6 Tips to Take Control and Deliver a 10% Improvement on T & E Value Without Losing Your Mind

As the year begins and goals and objectives stack up like planes on a runway, we often times have to pick a few battles. I want to share the key items below that you may choose to pay attention to which would deliver at least a 10% improved T&E program for your organization in 2015. My recommendation is that you pick a few and do them well as this second largest controllable cost for the average company. In a few weeks we will be hosting a webinar that will deliver a more extensive review of what to pay attention to for 2015 in T&E; to register, click here.

1.      Measure advance purchase and eliminate outliers. Determine who buys tickets less than 7 or 14 days in advance and council them. Newly-released Travel Leaders data indicates that business travelers who booked their domestic airline ticket 7-13 days in advance saved 9% on average, while those who booked 14-20 days in advance saved 24% on average compared to those who booked less than 7 days prior to departure. This data also reveals that in 2014, 73% of all airline reservations were booked seven or more days in advance, and 47% of tickets were booked 14 days or more prior to departure. Even if they always buy their shuttle flights to New York the day before travel, remind them that they can save significantly by purchasing 7 days in advance. Even with cars and hotels, the general wisdom is to book early and book a flexible rate leveraging partnerships like you get from your TMC.

2.      Ensure unbiased fare search and reset policy thresholds that balance traveler comfort with company value. In recently years the incentive to a traveler to be biased toward their preferred suppliers has reached an all time high. If they book on public sites, those sites recall what that traveler likes and pushes back to them all their preferred choices without a deep consideration for price. With airline status you not only can qualify for upgrades but your status determines when you get on the plane, what you pay for bags, and more. Also, many airlines are distributing miles based on the cost of the ticket and not the miles. So higher priced tickets get more miles- which lead to better comfort. Bias can also lead to limiting the alternate routes which can be considered. 10 years ago there was one option to get from New York to Baku with just one stop. Now there are as many as 10 different connecting airports that can be considered. Don’t let your travelers become creatures of habit to the point of costing your organization time or money over which is reasonable to you. I am not here to say that these comforts aren’t important, but you should evaluate the cost and your organization’s level of tolerance compared to budgets, goals, and culture. Lastly, low-cost carriers like Southwest, JetBlue, and Virgin America are prime time carriers and should be unbiasedly considered. Then there are “ultra low-cost carriers” like Spirit and Frontier to address.

3.      Consider class of service adjustments and incentives. Maybe suggest Premium Economy versus Business class for certain long hall trips and Business versus First for certain tiers of travelers. For those of you that provide incentives if your travelers fly Economy instead of Business when approved per policy, maybe allow them to fly Premium Economy with a smaller incentive.

4.      Benchmark your results. There is plenty of data that can help determine how you are doing compared to other organizations. You may want to compare yourself to others and compare the results of those using your TMC and those going outside of your system. The average cost of international and domestic trips last year – including combined air, car, and hotel – reached a five-year high. The average international trip cost in 2014 was $2,525 as compared to $2,461 the year prior, and the average domestic trip cost in 2014 was $990 as compared to $956 the year prior.

5.      Leverage Deals. Most companies can have some sort of preferred supplier program. It may be a car deal, airline rewards program for the company, a contractual discount, or hotel agreements with your most frequented properties. Knowing what you spend, using the data to ensure you have the best deals with the right suppliers (a good account manager from a TMC should help you), and directing your people to those deals in all the right situations will help you win. With air, car and hotel, ensure all road warriors join at least one frequent flier or preferred club like National’s Emerald Aisle. Most people sign up for all the airline programs but for car and hotel hidden extras are found. Emerald Isle for example lets you bypass the counter and, more often than not, get a free upgrade. Address and consider who your preferreds are and who travelers probably should not use. Watch and address secondary brands like Ace, EZ Rent, Economy, Firefly, Midway, and many others who often leave travelers less satisfied with their experience resulting in challenges, issues, and productivity concerns.

