Deutsche Telekom: Controlling travel payments with corporate liability

00:00:06: Welcome back to the Airplus Corporate Payment Insider Podcast.

00:00:09: My name is Ms.

00:00:10: Geber-Werkelesner and today I'm your host!

00:00:12: Today we are talking about something that can become a real game changer for companies, corporate liability in payments because when it comes to business spending such as travel expenses supplier payment The question is quite simple who actually owns the costs?

00:00:31: To explore this I'm joined by Ben Hefner, Head of Event Services and Group Trouble Management at Deutsche Telekom.

00:00:36: Great to have you here today!

00:00:38: Thank You for the invite.

00:00:39: As with every guest we'd like get know a little better And i would ask few questions if it's okay?

00:00:46: Of course

00:00:47: Awesome.

00:00:48: So...Ben Coffee or tea?

00:00:50: Coffee

00:00:51: Ocean or Mountains?

00:00:53: Mountains.

00:00:54: Funniest experience on business.

00:00:55: trouble

00:00:56: going on a business trip and combining that with an away match of my football club in the European League.

00:01:02: Let's now dig deeper into the topic.

00:01:05: we actually came together for today, but before we dive-in let us set this scene... Can you introduce yourself?

00:01:12: What exactly is your role?

00:01:14: what are looking after day to day?

00:01:16: So hello!

00:01:17: My name Ben.

00:01:18: I'm head of Uptravel & Event Services within Deutsche Telecom Services Europe.

00:01:23: We as a company, we are service provider with Indochia Telecom but also externally for all services across procurement customer finance accounting and reporting.

00:01:33: And in my role as head of group travel management ,we take care about the end-to-end business travel program from booking to expense function as head of event services.

00:01:44: We take care about a huge variety of events where we organize the guest management, the travel management and onsite support for our customers dealing with events such as company meetings incentive journeys but also for top-management events.

00:02:01: So it sounds like you and your team are heavy spenders within Deutsche Telekom which brings us right back into the original topic that we actually want to talk about today.

00:02:13: So let's zoom out, lets ask a question first how important are corporate payments in your area especially when it comes to things like central payment or corporate cards?

00:02:24: It is very important for us.

00:02:25: so we're quite big as you can imagine and speak of roughly one hundred fifty thousand customers employees who take care not only in Germany but also many international entities And many of them go on business trips.

00:02:42: Whenever you're going to a business trip, it's convenient as possible.

00:02:45: and what is the biggest pain when you get on that trip?

00:02:49: How do I deal with

00:02:50: expenses?".

00:02:52: This is why our corporate business travel program covers an entire payment process in the background so we can make sure everything that was booked by our online booking engine is immediately paid product that we implemented to make sure either a flight, train or hotel room is immediately paid by the company.

00:03:15: The traveler just goes on his trip and the expenses are paid so you don't need pay and reimburse from your private bank

00:03:25: accounts.".

00:03:26: So it's really not just about back-office topic – It directly impacts everything you do while they're in the go!

00:03:33: We hear this term of corporate liability quite often….

00:03:37: What does that actually mean for you?

00:03:39: in quite simple terms?

00:03:41: Our framework for business travel is defined by the group travel policy.

00:03:46: So this policy establishes clear rules covering topics such as hotel rate limits, eligibility of business class flights and first-class rail travel And these rules from our group travel policy are embedded directly into our online booking platform.

00:04:02: So whenever you look for a flight or for a hotel room, which is maybe the best example... You immediately see whether the hotel rate just covered by our policies compliance as top priority for us.

00:04:14: central payment solutions support very high online adoption rates.

00:04:19: so we speak about over ninety percent that are running through our central payments process and to our Central Booking Platform.

00:04:27: And we actively discourage bookings from third-party websites using personal payment methods as these create additional administrative efforts for the traveler, increase process costs and it reduces our policy compliance.

00:04:43: And of course, equally important is our duty-of-care responsibility.

00:04:47: so when employees book through our approved channels we maintain visibility off their travel itineraries at their locations especially during times of crisis or disruptions as we also experienced in the past months quite often.

00:05:02: this visibility essential for us a company to ensure our traveler safety and to provide support whenever that is needed.

00:05:10: So from what I'm understanding, your payments are handled centrally with the company taking responsibility for them.

00:05:16: but... What's the thinking behind that approach?

00:05:18: And why do you believe this is the right direction as a company but also for your employees evidently?

00:05:25: Yes we live in the world of two thousand twenty six so things have slightly changed in the past decades.

00:05:32: Looking back, I don't know in the ages of the nineteen nineties and to the moment you plant a business trip everything had to be booked by yourself.

00:05:39: I had to pay means of travel bookings by myself.

00:05:47: So my private credit card was charged with that and once coming back, i have to cover the receipts on a blank paper... ...I had to send it to our scan center.

00:05:56: It was then administrated in the background And weeks after.. ..i finally got confirmation data That the invoice is ready ,that it's approved and get my payment.

00:06:05: so this very modern digital world is not what our travelers expect.

00:06:13: already many years ago started to think about how can we improve that, ensure a full covered payment process in the background.

00:06:21: So it's not just about the payments actually, but um It really changes how The whole process works.

00:06:27: Not just in your department But overall for the whole company

00:06:30: yes and of course for the employees.

00:06:32: that means that our central approach eliminates a lot of complexity.

