How to scale your corporate travel solution while meeting employee needs

Part of being a successful travel manager or finance leader is being flexible and growing as your role does. The same should be true of your corporate travel solution as your organization expands and navigates new challenges.

Many organizations feel limited by their technology. 53% of travel and expense (T&E) decision-makers say the inability to scale and adapt T&E solutions has had major business consequences. It’s also why 78% want a single platform to handle both travel and expense.¹

A corporate travel solution should work everywhere you work—and everywhere you plan to grow. As you evolve your business travel solutions and corporate travel program, one of the most reliable ways to improve outcomes is to listen to employees. As end users, travelers have direct feedback on flexibility, solutions, safety, and more.

To transform your organization’s travel and tools, this article explores how to:

• Prepare your business and travel program to grow by assessing processes and solutions and applying best practices for expansion.
• Listen to employees who travel for work and experience the day-to-day realities of business travel.
• Engage Millennial and Gen Z travelers, who make up a significant part of the workforce and have clear preferences.

How do you ensure your business—and corporate travel solution—are ready for growth?

Scaling successfully starts with an honest assessment of your current processes, risk exposure, and visibility into spend, then applying a rollout model that can work across regions, regulations, and user needs.

Businesses and travel managers are always confronting something new, from regional regulations to shifting traveler preferences and new spending patterns. When assessing current business travel solutions—or selecting new ones—it’s critical to understand the challenges of expanding and the best practices that support a successful expansion.

What challenges and risks come with expanding a corporate travel program?

Expansion works best when tools and processes can evolve with the organization. Organizations moving into new markets and countries can treat this as an opportunity to replace outdated approaches and build better ways of doing business.

Key steps to take:

• Scrutinize processes and systems.

Inefficiencies can become more visible at scale, consuming resources and frustrating people involved in travel. Decide whether current processes are sufficient or whether it’s time to retool instead of relying on what worked in the past.

• Be ready for increased risk.

New territories bring new tax and compliance requirements that can be difficult to manage—and can lead to fines if you fall behind. As operations grow, data security can get harder as well. Each country also brings different cultures, laws, and disruption risks; organizations should understand these in the context of their business and prepare to respond.

• Improve visibility into spend.

When solutions and processes are disjointed, travel managers may lack a clear view of supplier spending and negotiating leverage. Finance teams may also lack accurate numbers, making it harder to optimize cash flow.

What best practices support a successful corporate travel program expansion?

A strategic expansion approach combines a clear global model with region-by-region deployment and strong stakeholder alignment. For more on this approach, see putting flexible, scalable travel solutions in place.

Best practices to apply:

• Look at current and expected locations.

Identify similarities across regions, what systems are used where, which locations generate the most travel and expenses, and other adoption drivers that can guide your choices.

• Understand the user experience.

Review policies and processes (including whether they’re region-specific). Identify the most common travel and payment methods so the experience aligns with how employees actually travel.

• Assess existing T&E solutions.

Confirm whether solutions support different languages and currencies, can add teams and offices easily, use artificial intelligence (AI) to improve analysis and employee experience, and integrate with ERPs and other systems.

• Create a global model.

Align your corporate travel program across teams, policies, and processes. Include expense types, workflows, reporting requirements, audit rules, benchmarks, and customization guidelines.

• Devise your deployment.

Roll out region by region in the most sensible order, guided by commonalities such as currency, customs, language, and other factors.

• Listen to your people.

Ensure local leadership supports the transition and the right stakeholders are involved. Plan for cultural differences, define what user support looks like, and account for meaningful regional differences—by listening to those closest to them.

Welcome to the World Stage: A Guide to Expanding T&E

Explore best practices to consider while strategizing, planning, and deploying solutions to expand  your travel program into new markets, including region-specific details. 

Read the eBook

What does your workforce want in a corporate travel program?

Employees want to be heard—and they want evidence their feedback leads to change. Building a travel program around safety, flexibility, and reduced friction can strengthen adoption and traveler satisfaction.

Travelers want simple ways to share feedback, and they want their concerns addressed. Listening is critical to the success of a corporate travel program.

Frequent fliers are not monolithic. Their concerns vary by role and industry. Still, many travelers share common needs: feeling safe, having flexibility and choices, and avoiding unnecessary strain on personal life.

“It’s key to listen to your travelers and to take their feedback into consideration at all levels…,” says Angela Arntz, global travel director at Unisys, in a video featuring SAP Concur travel and expense management customers. She adds that organizations must embrace feedback while also guiding travelers to make the best choice for the business.

