SAP Concur blog provides travel safety guidelines for employees, covering pre-trip planning (extreme weather, cultural differences, civil unrest, documentation), training and support, and safety tips (keeping belongings safe, emergency contacts, transportation, health). It emphasizes employer duty of care.
SAP Concur released its fifth annual Global Business Travel Survey of 700 travel managers across seven markets. The survey shows 47% of travel managers say their role is more stressful than 12 months ago, and 41% cite inflation driving up travel costs. 98% say lagging data and analytics hinder their job, and 98% expect their company to change travel policies in the next year.
The SAP Concur Conversations podcast features Hansini Sharma, who leads the Travel Practice at Acquis Consulting Group, discussing how travel managers can redesign travel programs to meet traveler expectations. Sharma emphasizes the importance of understanding traveler personas and distinguishing trip goals (cost-effectiveness, productivity, or convenience), noting that flexibility and bleisure integration have become key factors in employee retention.
SAP Concur's 2023 Global Business Travel Survey found that 94% of LGBTQ+ business travelers have personally experienced discrimination while traveling for work, and 90% have hidden their sexual orientation on a business trip, citing safety (55%) and privacy (55%) as top reasons. 82% of LGBTQ+ travelers changed accommodations in the past 12 months because they felt unsafe, compared with 53% of all business travelers. 92% of LGBTQ+ travelers feel they have not had equal opportunity to travel for business. The survey was conducted by Wakefield Research between April 7-28, 2023, among 3,850 business travelers in 25 markets.
SAP Concur's fifth annual Global Business Travel Survey polled 3,850 business travelers across 25 markets. Nearly two-thirds (62%) feel they haven't had equal opportunity to travel compared with coworkers, attributing this mainly to age, accent, or gender; in the U.S. the figure rises to 72%. 94% are willing to travel in the next 12 months and 92% say their career depends on successful business travel. Health and safety (44%) remains the biggest threat, and 53% globally changed accommodations in the past 12 months because they felt unsafe, rising to 70% in the U.S. Remote workers report sharper gaps in equal opportunity, travel willingness, and cost pressure.
This SAP Concur blog post highlights a report compiling strategies from travel leaders addressing seven challenges, including NDC readiness, budget constraints, employee care, and remote work impact. Examples come from Alkermes, Standard Chartered, ADTRAV, and SAP. Leaders respond by expanding preferred supplier relationships, partnering with HR to create attractive travel programs, and modifying policies for remote work.
An SAP Concur blog post argues that outdated travel policies cost organizations financially, strategically and culturally. Barb Bammer, a senior solutions consultant at SAP Concur, spoke with Ben Claxton and Jeff Saydah of Fox World Travel and offered five tips: don't delay reassessment and review quarterly or at least annually; set measurable goals and revisit them; align policy with company values; keep employee experience top of mind and involve travelers; and track successes while learning from failures.
An SAP Concur blog post argues that without clearly spelled-out policies, employees cannot know what is reimbursable, so clear and adaptable travel and expense policies are critical. It cites research showing 100% of travel managers expect to change policies in the coming year, 94% of business travelers plan greener travel steps over the next 12 months, 72% of companies say automated T&E improves response to business challenges, and 34% of businesses adopting T&E automation saw fewer reports rejected over receipts. It advises formalizing policies covering flights, lodging, food and entertainment while building in flexibility.
SAP Concur's podcast features Ben Claxton and Jeff Saydah of Fox World Travel discussing how to build a world-class travel program. They note the "set it and forget it" travel policy mentality is outdated; policies should be agile, regularly reviewed, and aligned with company goals and culture. The discussion covers using data to inform policy, measuring program success, and having policies reflect company culture.
SAP Concur's podcast features Oren Geshuri of Deloitte discussing how companies are incorporating duty of care into their culture. Duty of care describes an organization's legal obligation to protect employees from harm, and its scope has expanded to include mental wellness and identity issues such as religion, gender, sexual orientation, and color. The article mentions tools like GeoSure for neighborhood safety ratings and Mobility International for accessibility information, and recommends balancing cost control with employee safety and comfort in travel policies.
SAP Concur's blog notes that changing employee demographics are driving a paradigm shift in business travel, with companies expanding focus to Gen Z. Gen Z is on track to make up roughly 30% of the U.S. workforce by 2030. The article recommends embracing and reexamining technology, moving from a command-and-control model to empowering employees, and offers three ways to future-proof travel programs: think bigger picture, align with your travel community, and go forward with an innovative mindset.
