The State of Corporate Travel and Expense 2022 31 SKIFT + TRIPACTIONS strong businesses, both leaders in service innovation, we will offer a new type of travel solution, one that meets the needs of every business, everywhere.” Take, for example, solving for the shift to higher f requency meetings, offsites, and retreats. Presently, as the survey indicates, companies are inefficiently relying on a patchwork of disconnected legacy solutions. Travel platforms have a prime opportunity to fix this mishmash approach with simpler, more seamless solutions. Team Travel, a new cloud-based product introduced by TripActions this summer, helps smaller groups seamlessly book flights and hotels for teams departing f rom different destinations. “This represents a major process improvement and cost-saving driver in the corporate travel world,” explained Govern. Improving transparency and two-way communication, especially where health and safety are concerned, is one new imperative. Responsive solutions include post-trip traveler surveys to allow managers to collect information directly from travelers to analyze flight and hotel experiences. This year’s report tries to understand the biggest pain points with current solutions, and what the new standards of support and service need to be for the future. Remarkably, amid the continuing pandemic-related challenges, many companies are trying to go it alone. When asked about their corporate travel solution, the most popular answer among CTDMs was that their company was “unmanaged.” More revealing still, 22 percent said they have no formal program at all. These are problematic situations, because going the unmanaged route sticks business travelers in the same clogged customer service channels used by consumers. Best-in-class support for business travel, especially during a pandemic, requires a more high- touch, service-oriented approach. As for the technology, user-f riendliness remains the name of the game for corporate travel platforms. Not only does an easily navigable tool improve the in-travel experience, it also encourages platform adoption — especially during a time of more acute travel disruption. This year’s report affirms that ease of use, combined with strong support services, wins the most hearts, with TripActions again resonating highly with business travelers and program managers. Travelers rated TripActions ahead of other solutions for considerations including “easy to use” (81 percent versus 68 percent); “supports me well on a trip” (63 percent versus 57 percent); “makes it easy to change/ cancel plans” (72 percent versus 61 percent); and “quick response times” (81 percent versus 57 percent). CTDMs also gave TripActions the edge over other solutions for the same four uses, albeit by smaller margins. Does your company use any of the following to assist with group travel plans? Business Travelers Third-party online tool Company staff member In-house online tool N/A - we do not have any plans for group travel Offline dedicated service 28% 25% 21% 19% 7%