As corporate travel budgets shrink, buyers and TMCs invest in tech for a new future

The reality is sobering. It's going to take a while for corporate travel to get back up, especially that of the major multinationals. Small and medium enterprises, well, that's a different story for another day.

Novartis, for example, is not permitting international travel for internal meetings for the rest of the year. Benjamin Concepcion, global head of travel operations, says, "If a traveler needs to travel internationally, if they are relocating, or there's a critical business need, then there's going to be a need for senior leadership approval."

He said Novartis has also invested significantly in its IT to enable meetings and events to go on during this period, and while he did not quite spell it out, it is clear that if these tools prove as effective as physical meetings, then there is reason for fewer trips in the future.

When asked what the next big change in his travel program would be, he says, "Novartis continues to be very aggressive and looking for disruptive technologies out there in all our business areas ... and advancing the travel program on our side. We have a team dedicated just on that."