision Tree takes the different analyses companies are today doing on an ad-hoc basis and brings them together into one single picture. Looking at several categories simultaneously helps travel and finance managers decide what needs to be improved, in which order.”

The T&E Decision Tree simplifies the task by providing an immediate view of the ways a company could reduce spend. It uses algorithms to turn expense and TMC data into patterns based on three simple questions û what, how and why services and products are purchased.

The spend categories are:

• Travel management company (TMC)-booked services, including air, hotel and car.
• Extra expenses, such as air ancillary fees or car rental GPS navigation charges.
• Off-channel reservations not using the TMC.
• Auxiliary spending, such as meals, taxi or parking.
• And non-trip spending, including office supplies or short-range travel using personal cars or in-city transportation.

As well as providing a strategic view of overall T&E spending, the framework is flexible enough to handle new subcategories of spending as required. Once companies have identified the areas that need attention, they can use the T&E Decision Tree to:

• Align T&E spending with business objectives.
• Use the total cost of the trip in making travel decisions.
• Reduce non-trip, auxiliary or extra spending.
• And improve traveler compliance.

For more, go to http://www.carlsonwagonlit.com/cwtsg/publications-and-media-centre/research-and-view-points/20151110-cwt-travel-expense-decision-tree.html .