Business Travel vs collaboration solutions?
Business Travel or collaboration solutions?
In recent years, rising travel prices have dramatically increased the costs of business travel. Rethink your travel programs and policies. You want to minimize travel costs while simultaneously increasing productivity. Consider alternatives such as video conferencing and online meetings. Business Travel vs collaboration solutions
It’s great to meet customers and partners, and I enjoy dinners with colleagues on the road. There are times when we all have to meet in person.
Basically, business travel can be unproductive, inefficient and often unnecessary. Let’s look at some statistics based on Cisco research:
- Approximately 25% of corporate travel is non-optimal.
- According to The New York Times, one round-trip flight from New York to Europe or to San Francisco creates a warming effect equivalent to 2 or 3 tons of carbon dioxide per person.
- In 2014, companies spent an average of 10% or more of their total annual budget on expenses related to business travel.
- Business travel mishaps amount to $1,475 in missed work and out-of-pocket expenses, plus an average of 2.3 work days lost.
“But I need to speak with my customers face-to-face!”
Business travel is a necessity and often beneficial, but implementing collaboration technologies can provide alternatives to travel, reducing financial and productivity costs.
According to a survey by the Business Travel Show, the top concerns for corporate travel managers are: airline pricing, cost control and spending management, compliance and policy adherence, increased hotel rates, and traveler safety.
Top 5 Concerns for Global Travel Buyers in 2015:
Here are a few collaboration use cases that provide alternatives to business travel:
Incorporate Video into Meetings: Replace some travel with video conferencing. Meet face-to-face without geographical restraints other than time zones. Web conferencing keeps employees connected and available to meet anytime from anywhere.
Enable Meetings with Remote Attendees: Let people connect with external organizations in real time. WebEx and collaboration tools allow people to connect using their own devices with high-quality audio, video, and content sharing.
Support Teleworkers and Branch Offices: Being a teleworker myself, it’s important to feel connected to colleagues without frequent travel. The ability to connect remotely to locations is crucial to my productivity. I stay connected with my peers by meeting over video and have access to the same resources as my teammates who work in our offices.
Deliver Online Events and Training: Think about the growth of your business and your employees. Replace in-person training with compelling online learning experiences that support remote attendance. Instead of having to travel to sit in a classroom, let people access classes when it’s convenient.
With using collaboration solutions can do for you:
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- reduce corporate costs on travel expenses such as transportation and hotels
- reduce greenhouse gas emissions
- reduce lost productivity due to employee time spent in transit
- reduce employee safety concerns
- reduce distance barriers and time restrictions
Companies need their critical workforces to perform smarter, faster and more productively. Achieving that goal requires embedding collaborative technologies deep into processes and incentivizing collaborative behaviors—ultimately transforming the way organizations turn knowledge into action. Collaboration platforms should do more than help employees talk about their work; they should create new ways for employees to do their work.
