Travel execs suggest ways to cut costs

ACTE holds forum in Boston

By Susan Avery -- Purchasing, 3/5/2008 9:26:00 AM

Travel managers facing rising costs and tightening budgets learned of ways to control spending at a meeting of the Association of Corporate Travel Executives in Boston yesterday. ACTE holds these regional meetings called Executive Forums annually.

“There are three ways to tighten the travel belt to the next notch,” said Daniel Maschoff of the procurement solutions group at Accenture in Chicago. “One, negotiate better deals with suppliers. Two, manage demand. And, three, not travel.”

Travel moratoriums, he said, are the ultimate demand lever and the least effective. “There are better ways of affecting the travel buy,” 

Focusing in on demand management, Maschoff said that travel managers can influence what travelers buy and that such influence will have an impact on total cost of ownership. For starters, he suggested taking a look at the company travel policy, how it’s communicated and enforced. He also recommended reviewing controls on the buying process which can impact traveler compliance to the policy. 

Presenting with Maschoff was Bruce Finch, senior manager of global travel services at Autodesk in San Rafael, Calif. Despite the company’s growing business, he’s been asked to tighten the travel belt a bit. He’s working with travelers on evaluating the number of people who attend the company’s internal meeting and events. “Maybe not everyone has to go to every event every year,” he said. Autodesk also is looking at consolidating its travel and meetings spend and some videoconferencing options. 

In another session that tied in with the theme of controlling costs, Tony D’Astolfo, vice president of worldwide sales at Rearden Commerce in Foster City, Calif., suggested travel managers take what they do well, that is, actively manage the category, and apply it to other areas of the spend such as airport parking, dining and car services. “You’ve been demonstrating best practices for many years, refining procurement in ways that exceed other purchasing executives,” he said. 

Maschoff agreed with that in his talk. “Travel management is mature compared to other categories of indirect spending. Be leaders within your companies and with your indirect spend colleagues.”