New white paper offers framework for strategic travel and expense analysis

November, 2015 – Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT) today launched a new strategic framework, the T&E Decision Tree, designed to help clients understand and analyze their travel and expense (T&E) spend.

For many companies, T&E spending is a significant expense, so controlling T&E costs is critical to the health of a business. However, the sheer volume of related data makes it challenging to process, manage and interpret.

Catalin Ciobanu, senior director, Data & Analytics, CWT Solutions Group, said, “The T&E Decision Tree takes the different analyses companies are today doing on an ad-hoc basis and brings them together into one single picture. Looking at several categories simultaneously helps travel and finance managers decide what needs to be improved, in which order.”

The T&E Decision Tree simplifies the task by providing an immediate view of the ways a company could reduce spend. It uses algorithms to turn expense and TMC data into patterns based on three simple questions – what, how and why services and products are purchased. The spend categories are:

• Travel management company (TMC)-booked services, including air, hotel and car;
• Extra expenses, such as air ancillary fees or car rental GPS navigation charges;
• Off-channel reservations not using the TMC;
• Auxiliary spending, such as meals, taxi or parking;
• And non-trip spending, including office supplies or short-range travel using personal cars or in-city transportation.

As well as providing a strategic view of overall T&E spending, the framework is flexible enough to handle new subcategories of spending as required. Once companies have identified the areas that need attention, they can use the T&E Decision Tree to:

• Align T&E spending with business objectives;
• Use the total cost of the trip in making travel decisions;
• Reduce non-trip, auxiliary or extra spending;
• And improve traveler compliance.

The T&E Decision Tree white paper is available at http://www.carlsonwagonlit.com/cwtsg/publications-and-media-centre/research-and-view-points/20151110-cwt-travel-expense-decision-tree.html.

Notes to editors

For this study, CWT have used a sample of 300,000 transactions from several clients. For each transaction, the four-level classification algorithms were successively applied. While the figures and results contained in this report are based on a real sample of corporate data, they are meant to be illustrative. They help simulate how T&E Decision Tree works and what output it produces. Every client spending profile naturally yields different results and thus different actions required for T&E optimization.

About CWT
CWT is a global leader specialized in managing business travel and meetings and events. CWT serves companies, government institutions and non-governmental organizations of all sizes in more than 150 countries and territories. By leveraging both the expertise of its people and leading-edge technology, CWT helps clients derive the greatest value from their travel program in terms of savings, service, security and sustainability. The company is also committed to providing best-in-class service and assistance to travelers. In 2014, sales volume for wholly owned operations and joint ventures totaled US$27.3 billion. As part of its commitment to responsible business, CWT is a signatory of the United Nations Global Compact Ten Principles. For more information about CWT, please visit our global website at www.carlsonwagonlit.com. Follow us on Twitter @CarlsonWagonlit.

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