Belo Builds New Travel Program

<B>Belo Builds New Travel Program</B>

By David Jonas

<I>Dallas - </I>Essentially starting from scratch, Richard Wooten, travel manager at media company Belo, is now more than a year into a new travel management program. Because the corporate culture never had included a managed travel program or an enforced travel policy, Wooten has been careful to avoid mandates for the company's 1,500 travelers while finding areas to slash costs.

In the past year, the program has gone through a travel agency consolidation, established a new corporate card program, began rolling out an online booking system and inked preferred agreements with airlines and car rental companies. Extensive internal and external benchmarking by a consulting firm had first evaluated the opportunities available and provided the impetus for moving forward with the program of roughly $8 million in U.S. booked air volume.

Because Belo had divvied up its business amongst 57 local travel agencies across the country, consolidation was a top priority when Wooten came aboard last May. Within six months, Wooten, who had previously held travel management positions at Monsanto and Texas Instruments, had completed the lion's share of the consolidation, and now 90 percent of the business is handled by WorldTravel Partners, including an onsite at corporate headquarters.

Along with agency consolidation, Belo established a new corporate card program with GE Capital. The card, though not yet mandated, already handles 70 percent of the company's T&E spend. "We wanted to provide a credit tool for all the travelers out there," Wooten said. "But lots of people were used to their personal cards, and we wanted to let them continue that if they so desired."

However, a new policy, replacing one rarely looked at in the past, eliminated direct billing. Improved accountability for travelers already has generated significant savings for Belo. The new policy also includes a flexible lowest available airfare clause. "It is up to the traveler to make a decision based on flexibility, and the reporting shows they are doing a good job accepting the lowest fares offered by the preferreds," Wooten said. "But being in an environment that never had a managed program, I did not want to threaten with non-reimbursement."

Those preferred carriers worked out introductory discount agreements with Belo--some of which are based on net fares while a few others include citypair-specific pricing in certain markets--that Wooten expects to mature over time. The company also has a large ticket volume with Southwest, based nearby at Love Field (see story, page one).

The policy also encourgaes nonrefundable tickets and redefined which senior level employees are eligible for first class while reiterating coach class as the standard for all other travelers, both domestic and international. Wooten said those actions already yielded tangible savings.

One mandate Belo did establish was booking through the travel office. However, Sabre BTS slowly will begin handling more transactions. Wooten is hopeful the initial 5 percent penetration of the online booking system will grow to 25 percent by year-end. In fact, Sabre, through its account management support, will be on hand this week to market and demo the product to travelers at Belo's headquarters.

When Sabre BTS was first introduced, Wooten tried a new age approach to orient travelers. "Some education was necessary to get people comfortable, so we used Webcasting," he said. "Instead of trying to get them into a classroom, we captured them at the desktop."

However, mandating usage of BTS won't be considered unless senior management sees increased cost pressures. "There has been a tremendous amount of change people have had to go through," Wooten said. "With the new policy and the new suppliers and everything else, adding Sabre BTS on top means a lot of information to digest."

Meanwhile, the hotel program still is in its infancy as Belo, for now, is emphasizing bookings through the travel office and capturing the data. "Until this year, Belo relied on local companies to negotiate with one or two properties," Wooten said. "This fall, we will use a more scientific approach with some numbers, which should help us cut some deals with the major chains in our primary markets." He also plans to evaluate the online RFP tools available to facilitate the negotiating cycle.

On the car rental front, Belo negotiated agreements with Avis and Hertz, and unlike in the past, is actively encouraging usage. "Lots of folks had not used any preferred car rental company before this year and now they are finding out that doing so is a big time saver," Wooten said. "They no longer have to wait on that long line, which is important considering the business we are in."

In fact, the nature of Belo's business--media--prompted Wooten to make one other simple, but helpful adjustment. A video monitor in the travel office tuned to news stations allows agents to keep an eye on breaking news and weather and act accordingly. When an important story breaks somewhere in the country, Belo's agents proactively take to the phones to block off hotel rooms in the area, for example. "It really lets our travel department offer a competitive edge to our business," Wooten said.

The company also rolled out a travel Web site on the corporate intranet, including preferred supplier information, travel policy, agency contacts and other information. Destination information will be tied into Sabre's Virtually There product.

Moving forward, Belo early next year will implement an automated expense reporting system, possibly within an ERP solution that would tie it together with Sabre BTS. It also will work on consolidating its meetings and seek out zone fares and hotel room blocks.

Wooten added that direct connection discussions with suppliers and "zeroing in on the mutual benefits of electronic ticketing" will be a part of the next round of negotiating. In fact, he said the 97 percent e-ticket penetration at Belo "blew my socks off" and can be attributed to the agency consolidation orientation sessions that had encouraged e-ticket usage.