SaaS Business Travel Solutions: The New Age Of Digital Transformation

Software as a Service (SaaS) is a term that has become increasingly popular amongst many industries.  It is a cloud-based software delivery model in which a provider hosts and maintains software applications for customers to access over the internet from anywhere at any time. Hence, it is no surprise that the market size of SaaS is expected to grow to USD 716.52 billion by 2028. 

Similarly, SaaS has also found its way into the business travel industry because of its numerous benefits. With SaaS, companies can now streamline their booking process, saving time and money while ensuring a good travel experience for their employees. 

Let’s look at how SaaS business travel solutions can help you optimize the business travel management process:

1. Access From Anywhere

When employees go on a business trip, they may need to access important documents, make bookings or make changes to the travel itinerary while on the go. However, in cases where the employee forgets the laptop in his hotel room, he cannot access the documents or data in any way. This can cause delays in their business operations. Moreover, business travelers must contact travel managers to make the necessary changes if their laptop gets stolen or lost, which can cause delay in their business activities. 

SaaS-based business travel solutions provide multi-device access so that employees can make travel bookings, manage itineraries, or even file expenses from any device (mobiles, laptops, tablets, etc.) through the Internet. 

Moreover, with a SaaS solution, users can access data from anywhere at any time. For instance, if a manager needs to approve any trip, he or she can do so while on vacation. They only need a device (such as a phone or a tablet), a web browser, and a secure internet connection. 

2. Cost-Effective

To manage business travel, most companies invest in in-house software tools. Such tools require regular maintenance and upgradation, which leads to increased costs. Moreover, the in-house software tool requires investment in hardware setup. 

SaaS-based business travel solutions can eliminate the operational costs of software setup, upgrade, and support. 

Here, the provider is responsible for maintaining the software and infrastructure. Hence, businesses don’t need to hire dedicated IT staff or purchase expensive hardware to maintain the solution. 

3. Enhanced Data Security

In the business travel industry, data security is paramount. Business travel data includes sensitive information such as employees’ PII (Personally Identifiable Information), credit and debit card details, and company data. 

When using traditional software, critical business documents and company information can be prone to security issues. For instance, if the laptop has a low level of security and gets stolen or lost during a business trip, data can be easily compromised. Loss of business data can impact your company’s financial health. 

You can protect your employee and company data with the help of a cloud-based SaaS business travel solution. The cloud-based solutions safeguard all the data with a secure infrastructure and data encryption. 

The SaaS-based solution can also help you set up multi-factor authentication. With this, you can get an extra layer of security with a one-time password or touch ID. Therefore, you are immediately alerted even if someone tries to access the data. Hence, there is no chance of any data breach.

4. On-demand Scalability

The business travel industry is constantly growing. Therefore, with the growth of your organization, the number of business travelers will also increase. If you don’t have a flexible system to handle the increased employee data, travel bookings, and expense filing, the business travel process can become unmanageable. Hence, you need a travel management system that grows with your organization. 

A SaaS-based business travel management software comes with scalability on demand. Therefore, you can add multiple users, store all the employee data and manage the increased bookings and expense filings. You can also adjust your requirements to the number of people who can use the system, the volume of data, and the functionality required as and when your business grows. 

5. Seamless Data Flow

The business travel management process in any organization requires the sharing of data between different departments, be it the travel manager, accounting, or HR. For instance, all the new employee details need to be updated to the travel management tool manually from the HRMS system. 

SaaS-based business travel solutions offer multiple third-party integrations. You can easily integrate it with all applications which require travel and expense data, such as accounting software, HRMS, etc., ensuring seamless data flow across all departments. Here, all the departments can access both T&E under one roof. Moreover, it is a relief to the finance team as it eliminates any manual errors and helps them be audit ready.

6. Guaranteed Data Recovery

Losing business travel data can be a terrifying experience as it directly impacts your company’s bottom line. According to a report, human errors account for approximately 50% of data loss incidents. Data loss can cause business-threatening downtime, potentially disrupting your business operations. 

Let us consider the below two scenarios:

1. An employee is on a business trip, and his laptop is stolen or lost. And the laptop is the only source where essential business data is available.
2. While working on a critical task, an employee inadvertently deleted essential business travel-related information. 

In any of the above-mentioned cases, if the data in the laptop or the tool is not backed up, then there is no way you can retrieve or restore the lost data. Hence, the traditional method of storing data is not very reliable. 

The data backup process occurs regularly (mostly daily) when you use SaaS-based travel software. The SaaS vendors create multiple copies of the data in the cloud, which are stored in different locations or servers. This helps protect them against data theft, corruption, or malicious attacks. 

Moreover, these backups are automatic that don’t require any manual intervention. The software is designed in such a way that it helps minimize downtime and data loss. 

7. Personalization 

Gone are the days when employees had to compromise on their food, stay and travel. With the growth of the business travel industry, employees now demand personalization. Employees no longer want to abide by travel policies that do not meet their expectations. They want to stay in hotels, travel on flights, and have meals per their preferences.

An AI-powered SaaS software such as travel management software lets employees get personalized recommendations based on their past trips, their preferences, and the company’s travel policy. It analyzes their booking history and offers personalized options. This allows employees to view hotels and flights that match their budget and taste without compromising due to travel policy. 

Invest In The Right SaaS-Based Business Travel Solutions

There is no doubt that SaaS is now emerging as one of the most valuable solutions. It helps travelers, travel managers, and companies make business travel management much easier. With SaaS-based business travel solutions, you can streamline your travel management process, which helps you save time and money. 

ITILITE is a SaaS-based software that enables you to plan your business travel seamlessly. It helps you reduce travel costs, improve scalability, provide personalized options, help you recover data, allow third-party integration, and many more. We also offer robust data security certifications in Level 1 PCI DSS, SOC2, ISO 27001:2013, and many more. 

To know more about our features, try ITILITE for free now.