SMEs spend more than 81 million hours booking and managing company travel each year, and we say it’s high time for revolution.
Research undertaken by TNS Research confirmed that of the one million SMEs in NZ and Australia, 46% travel regularly for work. These businesses book an average of 30 trips per year, with approximately six hours being spent on booking and managing each trip.
The research highlights that there are two main booking methods used by SME’s today. Approximately 33% of SMES regularly book via a travel agent, which carries a premium charge, and 66% book directly on supplier or aggregator websites, which tends to be a time consuming and inefficient process, particularly when you consider that between 25% and 40% of business trips change at least once.
With this in mind, it’s obvious why over a third of businesses believe that their booking processes need to be improved.
Unlike corporates, small businesses don’t have access to purpose-built travel-management systems, so they have no option but to either pay a premium for travel agent bookings or internalise the time and administration associated with making bookings directly on supplier sites.
For a large portion of SMEs travel is a flawed business process. They can’t get access to the right technology due to the costs, or the types of deals that allow them to compete with their bigger counterparts on a level playing field. At Serko we think that is wrong, and we’re doing something about it.
To be released later in July with accounting partner, Xero, serko.travel will give small businesses with up to 150 employees access to the same desktop and mobile technology utilised today by major corporates across Australia and New Zealand.
Not only will it give small businesses the ability to compare prices on air fares and hotels from all of the major supply sources like Expedia and Booking.com – ensuring that every booking delivers on value – but will also save them hours of administration and make it easier for them to meet their legal duty of care obligations.
The app will be free to use, offer mobile access to travellers, and provide a desktop portal for office managers who need to book and manage company travel on behalf of other people. In the background serko.travel will offer travellers access to expert email/telephone support from a number of leading travel agencies.
It will also integrate directly with Xero’s online accounting software to improve travel spend reconciliation.
Darrin Grafton, CEO, Serko
