Amidst a wave of digital change reshaping the business world, a new pathway to boost efficiency has emerged – the integration of technology. Transforming various corporate services into digital formats is a smart strategy to make operations smoother and improve resource allocation. This is why even in the industry of travel, more and more companies are turning to advanced technology solutions that bring automation and efficiency gains.
In this blog, we’ll uncover the reasons behind the growing preference for modern technology in travel, such as ITILITE, over traditional travel agencies.
1. Cost Efficiency
For businesses aiming to manage their resources well and run efficiently, keeping travel costs in check is really important. Traditional travel agencies often come with a lot of administrative work, such as data entry and paperwork. ITILITE automates these processes, reducing the need for associated labor costs.
Moreover, in the case of traditional agencies, they often apply commission fees or markups on travel bookings. ITILITE operates on a transparent per-trip pricing model, which removes the extra expenses linked with commissions. This approach leads to direct cost savings for the company.
2. Instant Bookings
ITILITE uses modern technology in travel to let employees quickly find and reserve flights, hotels, and other stuff right after their plans are set. This prevents delays caused by waiting for travel agency responses, ensuring that employees can secure the best available options.
Instant booking helps employees change their plans quickly when schedules or business needs shift unexpectedly. If a meeting gets moved or there’s a sudden urgent trip, employees can right away change their travel arrangements using ITILITE. This keeps them from being stuck because of slow processes with a travel agency.
3. Policy Enforcement
Traditional agencies may lack the automated systems to monitor and enforce travel policies effectively. They may manually verify bookings against company policies, which may lead to delays and sometimes a lack of compliance.
ITILITE deploys modern technology in travel management and excels in ensuring 100% compliance with your company’s travel policies. It allows businesses to configure and set up their travel policies within the platform. These policies can cover various aspects of travel, such as preferred airlines and maximum allowable expenses.
The software automatically applies these rules to any travel search, ensuring that employees’ choices adhere to company guidelines. This reduces the need for manual supervision and approval of every individual booking. However, in case an employee tries to make a booking outside the policy, the software flags it and sends it to the approver for review.
4. Customizable Approval Workflows
Traditional travel agencies usually do not have the infrastructure needed to manage complex approval processes. Moreover, they might not provide the degree of personalization needed for a company’s specific travel policies and approval structures.
On the other hand, ITILITE’s best-in-class approval engine takes a different approach with its personalized approval processes, bringing clear benefits. ITILITE lets you create approval steps that fit your company’s needs. You can set up a chain of approvals based on job roles, departments, and seniority. Whenever an employee submits a travel request within the app, the platform automatically sends it to the right approver based on predefined rules.
5. Centralized Management and Accessibility
Traditional agencies do not offer a streamlined way of managing bookings, itineraries, and changes in plans. They may send multiple documents or emails, which makes it tough to get a complete overview of the trip.
On the other hand, ITILITE uses modern technology in travel to compile all data in one place. This allows travel managers to monitor and oversee travel activities at any time. You can review bookings, approve requests, and ensure compliance without being constrained by agency operating hours.
Similarly, even travelers can access their travel itineraries at any time or make bookings whenever they want to. They can see the status of their travel request or any upcoming bookings they may have.
6. Integration with Expense Management
In the traditional travel agency model, expense management requires manual work and data entry. Travelers and finance teams need to enter travel expenses into a separate system. This process can be time-consuming and prone to errors. Further, manual entry hampers real-time visibility into travel spending. This makes it difficult for finance teams to control spending efficiently.
Through modern technology in travel, ITILITE can integrate with third-party software such as an expense management system. When you book a trip using ITILITE, important expense data is sent straight to the expense management system without the need for anyone to type it in. As a result, there are lesser chances of errors.
Integration ensures that travel expenses are instantly captured and available for tracking in real-time. This allows finance teams to access up-to-date expenses, allowing for better financial planning.
7. Analytics and Reporting
Traditional travel agencies mainly focus on helping people book and plan their trips. They might not be equipped to gather and combine travel information from various sources to create a complete set of data. These agencies might even lack the expertise to conduct advanced data analysis to spot trends and patterns.
ITILITE provides you with reports that show a clear picture of how money is spent on travel and let you dig deeper into the details. For example, you can view the number of employees who booked flight tickets at the last minute.
Furthermore, this data is often presented in visually appealing graphs, charts, and dashboards. These visual tools help managers see trends, patterns, and anomalies in spending quickly.
Additionally, ITILITE offers the world’s first virtual travel consultant– Mastermind, that can pinpoint opportunities for cost savings. It might suggest alternative airlines, finding stays that offer more value for money, etc.
8. Traveler Support
Traditional travel agencies operate during regular business hours, which can result in limitations for travelers. If travelers need help outside of these hours, like in the evenings, on weekends, or on holidays, it can be hard to reach the agency. This could cause trouble for travelers who have issues or need help. It might even take longer to fix problems due to support unavailability. Ultimately, this could make travelers frustrated and cause further disruptions.
However, with 24/7 support, travelers can get help no matter where they are or what time it is. This is really important for businesses that work all around the world or have employees who need help with travel stuff when regular work hours are over. Problems with travel, like flights being canceled, delayed, or plans changing, can happen anytime. But round-the-clock support feature ensures that travelers can quickly deal with these issues and keep their travel plans on track.
9. Unused Ticket Management
Our unused ticket management feature helps businesses with a common problem in travel planning. It provides you with a solution to manage and maximize the value of unused flight tickets. This capability stands in stark contrast to traditional travel agencies, which often lack the tools and processes to manage unused tickets.
ITILITE platform maintains a record of all booked and unused flight tickets. This makes it easy to see which tickets can still be used, when they expire, and how much they’re worth.
Our travel management system can automatically send messages to travelers and travel managers to remind them when a ticket is about to expire. This helps make sure that valuable tickets don’t go to waste. Plus, the platform can even suggest how the company can save money by using these tickets for future trips.
10. Re-shopping Feature
Traditional travel agencies don’t usually offer flight re-shopping services. Once a flight is booked, travelers usually miss out on chances to save money if the prices drop.
Our flight re-shopping feature shows the platform’s commitment to delivering cost-effective and traveler-centric solutions. The platform uses modern technology in travel to keep an eye on flight prices, even after you have booked a ticket.
If the price goes down for the booked flight, ITILITE re-books your ticket to the lower-priced one. All this happens automatically without you having to monitor the rates or make bookings. As a result, ITILITE helps you save money on travel easily, which is valuable for keeping travel costs under control.
Optimize Your Travel Program with ITILITE
As we conclude our blog, it’s clear that technology is shaping the future of corporate travel. The efficiency, convenience, and cost-effectiveness offered by innovative corporate travel management solutions have set a new standard that traditional travel agencies find challenging to match.
If you are considering implementing modern technology in your travel program, get a free demo from us to understand its benefits in detail.
