NBTA convention reflects changes in thinking about the travel buy

By Susan Avery -- Purchasing, 7/24/2007 1:51:00 PM

Purchasing influence continues to grow over the travel buy, and was evident in the educational workshops on the agenda and in the aisles of the exhibition hall at the National Business Travel Association 2007 International Convention & Exposition in Boston this week.  More than 6,000 travel buyers, managers and service providers are attending the event, according to the NBTA.

In an educational workshop on “best practices in travel procurement” travel management consultants presented attendees with a top 10 list. Among them:

1. Get senior management support.

2. Understand and clearly define objectives.

3. Align buying goals with the company’s overall strategy.

4. Negotiate price, but buy for value.

5. Measure and live up to commitments in contracts with suppliers.

6. Weigh savings gain versus change pain in negotiations with suppliers.

7. Consolidate spend data to leverage buying power.

8. Understand peer performance. Benchmark.

9. Keep decisions objective.

10. Respect supplier protocol, but challenge where needed.

In the exhibition hall, travel suppliers—airlines, hotels, car rental companies and technology companies—talked with attendees of ways to better manage the travel buy to help reduce costs and streamline processes:

• Carlson Wagonlit Travel added ground transportation to its program optimization services, a consulting arm that helps customers with evaluating existing spend, contracts and practices, and negotiations.
• American Express Business Travel unveiled its new web-based management information data reporting system, American Express AXIS @ Work and introduced a new management information practice within its Advisory Services group. American Express AXIS @ Work presents corporate travel purchasers and managers with centralized online access to data resulting from their companies’ expenditures.
• Orbitz Worldwide, the global online travel company, announced a new alliance with StarCite, the on-demand global meetings management company. Integrating the technology of the two companies is expected to provide those attending corporate meetings with a tool to readily plan and book travel.  
• Expedia Corporate Travel introduced a new reporting tool that allows travel managers to create and run customized travel reports that aggregate travel data across countries and subsidiaries.