6.      Leverage automated expense tools and their data to further direct value. With the increasing use of automated expense tools you could now more easily evaluate the total cost of stays and direct efforts to make better choices and negotiate costly extras – it’s not just the room rate. Is the Hampton Inn with an airport shuttle, free breakfast, and free WiFi for $129 a better option than the Courtyard by Marriott down the street with no breakfast and no shuttle for $115? What about the Ritz Carlton that is $359 as compared the Grand Hyatt at $329, but the Ritz Carlton includes free breakfast, free WiFi, and late checkout because the traveler is a customer of ours?

Take whatever tips hit you here and evolve your policy making sure that expected value is clear, including brand and price expectations. Use pre trip authorization to enforce what you come up with. If and when - and it will happen - someone wants a fare or rate that is outside the value policy the company put in place, have a system to say yes or no with the right data to make the right decision. Do a few of these well and make the most of your travel dollars while not getting yourself crazy. We can work on some more next year!

And remember, to learn more about how to get the best value on your Travel and Expense, register today for our March 5 webinar entitled:  A Travel Insiders Guide to Getting the Best T&E Value in 2015.

Ten Key Policy Rules Important to Any Organization's Travel Policy

In the current travel management environment our customers have both online and call in access to reservations. What we often find with our smaller accounts is that few clear programmable policy rules direct travelers to what the company believes is the best value. In some instances policy is unclear and as a result rules can’t be established, in some instances the requested rules are complicated and can’t be programmed, or in many instances there aren’t very many rules at all. For larger corporate customers, the opportunities inspire complications in policies that make launching and managing to expectations hard for the travel manager and complicated for travelers. Why wouldn’t travelers then want to book outside of your travel procurement process if it’s complicated? We have found that clean, simple, and easy systems that leverage these rules if they are going to deliver a real result is the best methodology.

Following are the top ten rules that systems like GetThere and Concur can enforce and the actions that can take place to enforce these rules are below them. Mid-office technology and automated pre-trip approval systems can be leveraged to enforce more rules in a few different ways but at the front line of policy enforcement these are the key categories to consider. Because these are easily programmed into online tools, they too can be easily enforced for call in reservations. They are the basis of good travel policy overall and should be addressed.

1. Vendor preference rules - Encourage or block vendors. They can be set to only allow a special airline to be used when traveling from point A to point B. Example: you may choose to push only one NY-WAS shuttle airline. Preferential displays can be set for air, car, and hotel.
2. Class of service rules - Remove a class of service like business class or allow business class only for flights over a certain amount of hours.
3. Change ticketed flight rules - Direct travelers to call for changes or requires use of a personal credit card.
4. Complete itinerary rules - Require an air, hotel, and/or car booking or any combination with every reservation.
5. Advance purchase rules – Demand travelers to book at least a certain amount of days in advance or action* is required.
6. Data requirement rules - Ensure the inclusion of a department or other codes with every reservation.
7. Tiered policy rules – Establish rules by employee tier. Example: staff can only book coach; VIPs can book business class or whatever they want.
8. Maximum airfare rules – Enforce one or both of the following, or one of the action* items below transpires.
• Dollar Amount = a pre-determined dollar amount (i.e. $500.00) that any itinerary booked cannot exceed or action* is required.
• Threshold Policy= a fare selected over the lowest fare + the allowed threshold (i.e. $100.00) requires action*.
9. Ideal itinerary rule - Direct travelers to an ideal itinerary between two points and anything selected other than it may require action*.
10. Form of payment rules – Define credit card policy use. Example: who is allowed to use what card type (for air and hotel)?

3 ACTION categories are available to choose from and pop up boxes can direct travelers to the action desired:

• Hard stop= not allowed to book outside of policy options; no exceptions and/or approvals for either booking method.

• Soft booking = Allow booking with warnings that ticket cannot be issued without approval. Approval paths and responsibilities are then defined. If no approval response is received by the ticketing timeline or if the approval has been denied a new compliant trip must be booked.

