Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT) has launched a new strategic framework, the T&E Decision Tree, 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 – what, howand 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.
The T&E Decision Tree white paper is available at: http://www.carlsonwagonlit.com/cwtsg/publications-and-media-centre/research-and-view-points/20151110-cwt-travel-expense-decision-tree.html.
