Webinar to look at how businesses and suppliers are reframing their priorities, processes and procedures.
In an environment in which business travel conditions have changed dramatically in the space of just a few short months, Flight Centre Travel Group has conducted a series of global surveys to better understand the prevailing sentiment and views of its customers. The results of these surveys, and the resulting impact on business will be unpacked in a webinar hosted by CFO South Africa, and brought to you by SAP Concur.
On 22 October 2020, FCM Travel Solutions South Africa general manager Bonnie Smith, SAP Concur regional sales director Angelique Montalto and Uber Sub-Saharan Africa lead operations manager of new models Timothy Kiluba will share their insights into how the nature of business travel has changed.
“Never before have we seen such a wide-reaching global impact on travel and business confidence – and one surrounded by a level of uncertainty that has created more questions, then answers,” Bonnie says.
As many industries are starting efforts to recover, businesses and suppliers are reframing their priorities, processes and procedures.
“The last few months have been an exercise in adaptability for businesses around the world,” says Angelique. “Many of the processes that have undergone changes fall into the category of travel and expense. With most business travel on hold and the nature of expenses changing, finance managers have had to adjust policies and practices to accommodate the new world of work.”
According to the Flight Centre survey, travel and expense is viewed as the number-one cost item that businesses can quickly dial back when the economic climate starts to soften. Since the emergence of Covid-19, the reshaping of business travel programmes has been almost immediate.
The survey asked customers what the most important business drivers are for their future travel program. Duty of care, which includes risk management, traveller health and safety, and traveller tracking has emerged as the top priority in 2021 and well into the future. Travel budgets are ranked second in priority for the future which is a result of reduced business travel budgets and the anticipation of travel costs incrementally rising over the coming years, as suppliers such as airlines and hotels recover losses.
Resuming travel will be different for everyone. In the research conducted over the past months, over 90 percent of businesses plan to travel domestically and short-haul continental/international, within three months of borders opening. However, long-haul international travel is being reassessed, with no strong plans of when business will return.
“Now, as companies begin thinking about returning to work, finance managers are discovering it’s not simply business as usual again,” Angelique says.
In this webinar, Angelique will explore the following questions that can help finance managers prepare for a return to work while keeping control and compliance top of mind:
- What will travel look like for the company?
- Who needs to approve travel expenses?
- What types of expenses are within policy?
- What happens to home office items that were purchased?
- How can cost control be ensured?