• FYI = send a notification at time of booking of the non-compliant itinerary, but NO approval required.

Where this gets complicated is when you sum up the different rules and paths this could take. In these instances it can get cumbersome for all involved. While it’s important to consider and address these items, we have found that if you start small, consider the real results of these rules, keep only the most effective, and watch the data, the impact of your travel management system will improve.

Improve These Four Things to Save Big on Travel in 2015

I see a lot of articles, especially around this time of year, about how to save money on travel. They often suggest a certain website, a certain day to book, and other creative approaches. While I don’t dismiss all of these thoughts, these articles are often geared toward individual travelers. In my experience, the best way to get savings results for organizations is by doing some basic blocking and tackling. If you simply focus on these four things and manage them extremely well within your travel program, you will get the best value.
 

1.      Leverage Deals. Most companies can have some sort of preferred supplier program. It may be a car deal, airline rewards program for the company, a contractual discount, or hotel agreements with your most frequented properties. Knowing what you spend, using the data to ensure you have the best deals with the right suppliers (a good account manager from a TMC should help you), and directing your people to those deals in all the right situations will help you win.

2.      Expand considerations. Three things should be of concern: (1) Not every site delivers all potential suppliers and fares; (2) Some are set to be wildly biased to their preferred suppliers; (3) Some sites are wildly biased to the traveler - it knows what the traveler likes and pushes that to him/her in a way that makes it hard for them to consider everything they should. Yikes. Make sure you direct travelers to a unbiased tool or tool that is biased to the company’s preferred suppliers. Not doing so will drive costs up.

3.      Enforce policy. Most organizations direct their travelers to fly coach, except in a few extraordinary circumstances. Do you dictate which coach fare? For example, should the traveler take the full coach ticket to LA for $1,200 or the same basic routing for $285? Policies so often fall short in defining thresholds over which travelers should consider other options. An alternate airport or time, a connection, or the travelers non-preferred airline may need to all be considered. Your culture should respect convenience but within some reasonable limits that are well defined. Call it, name it, police it (see below).

4.      Pre Trip. If and when- and it will happen- someone wants a fare that is outside the value policy the company put in place, have a system to say yes or no with the right data to make the right decision. TMCs have people and automation to make this happen.

 

Do these well and make the most of your travel dollars. Work with your team to make the right decisions to enforce so you have the data and buy-in that makes it work.

 

To learn more about how to get the best value on your Travel and Expense, register today for our March 5 webinar entitled:  A travel insiders guide to getting the best T&E value in 2015.

7 Questions to Ask Before you Loosen the Reigns on Travel

There has been buzz recently in the world of corporate travel management. Studies show that more employees are “going rogue”. And while travel managers know this isn’t a good thing, they often lack the data to make the case for a more managed program. Millennial workers spend more freely and travel spend is a costly line item. Should you let them spend freely or not? Adopting a completely ‘unmanaged’ travel policy can be fiscally irresponsible as major value can be found in managed travel solutions: negotiated rates, duty of care, customer service, policy enforcement delivering better value, and data aggregation speeding reimbursement. Before you consider loosening the reigns, here are seven things to ask:
 

1.      What is your company culture on the subject of the procurement of anything? From travel to computers to office suppliers. Do you let people do whatever they want?

2.      Do your employees already do a good job managing their travel? Most companies I visit who don’t manage travel well don’t know this answer. Comparing your results against national averages or other companies like yours or even comparing the results of those inside and outside your travel procurement system can help determine the opportunity to make a systemic change or not.

3.      Does your travel volume justify preferred supplier agreements that can be leveraged for air, hotel, car and more? You may be leaving substantial dollars on the table by not having such a program.

4.      Have you evaluated the risks of not knowing where all of your people are at all times and not having support systems in place to ensure a level of “duty of care”? You want to keep all of your people safe from medical, security, legal, reputational and travel risk.

