Travel Management Platform Selection Guide for Growing Companies

For a growing company, there comes a point where an "unmanaged" travel program—a chaotic mix of employees booking on consumer websites and submitting paper receipts—becomes unsustainable. The lack of control, the administrative burden, and the financial leakage become too significant to ignore. At this critical juncture, selecting and implementing a travel management platform is one of the most important strategic decisions a company can make.

The right platform can transform your travel program from a reactive cost center into a strategic asset, delivering significant ROI through cost savings, productivity gains, and enhanced employee safety. However, the market is crowded with options, from legacy Travel Management Companies (TMCs) to modern, tech-first platforms. For a growing company, it's crucial to choose a partner that is not only powerful but also agile, user-friendly, and able to scale with your business.

This guide provides a comprehensive selection framework, outlining the key criteria and questions you should use to evaluate and choose the best travel management platform for your growing company.

Phase 1: Defining Your Needs and Building the Business Case

Before you look at any vendors, you need to understand your own needs and build the case for investment.

1. Analyze Your Current State:

• Data Gathering: How much are you currently spending on travel? If you don't have a system, this will be an estimate based on expense reports and credit card statements.
• Identify Pain Points: Survey your key stakeholders. What are the biggest frustrations for your travelers, your admins, and your finance team? Is it the slow reimbursement process? The lack of clear spending rules? The time wasted on booking?
• Set Clear Goals: What do you want to achieve with a new platform? Your goals should be specific and measurable (e.g., "Reduce our average ticket price by 15%," "Cut the time spent on expense processing by 50%").

2. Build the ROI Business Case: Use your goals to build a business case for the investment. A modern travel management program delivers ROI in two key areas:

• Hard Savings: These are direct cost reductions from features like automated advance booking enforcement, unused ticket credit recovery, and negotiated supplier rates.
• Soft Savings (Efficiency Gains): Calculate the value of the time saved by automating manual tasks like booking and expense reporting. This is a powerful part of the ROI story. Our guide to calculating ROI provides a detailed framework.

Phase 2: Evaluating Potential Platforms

Once you have your goals and business case, you can start evaluating potential partners. Look beyond the sales pitch and focus on these core functional areas.

1. The Technology Platform: Is it Modern and Integrated? This is the most critical evaluation point. You are choosing a technology partner.

• All-in-One vs. Piecemeal: Does the platform offer a truly unified experience for travel, expense, and payment in a single interface, or is it a collection of separate, loosely integrated tools? An all-in-one platform like Routespring is almost always more efficient.
• User Experience (UX): Is the booking tool as intuitive and easy to use as a consumer travel site? A clunky UX will lead to low employee adoption, which is the #1 reason travel programs fail. Ask for a free trial or a sandbox environment to test the platform yourself.
• Mobile App: Is the mobile app fully functional? Can a traveler book a trip, manage their itinerary, and submit expenses easily from their phone?

2. Policy and Control Features: Is it Flexible and Powerful? The platform's ability to automate your policy is key to controlling costs.

• Customizable Policies: Can you create different policies for different groups of employees?
• Dynamic Approvals: Can you build multi-level approval workflows that are triggered by cost, policy exceptions, or destination risk?
• Hotel Policy Controls: Can the platform support dynamic hotel rate caps (which are far more effective than static caps)?

3. Inventory and Content: Do They Have What Your Travelers Need? A booking tool is useless if it doesn't have a good selection of travel options.

• Air Content: Does the platform have access to a wide range of airlines, including low-cost carriers? Crucially, does it have a strategy for NDC (New Distribution Capability) to ensure access to the best airline fares?
• Hotel Content: Does it offer a vast selection of hotels and lodging options globally?

4. Service and Support Model: Who Helps When Things Go Wrong? Technology is essential, but human support is critical, especially during disruptions.

• 24/7 Expert Support: Does the provider offer around-the-clock support from experienced, professional travel agents, not just a generic call center?
• Proactive Support: Do they have technology to monitor for travel disruptions and proactively rebook your travelers? This is a key differentiator of a modern TMC.
• Dedicated Account Management: Will you have a dedicated account manager who will act as a strategic partner to help you optimize your program over time?

5. Pricing and Commercial Model: Is it Transparent and Scalable? For a growing company, a predictable and flexible pricing model is essential.

• Transparent Pricing: Are the fees clear and easy to understand? Be wary of complex models with lots of hidden fees for support or implementation.
• Scalability: Does the pricing model scale with your business? Look for a provider that offers affordable or even free entry-level plans, allowing you to get started without a massive upfront commitment. A platform like Routespring, with its clear, tiered pricing, is ideal for growing companies.

Phase 3: Implementation and Change Management

Choosing the platform is only half the battle. A successful implementation is key.

• Implementation Support: What level of support does the provider offer during the implementation process? Do they provide a dedicated specialist to guide you through setup and training? A smooth onboarding experience is critical.
• Change Management: Don't just "launch" the new tool; manage the change. Communicate the "why" behind the new program and highlight the benefits for employees (e.g., faster booking, no more out-of-pocket expenses). Provide clear training and lead by example.

Selecting a travel management platform is a major decision that will impact your company for years to come. By taking a strategic, criteria-driven approach, you can cut through the marketing noise and find a true partner who can provide the technology, support, and strategic guidance your growing company needs to succeed.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. What's the biggest mistake companies make when selecting a travel management platform? The biggest mistake is focusing too much on the booking fee or the per-trip cost and not enough on the user experience and the platform's ability to automate savings. A platform that is cheap but hard to use will result in low adoption and "rogue" spending, making it far more expensive in the long run.

2. How important is the mobile app? It is critically important. Business travel is, by its nature, mobile. Your travelers will be managing their trips from airports, hotels, and taxis. A clunky or limited mobile app will create a huge amount of friction and lead to a poor traveler experience.

3. What is the difference between a modern travel platform and a traditional TMC? Traditional TMCs are service-first organizations that often use outdated, third-party technology. Modern platforms are technology-first companies that have built their own integrated software stack, providing a more seamless and automated experience. We explain this in detail in our guide on why companies are switching from traditional TMCs.

4. How long should the implementation process take? For a modern, cloud-based platform, the implementation for a small or medium-sized business should be a matter of weeks, not months. If a vendor is quoting you a 6-month implementation timeline, it is a major red flag that their technology is likely complex and outdated.

5. Should we choose an all-in-one platform or separate "best-of-breed" tools for travel and expense? For most growing companies, an all-in-one platform that unifies travel and expense is far more efficient. The seamless data flow between booking and expensing eliminates a huge amount of manual work. While integrating separate best-of-breed tools is possible, it is often more complex and results in a less streamlined user experience.