As travel programs scale across borders and business units, complexity eventually outpaces legacy systems. That inflection point is where Samuel, Son & Company found itself. Beyond just rethinking its booking tool, the company was also reevaluating the entire structure supporting its travel program.
During our recent client interview, we asked Samuel’s Director of Indirect Procurement Katherine Vaillancourt to share insights from that journey. As Direct Travel’s first Avenir client in Canada, her experience may feel familiar to travel managers who are starting to question whether their current tools, service model, and support structure are sufficient for the future.
The evaluation begins with taking a closer look at what’s working for your organization, and where change is needed.
Reviewing Your Current Travel Management Program
Analyzing a travel program often starts with determining what problems need to be solved. For many organizations, the answer becomes clear when traveler friction, outdated technology, or strained vendor relationships begin to surface.
Customer experience is often an early warning sign. Long wait times and slow issue resolution can quickly erode traveler confidence and create unnecessary work for travel managers. At the same time, limited booking technology can restrict visibility, showing only preferred rates without offering alternative options when those rates aren’t available. This makes it harder for travelers to understand pricing and for managers to support policy decisions.
From an account management standpoint, many travel teams may also feel the shift from proactive support to a more transactional, ticket-based model over time. When responsiveness drops and relationships feel less collaborative, it’s often a signal that the program has outgrown its current solution.
Easing Concerns About Adopting a New Platform
Hesitation around change is common, especially when adopting a new travel platform that affects the entire organization. Many travel managers worry about disruption, internal resistance, and the time required to manage implementation alongside day-to-day responsibilities.
In practice, a well-structured implementation can actually minimize disruption rather than create it. Clear timelines, regular check-ins, and real-time issue resolution help keep teams aligned and reduce uncertainty throughout the process. Having a dedicated implementation team ensures progress stays on track without placing additional strain on internal resources.
Training and documentation are equally important. User guides and hands-on training help travel managers — particularly those with smaller teams — onboard travelers efficiently and confidently. When change is supported with the right structure, adoption becomes far more manageable.
Providing Content Transparency
Pricing transparency is one of the most effective ways to reduce traveler frustration and increase trust in a travel program. When travelers can see a full range of flight options, fare types, and pricing tiers in one place, fewer questions arise about whether better deals exist elsewhere.
This visibility is especially valuable for organizations managing cross-border travel. By consolidating regional and international content into a single global platform, Avenir eliminates the need for separate profiles, workarounds, or fragmented reporting, creating a more consistent experience for travelers and clearer visibility for the travel team.
For travel managers, access to multiple data sets in one view provides additional context. Travelers can see when lower prices fall outside of policy, which helps reinforce compliance and reduce the back-and-forth conversations that often accompany pricing concerns.
Gaining Leadership Buy-In
User adoption is important, but leadership support is often the true indicator of success. When senior leaders recognize a new platform as a meaningful improvement, it validates the investment and the change management effort behind it.
Positive feedback from leadership signals that the travel program is delivering real value, improving the traveler experience, and supporting business goals. Rather than serving as a short-term fix, the right technology and partnership can position travel as a strategic function that continues to evolve alongside the organization.
What Changed for Samuel, Son & Company
Structured implementation completed ahead of schedule
Greater pricing transparency across Canada and cross-border travel
Reduced traveler friction and fewer questions around fare visibility
Consolidated regional and international content into one global platform
Strong leadership endorsement following launch
Moving Forward with Confidence
Service challenges, limited data visibility, and strained vendor relationships are often early signs that a program has outgrown its current solutions. For organizations reaching a similar inflection point, modernizing travel isn’t about swapping booking tools. It’s about creating a scalable operating model that brings technology, service, and governance together. Avenir was built to support this evolution, combining modern technology with Direct Travel’s high-touch service model.
The insights don’t stop here. If you’re expanding your global travel program this year, register for our live webinar to learn how to navigate the transition with ease.