5.      Do your employees very clearly understand what the best value means to your company - or just themselves? Clarifying what the best value means makes a big difference. It may also vary per project they are working on. The best nonstop, best price out of their favorite airport, best value on their favorite airline, etc. Defining these expectations with reasonable thresholds in your travel policy makes a big difference.

6.      Does booking outside of a TMC cost your company more time to process expenses, budget, reconcile the credit card, get reimbursed etc.? Consider all of the costs.

7.      What is the cost of change? Business trips change often; personal trips do not. When changes happen, employees may have to spend more time away from their real duties getting routed or changed, change fees and cancellation costs unnecessarily appear in your budget, delays and changes make your people less productive at work as they arrive late for meetings. The right support could improve productivity of those traveling.

 

Many times travelers don’t see the value of your system to manage travel. Defining what it should be and reporting the opportunities and results can justify such a process

Insights into the Job of the Travel Manager

I am often asked by executives what Travel Managers do as they have never seen one. The study, “A Day in The Life: The Role of Travel Managers,” sponsored by Sabre Travel Network, surveyed more than 700 North American and European Travel Managers and looked at the role of the Travel Manager, the value these managers bring to their organizations and a potential evolution in their role in the near future. I felt this data was useful in explain what someone in charge of this sizeable line items does and how some of these objectives could be built into the job description of someone who does this full or part time. This data can also be useful in setting goals for someone in this role.

When asked about their current responsibilities, the study showed Travel Managers are pulled in many different directions.  The vast majority of Travel Managers cited procurement-related activities (e.g., evaluating and negotiating with preferred travel service providers and obtaining and managing contracts with their providers) among their daily tasks. Travel Managers also are frequently responsible for activities related to managing internal and external stakeholder relationships, developing and monitoring programs and policies, as well as other areas such as evaluating technology solutions and applying business analytics. 

 

“As it’s done in so many industries already, technology will transform the role of the Travel Manager over the next few years,” said GBTA Vice President of Research Joseph Bates. “Thanks to the automation of so many processes, Travel Managers will be able to expand their role and further demonstrate their value.” 

 

“New software and services are rapidly changing the way companies manage all procurement categories, and travel is no exception,” said Greg Webb, President of Sabre Travel Network. “Strategically-minded travel managers are achieving superior results by using more sophisticated technology and hiring more tech-savvy team members. We see this shift in the research and among our clients.”   

 

Additional key highlights of the report’s findings:

 

Travel policy compliance represents the biggest challenge for Travel Managers, both in ensuring that the travelers follow company policy as well as obtaining senior leadership buy-in for new policies. Additional common problems include keeping costs down, managing globalization, using data to direct decision-making, and keeping up with technology advancements available for travel.

 

In addition to technology, Travel Managers also expect to see an increased reliance on data and analytics to make decisions, further globalization of travel programs and an increased focus on safety and security in the next three to five years.

 

While the majority of Travel Managers are currently being asked to calculate company savings from having a managed travel program, quantifying it has proven difficult. Quantifying company savings, both financial and non-financial, stands to further showcase the value Travel Managers bring to their organizations.

What Does “Open Booking” Mean and How Will It Evolve in 2015?

In 2009 corporate booking tools were just starting to gain traction. Get There, Reardon, Cliqbook were the major players. Since then, these tools and concepts have matured and now some 40 plus percent of corporate travel bookings flow through online booking tools.  Concur has matured the technology to integrate expense management with travel management and is now a power player (they were recently purchased by SAP), who not long ago introduced the concept of “open booking”  the ability to manage travel while letting employees book where they prefer, but still capture all travel related expenses on a single platform. From what I see, the early hype around open booking hasn’t been matched by rapid adoption. So where will it go in 2015? Market research firm PhoCusWright predicts that open booking will gain momentum particularly in the Moderately Managed and Lightly Managed segments. I believe that PhoCusWright is spot-on with its prediction but that raises the all-important question: to what extent?

