The State of Corporate Travel and Expense 2022 18 SKIFT + TRIPACTIONS “Covid-19 and the shift to remote have significantly broadened def initions and policies for work expenses,” said Govern. “As travel spend on cards has decreased as expected, we have seen an uptick in meals, gym memberships, software, and even cleaning supplies as at-home expenses enter the spend management equation. In fact, non- travel receipts now account for nearly 50 percent of overall spend on our T&E platform, TripActions Liquid TM . When we launched TripActions Liquid, we weren’t necessarily thinking about endless expense possibilities, but in the pandemic, it’s morphed into something much bigger.” For f inancial leaders and executives looking to evolve their spending approach, this post-pandemic shift presents an opportunity to unify all company- related expenses into one easy-to-manage system. This is echoed in the responses f rom this year’s survey, with 64 percent of CTDMs indicating they would be interested in a solution that provides more unification between travel and internal company spending. The advantages of a unified platform are clear — from greater transparency and ease of communication to more streamlined and eff icient business travel planning and management. These unified platforms also provide f inancial leaders with much-needed context, helping to better understand what expenses they may be able to automate versus those that require closer scrutiny. “The foundation of unif ied inf rastructure is fluid interaction between contextual travel and spend data,” explained Govern. “Absent travel context, it’s impossible to automate a spend policy that helps save the company money. Lacking spend context, it’s impossible to instantaneously recognize when a traveler is straying out of policy.” On the back end, a unif ied platform ultimately reduces complexity for program managers. “Instead of separating travel inventory and support (TMC) and booking technology (OBT) — legacy platforms that constantly blame each other for technology gaps — a unified system makes it easier to hold one group accountable,” continued Govern. “In short, you should obviously be able to book, manage, and support travel all in one place online. Expanding that, spend management is the natural other side of the scale.” Once you have the yin and yang in place, it’s possible to add all of the trappings of a boutique operation directly into the platform. “Powerful reporting, traveler incentives, gamification, and other technologies can be built directly into the system all under the same umbrella,” Govern said. “This way, end users don’t need to go to a third-party app store, sign 300 contracts, deploy extra mobile apps, and glue technology into their program.” Count Zennify, a fast-growing technology consulting firm with offices in California and Idaho, among the satisfied customers. “Even before our recent growth as a company, we had been looking for enhanced T&E management tools,” said Zennify co-founder and director of IT Jesse Barker. “The Agree or disagree: “Our company would be in- terested in a travel solution that provides a more unified travel and spend platform, rather than separate solutions.” Strongly agree Somewhat agree Neither agree or disagree Somewhat disagree Strongly disagree Corporate Travel Decision Makers 26% 27% 37% 7% 3%