NBTA 2008: An opportunity for purchasing to make a difference
By Susan Avery -- Purchasing, 8/1/2008 11:55:00 AM
Rising costs of corporate travel and economic uncertainty enticed more travel buyers than ever before to the 40th Annual National Business Travel Association International Convention & Exposition. In fact, more than 6,400 travel buyers and suppliers attended the event in Los Angeles recently.
“There’s never been a better time for travel buyers to make a difference at their companies,” said Robert Greyber, senior vice president at Egencia Corporate Travel North America. He summed up the mood of the conference at one of the educational sessions held during the event, and told buyers to “take advantage of the opportunity for innovation.”
At the show, travel buyers sat in on educational sessions to hone their skills in such diverse areas as supplier relationship management, strategic meetings management, procure-to-pay best practices and social networking.
Travel supplier companies—travel management companies, airlines, hotels, car rental companies and technology providers—numbered more than 400 in the exhibit hall and were on hand to consult with buyers on some of their most pressing questions and to introduce new products and services.
Since companies are hesitant to give up travel—they believe it’s necessary in an increasingly competitive world—a hot topic at the event was compliance—how to sell travel programs to travelers so they purchase services through preferred suppliers. Purchasing from contracts with preferred suppliers is one way to help keep costs in check with negotiated rates and volume discounts.
Another way is: demand management—educating travelers to make smart decisions about the travel they do. This may mean taking a day rather than an overnight trip, staying in a mid-tier hotel or driving to a destination.
Setting the stage for the educational session on innovating supplier relationships, Corey Hance, client consulting services manager at Egenica, said the topic is “particularly relevant” for travel buyers in attendance given the softening economy, airlines slashing routes and adding fees and fluctuating hotel room rates.
“Everyone is looking to get the most for his dollar,” he said. “Travel buyers are looking up and down the supply chain to determine which suppliers it makes the most sense to work with as partners.”
Sanjit Menezes, vice president at Anklesaria Group, agreed that travel buyers are under tremendous pressure to reduce costs. “But, it’s not about negotiating rates, it’s about generating value through breakthrough process improvements.”
Menezes added: “Suppliers may be doing things that are causing you to spend more money, and you may be doing things that are causing your suppliers to spend more money.”
Also presenting at the session was Doris Middleton, travel manager at Energizer. She recently renewed an agreement her company has with its travel management company. Working with the TMC, she helped raise customer satisfaction levels among travelers to 80% from about 50% in two years. To do this, they set clear expectations for service early on and “broadly communicated them so that everyone is on the same page.” The service level agreement includes penalties rather than rewards to incite supplier performance. “We expect suppliers to meet expectations,” she said.
And to improve efficiency and reduce costs, Energizer uses fees for travelers booking trips directly with the TMC ($50) and using the company’s automated booking tool ($10).
Travel buyers and suppliers attending the NBTA event also were talking about strategic meetings management programs and ways to improve efficiencies and reduce costs of this buy, which for some companies can equal spending on airline travel.
At the educational session on strategic meetings management—models of success, Pamela McTeer, senior supply manager at MillerCoors, said that the buy is the responsibility of the strategic sourcing function at her company because it needs visibility into the spend and to better mitigate risk associated with it. MillerCoors spends approximately $40 million on about 500 meetings annually. It outsources much of the buy to two meeting planning companies.
In the exhibit hall, travel buyers found:
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At the Travelocity Business booth, the company boasted that its clients have set a new standard with 85% of bookings made via the GetThere online booking tool, up from 80% at the close of 2007. It also announced a new portal for travel arrangers, which will be available beginning in August. In related news, parent company Sabre Holdings recently acquired BidStork, a tool for use in negotiations with hoteliers.
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Orbitz for Business unveiled a ranking of the top business travel markets in which costs (average domestic airfare and average daily rates for hotels) have demonstrated price fluctuations. For example, the market that has seen the greatest percentage increase dollar-wise in average transaction is Columbus, Ohio. Salt Lake City, Utah, tops the list of cities on a percentage basis that have seen their average air transaction decrease in 2008. The company also announced an agreement with ExpenseWire, a Rearden Commerce company, to provide its expense management tool to Orbitz for Business customers.
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Hogg Robinson Group rolled out an enhanced version of HRG i-Suite. The web-based portal now offers ability to integrate a new self-service reservation tool, data consolidation and reporting and traveler tracking capabilities.
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Egencia, an Expedia company,debuted its On the Go tool and the integration of content such as hotel reviews, city guides and SeatGuru by TripAdvisor online that helps customers make informed decisions when planning travel. In the U.S., the On the Go tool delivers updated itinerary information via text, email and voicemail to business travelers. In Europe, travelers who are more likely to have Internet-enabled phones or PDAs are able to access data such as itineraries, flight schedules and local weather conditions from a mobile device.
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TripIt announced a partnership with Sabre VirtuallyThere. TripIt provides a travel itinerary and social networking service for business travelers. By forwarding their flight, hotel and rental car confirmation emails to TripIt, travelers received a combined master itinerary with all their plans in one place. The company is expanding the tool to include meetings, events, restaurants, car services, trains and cruises. The service also provides information on daily weather, local maps, driving directions and city guides.
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StarCite introduced two new products for small and medium-sized businesses that allow these companies to bring control, consolidation and oversight to every aspect of their meeting planning process. This, the company says, helps reduce costs and maximize the company’s investment in meetings and events. It also took the opportunity to unveil its new StarCite Group Rate Advisor report which provides meeting planners and suppliers with hotel rate forecasts using meeting planning data from RFPs (request for proposal) flowing through its meetings platform.
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Worktopia used the expo to launch its Universal Meeting Solution. UMS automates the process for meeting planners to search, compare and book space for simple meetings, arrange catering, audio-video equipment, overnight accommodations and other amenities. The tool provides attendee management capabilities, meeting activity reports and user enrollment tools.
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CyberShift announced the availability of expense report approval functionality for its Necho Expense Mobile Edition. The tool, which enables Necho Expense users to create an expense report now also allows managers to review and approve expense reports directly from their handheld device such as a BlackBerry smartphone.
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BMO Spend & Payment Solutions, a division of BMO Financial Group, is combining its Spend Solutions suite with on-demand offerings available through Ariba. With the Spend Solutions suite, companies can manage spending from sourcing suppliers and contract management to procurement and invoice presentment and payment.
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At the Visa booth, the company shined the spotlight on its updated and expanded commercial payment card best practices study. Results show procure-to-pay automation helps companies improve efficiencies and reduce costs.
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Susan Avery - 8/5/2008 10:29:00 AM EDT -
Great Conference. I\'d like to suggest some type of large networking event at the convention center during one day of the conference in lieu of, or addition to one of the evening receptions. I believe it would be a very popular event and having it during the day at the show would lend itself to good attendance, perhaps before or after a lunch one day. Craig A. Stechman, CHSP VP Sales & Marketing Hersha Hospitality Management 717-507-3497 craig.stechman@hersha.com www.hershahotels.com
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Great Conference. I'd like to suggest some type of large networking event at the convention center during one day of the conference in lieu of, or addition to one of the evening receptions.
I believe it would be a very popular event and having it during the day at the show would lend itself to good attendance, perhaps before or after a lunch one day.
Craig A. Stechman, CHSP
VP Sales & Marketing
Hersha Hospitality Management
717-507-3497
craig.stechman@hersha.com
www.hershahotels.com
Craig Stechman - 8/3/2008 6:43:00 AM EDT
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