00:06:36: so Either if its an airport transfer flight booking train to the hotel the hotel booking itself booking offer rental car all there is now booked by the traveler in our central platform and paid immediately.

00:06:51: So employees benefit from a significant more convenient experience while the company itself benefits from improved compliance, better data quality lower administration costs.

00:07:05: as I said upon returning from the trip travelers can start their expense record.

00:07:09: they do not have to wait longer.

00:07:11: Our goal of course is to offer streamlined, highly-digited processes and to minimize administrative efforts.

00:07:18: And allow our employees really focus on their core responsibilities – this for sure not a travel reimbursement process.

00:07:25: How does that actually change your day today work?

00:07:27: What tools or frameworks help you make it work.

00:07:33: We recently introduced new integrated platform which combines both travel bookings and also expense management within one single solution.

00:07:43: This significantly improves the user experience by eliminating system breaks and reduces waiting times for received.

00:07:50: synchronization at data transfers, as already explained upon returning from a trip or relevant documentation is already available in this system enabling employees to complete their expense reports immediately before, during and also after the journey.

00:08:11: So what does this mean for employees especially when they are on-the-go?

00:08:15: When they are traveling on behalf of the company?

00:08:17: Yeah so the aim is to have it as convenient as possible for our travelers.

00:08:22: Of course we still have a desktop version which is For the initial booking probably most convenient sitting at your working space And just book whatever's needed.

00:08:30: But imagine you go on the trip You sit at the train station A cancellation is displayed or a delay which quite often happens.

00:08:39: You have access on our booking tool via our mobile app, it allows you to immediately start a new search to book something new other than approaching our travel agency—which of course still is great support that we have —a very professional support.

00:08:57: but our goal is ever as high online adoption rates also using mobile solutions for customers.

00:09:04: Can you share a few real life examples where this approach really makes the difference for employees or even for the company as such?

00:09:12: Sure.

00:09:13: So I just had a private experience this week, so i live in Cologne My office is in Bonn but we also have some sites within Europe and In this week We had scheduled team meeting in Bratislava Where certain parts of our team are located And via our booking engine Everything that was required for this trip online.

00:09:37: Starting with a transfer from my home place to the airport, taking the flight from Cologne to Vienna going further would be transferred from Vienna to Bratislava Taking overnight stay in hotel The other day after meeting and going back with already booked transfer back from Bratislava to Vienna And again, taking the transfer from the airport to my home place.

00:09:59: Everything and this full scope of the journey was booked via our tool.

00:10:04: everything was paid The day after.

00:10:06: I think that everything is done in one flow.

00:10:08: Obviously This setup also gives you access To a lot of transaction data and Data as we all know nowadays Is very important.

00:10:16: So how do You use your data or the data you gather In practice?

00:10:23: Data is key in our business, so we are very often asked from various departments and organizations within Deutsche Telekom to deliver something.

00:10:33: This could be financial data about how does the travel spend develop?

00:10:45: dependent on when they start to prepare a tender with our suppliers.

00:10:49: So this could also be the CO-II reporting figures that we have to report for our quarterly and yearly reporting, so there's quite a lot of needs... Of course also for our finance department for budgeting, forecasting or long term planning in the next three four five years where data is needed And saying that we then of course rely on our own figures.

00:11:11: We see the development and business travel activities, and this allows us really to support our departments that are dependent on our figures through provides

00:11:20: data.".

00:11:21: So you told us a lot about how things are currently working for you but there is always a bright future ahead of us?

00:11:27: Looking ahead what other key trends your seeing in corporate payments right

00:11:31: now?".

00:11:35: Still as a big gap is the integration of AI functionalities.

00:11:39: There's lots that are promised, there're good outlook from our suppliers such as an AI integration in booking parts and reimbursing part.

00:11:52: But also for the user, I somehow still miss... ...the one hundred percent flow from booking to expenses.

00:11:59: That's the expense record itself.

00:12:00: after i come back form a trip is automatically created and ready for submission that this might be still... ...adjusted by private payments that are like or need-to-add but.... This flow from bookings to expents and the submission as something thats could for the traveller still be improved.

00:12:19: Organizations also are moving forward to fully connected ecosystems that combine online booking towards travel management companies, payment platforms and so forth.

00:12:31: So the goal for me is a seamless book-to-reconciled journey where payment data has generated during booking and automatically linked to expense reporting.

00:12:40: Forteer Painting is big picture of fully connected and data driven travel ecosystem And as always, it raises the question of who should ultimately carry the financial responsibility within that setup?

00:12:53: Which brings me back to our ultimate topic which is corporate liability.

00:12:58: So if you had put in one sentence why do YOU believe corporate liability is the one way forward?

00:13:06: Corporate liability for me is the right path forward because it centralizes our responsibility It strengthens duty of care and it reduces risks.

00:13:16: And, uh...it also enables a secure efficient globally consistent approach to business travel management.

00:13:23: Brilliant!

00:13:24: So Ben thank you so much.

00:13:27: this really shows how something that sounds so technical like corporate liability can actually transform all companies work today in the future.

00:13:35: So thanks for sharing your insights with us and thank you to all of you for listening.

00:13:41: And if you enjoyed this episode, please make sure to subscribe to our podcast into stay tuned For more conversations until next time.

00:13:49: Thanks for listening

00:13:50: Thank You.