A SAP Concur blog post notes that employee wellness has taken center stage, and duty of care—an organization's legal obligation to protect employees from harm—has become a strategic tool. The article poses six questions to help incorporate duty of care into travel programs: how employees book, where they purchase, when they book, what ground transport they use, how safe the destination is, and how to improve. It emphasizes that increasing booking tool adoption, encouraging corporate card use, booking earlier, increasing rideshare use, reviewing destination risk, and establishing a cross-functional task force can enhance employee safety, satisfaction, and business continuity.
A SAP Concur blog post suggests companies can save on ground transportation costs and improve employee safety by increasing rideshare use. It advises reviewing rideshare expense and insurance policies, checking rideshare configuration in Concur Expense, and analyzing year-over-year rideshare spend percentages. Best practice percentages range from 38% to 87% depending on industry. A formula is provided to estimate potential savings: (taxi median rate – rideshare median rate) × (25% of total taxi transactions). Encouraging rideshare gives employees autonomy, location-sharing ability, and reduces carbon emissions.
In an SAP Concur community AMA recap, Ralph Colunga discussed travel policy and new trends. On New Distribution Capability (NDC), he said Concur offers NDC connections through Travel Fusion to multiple carriers including the Lufthansa Group, United Airlines, and American Airlines, and supports hundreds of low-cost carriers and 42 NDC direct airlines. On sustainability, he noted corporations elevated it to a top-tier focus over the past two years, recommending training so employees understand the impact of individual actions and considering rail instead of flying where available. On supplier direct booking (SDB), he argued the key is not control but transparency, with TripLink feeding direct…
SAP Concur's fourth annual Global Business Traveler Survey of 3,850 business travelers across 25 markets found 94% plan to take steps over the next 12 months to reduce their business travel's environmental impact, including combining trips (40%), prioritizing non-air options (34%), shorter distances (32%), greener hotels (32%), avoiding layovers (31%), and using public transport (31%). 92% want sustainability information in booking tools. Younger travelers place greater emphasis on sustainable travel. SAP Concur partners with Thrust Carbon and CHOOOSE for carbon management, and TripIt offers a carbon footprint feature.
SAP Concur released its fourth annual global business travel survey, covering 3,850 business travelers across 25 markets and 700 travel managers across seven markets. Findings show 61% of travelers say current travel schedules fall short of expectations, and 82% report companies returning to pre-pandemic levels with a 'more travel on fewer shoulders' approach. 91% consider flexible travel options essential for health and safety. Nearly a quarter of travelers not at ideal frequency would seek a new job if schedules don't improve. All surveyed travel managers expect their role to be more challenging in the next 12 months.
A survey commissioned by SAP Concur and conducted by Wakefield Research among 3,850 business travelers across 25 global markets in April-May 2021 reveals that 96% of respondents are willing to travel for business in the next 12 months, with 65% very willing. 92% are motivated by personal reasons such as making connections and experiencing new places. However, 80% worry that without increased travel, their personal and professional lives will suffer, and 18% fear job loss. Flexibility (72%) has surpassed vaccination requirements (62%) as the most pressing need. 89% plan to add personal vacation time to business trips.
At SAP Concur Fusion in Orlando, SAP Concur recognized six 2022 Innovation Award winners: Infineon, IDP Education, NTT DATA Philippines, Ocean Network Express, Dover Corporation and The Walt Disney Company. Their projects span travel-compliance risk engines, invoice capture, faster expense reimbursement, global policy consolidation and single-instance deployment.
At its Fusion Exchange event in Houston, SAP Concur shared a framework for assessing travel and expense policy from the traveler's perspective, covering airfare booking rules, airport experience, lodging booking, expense process, booking process, meals and entertainment, bleisure and culture, and communication, using scores to identify positive and negative traveler experiences.
