Navigating industry benchmarking for your T&E Team

Industry Benchmarking with PredictX

PredictX benchmarking allows for unparalleled insight into the gaps within your air sourcing program. By utilising anonymised travel data from similar sized companies, PredictX levels the playing field between the corporate and carrier, granting prized information as to the discount you should be receiving across every route, carrier, class, haul type, and more.

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Why is industry benchmarking important?

By benchmarking your corporate travel program, you can make data-driven decisions that enhance the efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and overall performance of your travel operation
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Metrics Comparison

Specific metrics such as spend per trip, compliance rates, average ticket prices, or traveler satisfaction scores are compared to those of businesses that are most like yours, ensuring a relevant comparison
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Identifying Best Practices

By understanding what similar companies are achieving, you can identify best practices and strategies that could be applied to your own travel program
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Performance Evaluation

Benchmarking allows you to evaluate your travel program's performance against a meaningful standard, rather than in isolation
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Goal Setting

Insights gained from benchmarking can inform the setting of realistic and competitive goals for your travel program
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Strategic Planning

It helps in strategic planning by providing a clear picture of where your company stands in the market and where there is potential for cost savings or policy enhancements.

What are the challenges in conducting benchmarking?

Benchmarking in corporate travel is clearly useful, but there are several challenges that anyone wishing to build this capability need to navigate:

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Data Consistency and Quality:

One of the primary challenges is ensuring that the data used for benchmarking is consistent and of high quality. Different organizations may categorize expenses differently, use various booking tools, or have different policy exceptions, which can make direct comparisons difficult. PredictX has over a decade’s experience in managing data quality issues.
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Access to Comparable Data:

Finding accurate and relevant data from similar organizations can be challenging. Companies are often reluctant to share detailed travel data, and even when they do, ensuring that it is directly comparable to your own data requires careful alignment.
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Changing Industry Standard:

The travel industry is dynamic, with frequent changes in pricing, supplier offerings, and technology. These changes can quickly make benchmark data outdated, requiring continuous updates to maintain relevance.
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Complexity of Travel Programs:

Each organization's travel program is unique, with its own set of policies, preferred suppliers, and negotiated rates. This complexity can make it hard to find an 'apples-to-apples' comparison for benchmarking purposes
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Integration of Different Data Sources:

Consolidating data from various sources such as bookings, card payments, and expense systems to create a comprehensive view of travel spend can be technically challenging.

More detail on how PredictX helps you do it better.

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PredictX assists its customers in achieving benchmarking through a combination of advanced data analytics and machine learning models. Here's how PredictX addresses the issues provided above:

PredictX ensures that the data used for benchmarking is of high quality by validating each batch of source data for completeness, accuracy, and logic. The platform can automatically correct and reformat data, such as adding missing alliance names or correcting class codes, which is crucial for accurate benchmarking. 

PredictX has also developed an intricate multidimensional model that allows the right comparator basket to be used for each market in your program. This ensures that you are only comparing to fair comparators.

Finally, the platform provides deep insights into travel spend and behavior, enabling customers to identify areas where they can improve sourcing activities. By considering total expenditure from suppliers across all TMCs, payments and other sources, customers can realize significant savings and enhance program compliance.

In summary, Corporate Card Optimization is a key component of effective travel and expense management, enabling better control over spending, improving compliance, and contributing to the overall financial health of the organization.

FAQs

Explore some of the frequently asked questions about industry benchmarking

What is benchmarking in corporate travel?

Benchmarking in corporate travel is the process of comparing your travel program's performance metrics against those of similar organizations to identify areas of strength and opportunities for improvement.

Why is benchmarking important for corporate travel programs?

Benchmarking is crucial as it helps you understand how your travel program stacks up against the competition, identifies best practices, and informs strategic decisions to enhance your program's efficiency and effectiveness.

How does PredictX support benchmarking in corporate travel?

PredictX provides specific metrics for benchmarking, allowing you to compare your travel program with others that are most similar to yours. This comparison is tailored to the specific metric being analyzed, ensuring relevant and actionable insights.

How can PredictX help in achieving corporate sustainability goals?

PredictX can play a pivotal role in helping corporations reduce their carbon footprint by providing analytics on travel-related CO2 emissions. It also offers Air vs Rail analytics to identify more sustainable travel options.

What kind of metrics can be benchmarked with PredictX?

PredictX calculates over 350 individual KPIs, including classic travel-type KPIs such as advance booking, lowest fare, restricted ticket, and leakage, as well as new KPIs enabled by the combined dataset that were previously difficult to measure.

What outcomes can I expect from benchmarking with PredictX?

Customers have achieved improved sourcing activities, customized policy design, and enhanced comprehension of sustainability goals. Savings in excess of $3 million have been reported as a result of better sourcing and program compliance.

Ready to unlock the potential of your travel data ?