Given how awful most administrative software used by large companies is, and how insanely bureaucratic many processes are, I do wonder why and how to change it.
The nicest explanation is that senior executives don’t book their own travel, do their own timesheets, claim their own expenses, plan their own meetings, so they just don’t care nor feel the pain.
The other is that senior staff like the ego boost of having assistance. If doing the basic admin of life didn’t take so long, if you just booked flights directly on Kayak, the business case to look important would be removed.
I’ve worked at companies where booking a $80 per night hotel room could be done on Hotel Tonight in 2 seconds, but where instead we were forced to use massive travel companies, have 20 email exchanges, and an approval process, in order to book the same room for $250.
And nobody ever saw the madness because it was following a set process that everyone agreed to. Saving time and money was considered rogue.