Citing the Cost Saving Methods for T&E Expenses guide co-created by Concur and Rocketrip, the article explores how to build an efficient, employee-friendly travel program. It notes that tickets booked fewer than seven days before departure cost an average of 44% more than those booked 15 or more days in advance. Requiring trip preapproval would cut last-minute travel spending but create more work for managers; a less drastic option is scheduling recurring reminder emails for employees to book a month ahead. The article argues T&E is one of the largest controllable expenses and also one of the most difficult to manage, because normal price considerations don't apply for reimbursable business…
A SAP Concur blog post notes that even smaller companies cannot ignore travel management. Post-pandemic pent-up demand is significant: a traveler survey shows 95% of travelers at companies with fewer than 1,000 employees are willing to travel again, and 63% are very willing. Traveler attitudes have changed: safety is a top concern, they want the freedom to plan trips flexibly, and over two-thirds want their company to loosen restrictions to allow for flexibility-oriented policies. Additionally, 60% of business travelers expect to make changes that improve travel sustainability and expect their organization to follow suit.
A SAP Concur podcast features TCG Consulting experts discussing three priorities for organizations preparing for financial disruption: spend category management, mobile adoption and new employee spend behaviors. The discussion covers gift card spend auditing, mobile-first strategies, receipt thresholds and travel policy automation.
SAP Concur blog outlines four best practices for higher education institutions returning to travel: 1) Create a cross-campus travel working group including risk management, finance, and academic stakeholders; 2) Consider mandating TMC use for itinerary transparency, supplier discounts, and compliance visibility; 3) Develop new travel approval guidelines including pre-trip approval and COVID-19 risk considerations; 4) Improve back-office efficiency using Concur Invoice to automate invoice processing and eliminate data silos.
The SAP Concur blog outlines planning considerations for procurement and corporate travel executives as business travel resumes after the pandemic. It argues companies must balance employee health and safety, cost control, and supplier financial health, and recommends phased travel resumption, stronger cross-departmental coordination, and updated travel and expense policies. It also references the TAMS industry standards, pre-trip approval trends, and tax and compliance issues triggered by travel.
SAP Concur's 2021 Global Business Traveler and Global Travel Manager reports found that virtually all respondents desired to travel again, with nearly two-thirds 'very willing.' Budgets are expected to rise but not to pre-pandemic levels. More than two in three travelers say they are driving the return to travel, not their companies. Travelers value flexibility (72%), and 68% oppose a return to pre-COVID policies.
The SAP Concur blog notes that many corporate travel and expense policies are too vague or outdated, leading to duplicate claims, questionable spending, and occasional fraud, while burdening finance teams. It recommends policies be concise, easy to find, and cover specific scenarios such as reimbursement requirements, who pays when multiple employees are present, and preferred suppliers and booking methods. It also promotes its expense policy template and builder tool.
SAP Concur cites a Wakefield Research study of businesses under 1,000 employees: 95% of corporate travelers are willing to travel again, with 63% very willing. 81% are concerned about their careers if travel doesn't increase in the next 12 months. Specific concerns include developing and maintaining business connections (40%), signing new deals (35%), building new relationships (33%), and making less money (38%). Travelers want policy and procedural changes that give them flexibility and control to travel in the safest, most sustainable manner.
SAP Concur hosted a sustainable corporate travel roundtable with representatives from BNP Paribas, Facebook, Lufthansa, and EY. A survey of 2,450 travel decision-makers and 2,000 business travelers found 85% felt they had control over arrangements, but 46% lacked information to assess sustainability. 39% said sustainability of their corporate travel had never occurred to them.
The article argues that as business travel rises, cost control requires more than low-cost airfare and rideshare programs; documenting a travel expense policy has a major impact on the bottom line. A policy should cover standard categories such as accommodations, travel, food and entertainment with clear rules, simplifying reporting and approvals, lowering per-trip costs and reducing fraud opportunities. A GBTA Foundation and Sabre study found 59% of respondents say a company's travel policy is an important factor when considering a new employer, and 84% say the quality of their business travel experience affects business results.
A SAP Concur blog post discusses how higher education institutions are adapting to hybrid work models. It cites Future Forum's Remote Employee Experience Index data: 83% of employees across all industries no longer want to work in-person five days a week, and 20% indicated they wanted to work remotely full-time. The article suggests institutions rethink staffing for online and in-person instruction, parking policies, technology tools, and more, while managing campus expectations. It mentions task forces at UCLA, Boston University, and Duke, and automation cases at the University of Alabama and Penn State University. Penn State processes more than 240,000 expense reports a year and saw no ba…
The article emphasizes using internal financial data to drive innovation, using advanced analytics to identify spending patterns and adjust T&E policies. Companies often struggle with fragmented data, and employee-initiated spend is siloed. SAP Concur offers solutions to unify all employee-initiated spend data, helping businesses build reporting strategies for better cost control and strategic decisions.