Research suggests employees are under stress:

• 57% think burnout won’t get better unless their company makes big changes.²
• 41% believe their organization would prioritize making more money over retaining workers.³
• 91% of business travelers say requests for flexibility were rejected in the past year.⁴

From requesting approval for a trip to booking flights and lodging, travel management systems can reduce friction. Supporting workforce mental health often requires more than occasional upgrades; there are multiple ways to support traveler well-being.

Ways to apply traveler feedback in program design include:

• Consider not only cost and compliance, but also how employees react to room rate limits, mileage reimbursement, airfare classes, and similar policy controls.
• Treat “small” comforts as meaningful: extra legroom, airline lounge access, easy loyalty account connections, and a solution with New Distribution Capability (NDC) for broader options.
• Use corporate cards to simplify travel by capturing transactions automatically, minimizing receipts, and reducing out-of-pocket burden.

Whether you run surveys, set up feedback sessions, or use other channels, avoid assumptions. Let travelers tell you what they need.

How can your corporate travel solution meet Millennial and Gen Z traveler needs?

To engage Millennial and Gen Z travelers, build policies and experiences that are transparent, supportive, and simple to use—without treating these groups as a single persona.

Millennial and Gen Z employees are a large and growing part of the workforce. They have clear views and strong preferences about what works (and what doesn’t) in corporate travel programs and policies.

Engaging these generations starts by recognizing they come from diverse backgrounds and perspectives. They should not be treated as a single persona.

With that caveat, Millennials and Gen Zers often appreciate:

• Policy transparency: Knowing why T&E policies exist and how they connect to the goals of the corporate travel program and the business overall.
• Clear communication formats: Receiving information in writing or in person instead of one-off emails.
• The social value of travel: Face-to-face customer engagement and rapport-building with co-workers, sometimes even more than financial rewards.
• Simple, reliable technology—and real support: Tools that “just work” can matter more than adopting the latest technology. Even tech-fluent employees still need support, whether in-app guidance or a human being.

“The 20-year-olds and the 30-year-olds … are so used to being on their devices and being able to click a few buttons and do what needs to be done,” says Angela Arntz of Unisys. “So I'm thinking about the future and how I can shape our program to embrace NDC and take that generation into consideration.”

Conclusion: What does it take to transform a corporate travel program?

Transformation depends on the right corporate travel solution, a scalable strategy, and a travel culture that listens to employees. When those elements work together, programs can stay resilient as the business grows.

Transforming your corporate travel program takes a combination of the right corporate travel solution, the right strategy, and treating people right.

With that mix, businesses can stay ahead of challenges today and in the future. Along the way, they can better meet the needs of employees critical to success in both existing and new markets.

Scalability and flexibility can go hand in hand when paired with the recognition that most employees want to make the right choices—and that communication should be two-way.

“People are always going to want to do their own thing,” says Gemma Cannings, NYU’s AVP of Procurement & Payables, in the SAP Concur customer video. “Sometimes these behaviors are for good reason, and we must make sure we listen and understand why they're making these choices. And then think about, ‘Do we have to make a change to policy, or do we have to make a change the way we're doing things?’”

FAQs

1) Why do organizations want a single platform for travel and expense?

78% want a single platform to handle both travel and expense, and 53% of T&E decision-makers say an inability to scale and adapt T&E solutions has had major business consequences.¹

2) What are the biggest risks when expanding a corporate travel program into new countries?

The page highlights increased regulatory risk (including tax rules and potential fines), greater data securitychallenges as operations grow, and the need to understand differences in culture, laws, and disruption risks in each new country.

3) What should a “global model” for corporate travel include?

The global model should align teams, policies, and processes across regions, including expense types, workflows, reporting requirements, audit rules, benchmarks, and customization guidelines.

4) What do travelers typically want from a corporate travel program?

The page indicates travelers want to be heard, want concerns addressed, and commonly prioritize being kept safe, having flexibility and choices, and avoiding travel that strains their personal lives.

5) How should companies tailor travel programs for Millennial and Gen Z employees?

The page advises not treating them as a single persona, while noting they often appreciate policy transparency, clearer communication than one-off emails, the social value of travel, and simple technology with strong support.

¹ Empower the Future of Work with Intelligent Travel and Expense Solutions, Forrester Consulting, May 2023

², ³ The Top 5 HR Trends Today – and HR’s Guide to What’s Next, SAP SuccessFactors, 2025.

⁴, ⁵ 6th Annual SAP Concur Global Business Travelers Research Report, 2024.