KDS, an international leader in SaaS travel & expense management, has survey hundred of its clients from large organisations on the impact of the financial crisis on their travel management program. It appears that they are anticipating tougher travel policies in the coming months.

The survey panel was comprised of 47 percent travel managers. Twenty percent were procurement directors and another 20 percent financial directors. All worked in organisations with 5000 plus employees.

They are 54 percent to believe that the financial crisis is going to force their companies to cut on travel between today and March 2009. Thirty six percent said that they have had to cancel booked travels. One of the financial director commented that since the crisis no trips under two days are authorised in his company. Furthermore, 33 percent of the surveyed respondents had to cancel international meetings.

KDS plays a key role at Airbus to control travel costs. "In these turbulent economical times, Airbus relies on KDS to drive the unit cost of travel down to the most effective option," said James Westgarth, Airbus, Global Travel Manager.

The financial crisis will have consequences on the enterprise travel policy and the survey reveals that 69 percent are forecasting stricter rules in the coming months. However, most respondents are not anticipating the amount of authorise expenses reimbursement to be reduced.

Is the crisis an excuse to carry on cost reduction project started a while ago illustrating what Naomi Klein calls "The Shock Doctrine"? Some of the comments left by surveyed clients seem to go in this direction. For this financial director from a large American corporation, "Travel cuts begun during the first quarter and have nothing to do with the current crisis. We have been asked to do more teleconference and to cut on international trips."

"The financial crisis is putting procurement and financial department under pressure," explains Stanislas Berteloot Marketing Director of KDS. "Costs must go down. Then cutting travel costs is relatively simple and has an immediate impact on the bottom line."

"Survey respondents are all KDS users. They all have the necessary tools to adjust, in real-time, the travel procurement rules and approbation workflow. KDS solutions can be configured to promote a type of transportation option and even to promote teleconference usage."

Confronted with costs increase, corporations are struggling to slash their travel costs. Traditionally, Travel & Expense costs represent the second non-production related expense after payrolls. Consequently, 92 percent of the survey respondents are planning on using web meeting services and visio-conference systems to cut on travel.

The majority of respondents, 73 percent are based in continental Europe; 8 percent in the United-States and 19 percent in the rest of the world.