 

As someone who believes down to my very soul that Travel and Expense (T& ) needs to be managed and supervised even more than most top line items, the tools coming into the market can, will, and should help achieve this concept - not replace it. At its most basic level, I believe that organizations will embrace open booking if it can help them effectively manage travel, with greater flexibility and at a lower cost. The value of these tools all starts with good data. For managed travel to work, we must first solve the challenge of full data capture. If employees are occasionally allowed to book through any channel they prefer, there must be a way to bring all of that data together in a consistent, real-time format.

Current popular solutions rely on travelers to forward their confirmation emails via alternate sources to a data aggregator, like True Trip or Trip Link (solutions associated with TripCase and Concur). These emails are then parsed and converted into useful data for reporting and other purposes. I believe that 10% of the lightly to moderately managed market will pay to subscribe to these tools. When they do, and they get everyone to forward emails to it, the evaluation can then begin. The travel manager can determine if they have in fact found a better value (as they often claim), where all travelers are, if they have gone outside of their TMC for a legitimate reason you can approve in your travel policy moving forward, if and when preferred supplier agreement should have been used, etc. Together with their TMC, some of these customers will consider this enhancement and work through these types of evaluations if they choose to manage travel at a higher level.

By nature, organizations considering open booking will tend to have more relaxed cultures. However, that doesn’t mean that they want a T&E free-for-all. Open booking solutions can provide support in this area if these tools are used and under the intent of even more tightly managed travel.

Note: Challenges exist and in a future article we will address how these and new technologies and methodologies are beginning to address these issues. It’s no surprise that this method has gaps that include: road warriors not forwarding their emails to these data aggregators, preferred supplier agreements cannot be used or credited when travelers book outside a managed system, how to support these reservations not made by the TMC - even if the TMC can see them, they don’t own them so making changes, cancelling, and receiving updates to flight changes and other services provided by your TMC have to be a more manual process - and how to measure the impact of time when travelers go outside the system to report on and reimburse these expenses.

What You Can and Should Want for Travel in the New Year

Name some travel metrics that you would like to see improved for this year. Ideas typically fall into categories like this:

• A specific way to measure savings for domestic, international, or overall travel.
• Online or overall travel program adoption.
• A better handle on hotel and car costs and averages.
• Meeting travel cost assessments.
• The results of supplier deals.
• A drill down on many other expenses like ground transportation (taxi, Uber, sedan, meals, etc.).
• Satisfaction with your travel program or its parts.
• The quality of data, for example, how often the right project or department code is provided.
• Compliance in a few key areas.  

Travel Management Companies have a wide range of travel data to share on these topics and can and do share it often. This is travel-rear-view-mirror data that can be used to set up a dashboard. While it may be important to you as the person in charge of travel, how is travel impacting other departments and how will travel be impacted by other departments?  You should think bigger and there is more that you may want to consider for this new year.

How can we bring better results to our organizations by adding a few of these considerations to our dashboards? Examples may include:

• How is your policy on cabin class effecting employee retention? Does HR know?
• How is travel anarchy effecting staffing time and costs in finance to manage expense reports and process credit card statements? How is this impacting them?
• Does the travel program and its policies and procedures fall into alignment with the culture of our organization for managing large line items like Travel & Expense?
• Where is travel going to reduce or increase based on our business plan for 2015?
• Will the sales team travel more or less?
• Are we completing one project and adding some that will effect demand? Are certain projects increasing or decreasing in demand?
• Will our team be traveling to riskier parts of the world, do we think that travel is riskier overall, or will travel to risky parts of the world decrease and what should we do to comply with our duty of care commitments to employees? Does legal think all of our processes and procedures comply with our risk tolerance for doing business?

So what will be important to travel and the company’s business plan for 2015? Which of all of these items belong in your dashboard? Let’s face it, we are all stretched and want to leverage our time by making the minimal investment to get the maximum return. So really assessing what can and should be in your dashboard can help leverage your time and deliver results that you can focus on for the maximum impact. Data is not better by the pound. Its quality over quantity. “Measuring what matters” can bring improved results for the new year!

What will be the most important data for you to measure this year?