Concur, providers of integrated cloud-based travel and expense management services, recently commissioned a study on the state of ‘travel and expense’ process in Indian organisations. Indian CFOs, Finance Directors and other C-level executives and business owners in companies having over 500 employees with an average turnover of Rs. 500 crores, from Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru and other major Indian cities, were participants in the study.
The survey highlighted that, broadly, companies are dissatisfied with their current travel and expense (T&E) management process; despite all forms of telecommunications, physical travel still prevails and will continue to do so. Companies are looking at eliminating travel but optimising their spends during travel; Automation is catching up in managing the T&E processes; and mobility is yet another trend that CFOs and companies are looking for.
“As per the survey, control, after visibility is the third largest key frustration of Indian CFOs. This, coupled with the fact that T&E is the second largest controllable expense for any organisation, many are increasingly craving for more controls. A whopping 68 per cent CFOs feel that there is a scope to reduce the travel and expense spend,” said Ramesh Iyer, Managing Director, India, Concur Technologies.
According to Iyer, The corporate travel market is set to grow at rate 13.5 per cent year on year as per a GBTA study, which essentially means that travel to and from India will increase in the coming years. “Companies should not look at cutting down travel but optimising the expenses incurred during travel. Automation alone is not the solution to optimising or controlling spends. Creating an in-house system to simply migrate from paper to digital world will not help in controlling expenses. One needs an integrated system and an open approach to be able to benefit from various innovations in the travel eco system,” he suggested.
When asked about the way Indian companies function vis-à-vis international organisations, he opined that most companies in India utilise a complex pre-trip approval processes which is not seen elsewhere. The administration department typically manages this process manually or through fragmented in-house systems that do not offer the much needed visibility. In India, companies tend to cut down the expense itself instead of trying to cut down out-of-policy expenses, he added.
Speaking about adaptation to innovative technology such as cloud computing that have changed the industrial scenario, Iyer stated, “Companies are definitely much more open to using cloud as compared to three years ago. 34 per cent of CFOs today are willing to or open to using cloud for their T&E processes. Although the adoption at this stage is not too high, it is poised to grow as more willingness for adoption is becoming visible.”