A SAP Concur blog post examines expense and tax issues arising from post-pandemic remote work. It cites United Airlines predicting the industry will not return to 2019 travel levels until 2024, and an FCM study predicting business travel may remain low until 2023. The author raises potential reimbursement costs such as home internet and office equipment, noting that $65 per month for 10,000 workers adds $650,000 in monthly costs, and for 100,000 workers $6.5 million monthly. The post also discusses tax risks from 'work from anywhere' arrangements and mentions a California utility tax effective November 1, 2020.
A SAP Concur blog post argues that employee travel safety should extend to rideshare and other ground transportation. It cites a global survey: 77% of female travelers experienced harassment or mistreatment, 85% of LGBTQ+ travelers changed travel arrangements due to safety concerns, 54% of travelers say safety is not a top priority in their company's formal travel policy, and 67% say their company lacks technologies that make travel easier. The post recommends consolidating corporate card data with itinerary details, tracking employee locations, providing neighborhood safety information, and encouraging trip sharing when using rideshare.
This SAP Concur article outlines four steps to create a sustainable travel program: analyze, strategize, engage, and measure. In 2019, business travel generated $1.65 trillion in revenue, 2% of global GDP, but the industry accounts for about 5% of global carbon emissions. Recommendations include adopting carbon budgets, choosing greener transport, and using e-receipts. A TripIt survey found 65% of customers find understanding sustainable travel challenging.
A SAP Concur blog post notes that according to a J.P. Morgan study, company travel and expense (T&E) is the second largest expense behind payroll. Travel management companies (TMCs) can help companies optimize travel programs through service, savings, and visibility, including 24/7 support, policy enforcement, unused ticket management, and comprehensive reporting tools.
The article says mileage reimbursement is a common travel and expense line item, and inaccurate or inefficient handling leads to overspending, employee frustration and compliance issues. SAP Concur's Concur Drive uses GPS to automatically log trips, calculate mileage and apply preset reimbursement rates. It offers three best practices: update policies, keep it accurate and make it mobile. Automated mileage tracking can save up to 21 hours per employee per year, and mobile mileage tracking tools can cut personal mileage expenses by 20%-30%.
A SAP Concur survey shows 76% of U.S. travel managers say their company has updated travel guidelines or policies in the past 12 months to focus more on sustainability. 89% of business travelers consider sustainability important to their company, and 88% are willing to take steps to reduce their environmental impact, including taking fewer but longer trips (40%), staying in a greener hotel (40%), using public transportation (33%), and more. Gen Z and millennials are especially willing. SAP Concur has partnered with Thrust Carbon to help companies calculate travel emissions and set carbon budgets.
A SAP Concur blog post discusses the impact of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) on business meal and entertainment expense deductions. It notes that meals and entertainment is one of the top 10 expense categories, contributing up to 22% of a company's total travel budget. Entertainment expenses are deductible only if they pass the Directly Related or Associated test, and expenses at certain venues (such as nightclubs, theaters, sporting events) are not deductible. The post also mentions that up to $2,000 per year of cruise ship convention expenses can be deducted, subject to five detailed requirements.
A SAP Concur blog post shares insights from the ProcureCon Travel Conference: 36% of hiring managers report candidates asking for a copy of the company travel policy; 75% of business travelers took a bleisure trip last year, but many travel managers do not address it in policy; 79% of travelers prefer ride-sharing, and while home-sharing carries risks like key/access processes, some companies are taking baby steps.
A SAP Concur blog post summarizes a July 16 webinar with the CDC and customers. Matthew Dahm, PhD, MPH, Research Industrial Hygienist at the CDC, outlined three basic pandemic safety tenets: wear a cloth face mask in public, maintain social distancing of at least 6 feet, and have guidelines for when 6 feet cannot be maintained. Among finance, travel, HR, risk, and security professionals from Fortune 500 companies, 39% have already updated their plans, 27% are in the process, and 18% are planning to do so; only 6% are not updating policies. 50% of companies are evaluating employee spend before it happens with a pre-spend process, more than 90% are considering a pre-trip approval process, and…