The Benefits of Outsourcing a Travel Manager to Concertiv
Managing escalating travel expenses is a significant challenge for a growing financial firm. To address this, firms often hire an internal travel manager to oversee bookings, secure preferred rates, and organize back-office operations. This professional is expected to streamline travel processes, implement cost-saving strategies, and ensure duty of care.
However, travel managers alone often face limitations in fully supporting the diverse needs of a growing business. While they bring valuable skills in creating travel policies and managing logistics, the complexity and scale of travel management frequently exceed what a single individual can handle effectively. This is where a Travel Management Company (TMC) and Concertiv partnership becomes crucial.
How a Travel Manager Can Help
- Negotiate Group Discounts: Secure volume discounts based on your travel volume.
- Rate Code Management: Work with the TMC to load, audit, and preference rate codes to maximize contract usage and drive savings.
- Airline Contracts: Procure and manage airline contracts, small business programs, and prepaid fund accounts.
- Travel Policy Creation: Develop a travel policy to drive compliance and influence travel behaviors.
- TMC Recommendations: Suggest TMCs based on traveler experience, technology, inventory access, and disruption support.
- TMC Relationship Management: Ensure discounted contracts and preferred partners are utilized, maintain appropriate fees, and enforce SLAs.
- Escalation Support: Handle cancellation penalties, issues, and other escalations.
- Expert Travel Advice: Provide recommendations for hotels, airlines, car services, and VIP experiences.
- Technology Support: Recommend and support online booking tools, expense platforms, and travel technology.
- Data Analysis: Collect and analyze travel data, providing expert spend analysis and identifying lost savings.
- Event Management: Plan and manage off-site meetings, internship programs, and corporate housing.
The Challenges of Hiring an Internal Travel Manager
Limited Experience: While you might find a travel manager with extensive experience, this individual's knowledge is limited compared to a team that brings diverse expertise from various industries. Regardless of their years in the field, a single travel manager cannot match the comprehensive insights and strategies a seasoned team offers.
Constrained Network: Efficient travel management and cost-saving require a robust network for negotiation and leveraging power. An individual travel manager may struggle to cultivate such a network, especially within a smaller company. This limits their ability to secure better rates and engage in effective cost-avoidance strategies, as they do not have the bandwidth or connections to negotiate broadly or deeply.
Insufficient Buying Power: A travel manager often depends heavily on their Travel Management Company (TMC) to secure favorable rates. Unfortunately, a mid-sized firm lacks the negotiating clout that larger companies or group-purchasing organizations wield. This dependency significantly diminishes their leverage, restricting their ability to achieve cost savings and secure optimal travel arrangements for employees.
The Benefits of Outsourcing Your Travel Management to Concertiv
For firms with less than $5m in travel expenses, it may not be feasible or desirable to take up valuable resource allocation to hire a dedicated travel manager, especially as volume-based discounts are becoming more difficult to qualify for. Consider outsourcing to procurement experts like Concertiv for an even more efficient solution with automatic access to pre-negotiated corporate rates. We take on the duties of a travel manager and offer additional services that help your firm save time and money.
Why Choose Concertiv?
- Volume-Based Discounted Rates: Access pre-negotiated, volume-based discounts and amenities for all our customers that are fully integrated into your TMC booking experience.
- Exceptional Buying Power: Leverage our combined $250 million+ annual travel spend to achieve better rates than any individual client could.
- Specialized Industry and Supplier Knowledge: Concertiv’s expertise extends across all travel sectors, including hotels, airlines, and ground transportation. Our specialized industry knowledge ensures that you are getting the best options available, tailored to your specific needs.
- The Power of Our Network: Concertiv’s network of 75+ clients empowers group purchasing power, peer benchmarks, and community insights that are otherwise unavailable to the mid-market.
By partnering with Concertiv, you can ensure your firm saves money and optimize its travel management processes. Our expertise, buying power, and network make us the ideal choice for managing your travel needs efficiently and effectively.
Interested in learning more about procurement-as-a-service for your firm?
Learn how leading firms are partnering with Concertiv to reduce spend, minimize risk, and save time across key spend categories.
