case-study

How a Leading HRMS Platform Used Travlinq to Add an Integrated Travel Module

Karthikeyan Suriyanarayanan

— 3 min read

Client Overview

The client is a global HRMS platform powering HR, payroll, employee lifecycle, and workforce automation for large enterprises across multiple countries.

The system is used daily by employees for attendance, payroll, leave, performance management, and expense submission. With millions of employees on the platform, the provider wanted to expand into Integrated Travel Management as a natural extension of its offering.

The Challenge

The HRMS system already contained:

  • Employee profiles and master data
  • Designation, department, and business unit
  • HR and travel-related policies
  • Manager approval hierarchy
  • Expense management workflows
  • Integration with payroll

Yet employees still booked travel via standalone TMC apps, causing:

  • Duplicate employee data and profiles
  • Duplicate storage of policies
  • Fragmented approval flows
  • Poor visibility on total travel spend
  • Lower adherence to corporate travel policy

Corporates wanted travel to be inside the HRMS that employees already use daily.

2. Corporates Want One Unified App

Enterprises increasingly expect:

  • A single interface for HR, travel, expense, and approvals
  • Centralized policy configuration and control
  • No dependence on standalone travel tools
  • Consistency across entities and countries
  • Reduction in cost spillage and off-policy bookings

As employees live inside the HRMS, adding travel there offers the most seamless user experience.

3. Travel Has Industry-Specific Complexity

The HRMS team did not want to build and maintain:

  • Airline and hotel supplier connectivity
  • GDS + LCC integrations
  • PNR creation, ticketing, refunds and reissues
  • Region-specific travel logic and compliance
  • Relationships with multiple TMCs and suppliers

This required deep travel domain expertise and a long development cycle.

Why Travlinq

Travlinq offers a ready-to-deploy travel engine designed specifically for non-travel platforms like HRMS.

Key advantages include:

  • Simple JSON API that integrates in under 2 weeks
  • Embedded, white-labeled travel journey inside the HRMS UI
  • Flight & hotel search, booking, ticketing, cancellation and refunds
  • Real-time policy enforcement using existing HR/Travel policies in HRMS
  • Auto-sync with employee hierarchy for approvals
  • Backend integration to connect any travel company or TMC the corporate prefers
  • Multi-country deployment across India and other regions

Travlinq turns an HRMS into a full Integrated HR + Travel + Expense platform without requiring any travel expertise from the HRMS team.

Solution Implementation

1. Deep Integration With Existing HRMS Workflows

Travlinq integrated directly with the HRMS:

  • Employee master and organizational structure
  • HR travel policies and eligibility rules
  • Manager approval hierarchy
  • Expense and reimbursement flows
  • Payroll where needed

Employees book travel inside the same app they already use for HR and expenses.

2. End-to-End Travel Booking Experience

  • Real-time flight and hotel search
  • Policy checks before booking is confirmed
  • Manager approvals triggered within the HRMS
  • PNR creation and ticketing via the company’s TMC
  • Cancellation, refund and reissue workflows
  • Automatic expense creation linked to each trip

All steps stay within one unified employee experience.

3. Flexible Connection to Any Travel Service Provider

Using Travlinq’s backend routing engine, enterprises can:

  • Continue with their existing TMC
  • Use multiple TMCs across different regions (India, GCC, APAC)
  • Add local suppliers for better hotel and regional content

4. Multi-Country, Multi-Entity Support

Travlinq supports complex corporate structures and allows the HRMS to deploy travel across all regions where customers operate, with country-specific policies and rules.

Impact Delivered

1. Corporates Shifted to HRMS Travel

Once integrated, enterprises moved employees from standalone TMC apps to the HRMS travel module due to:

  • No duplicate employee profiles or policy databases
  • Single source of truth for approvals and controls
  • Higher user adoption and simpler workflows

2. Significant Reduction in Policy Leakage

With booking, policy, approval and expense in the same system, corporates achieved:

  • Lower off-policy and last-minute bookings
  • Better fare and supplier optimization
  • Clear visibility and control over travel budgets

3. Higher Product Value for the HRMS Provider

Adding travel helped the HRMS:

  • Strengthen customer stickiness and reduce churn
  • Increase ARR via premium plans and modules
  • Compete with global T&E platforms as a unified solution

4. No Travel Infrastructure or Expertise Needed

Travlinq managed supplier connectivity, TMC integration, ticketing, refunds, and scaling, allowing the HRMS team to focus on UX and customer relationships.

Outcome

By embedding Travlinq, the HRMS platform became a single consolidated employee hub for HR, travel, expense and payroll. Corporates gained stronger cost control and policy compliance, employees got a frictionless booking experience, and the HRMS provider unlocked a new, high-value revenue stream.

Travlinq removed the travel industry entry barrier, enabling the HRMS to launch a complete travel module in weeks and deploy it seamlessly across multiple countries and travel service providers.

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By Karthikeyan Suriyanarayanan