Convergys this year is beginning to consolidate travel management for the first time, enlisting Radius on five continents. After having as many as 25 agencies around the globe, the customer relationship and professional services firm this year will start implementing the new program, first in the United States and Canada.
Convergys travel manager Catherine Morris two years ago was hired to analyze and improve the North American program, but soon thereafter "we decided we may as well go ahead and look at this on a global basis," she said last month here at the National Business Travel Association convention.
Headquartered in Cincinnati, Convergys has 68,000 employees serving clients in 70 countries, according to the company's Web site. When the travel project started, the company managed travel on a "per country basis," according to Morris' presentation. The company designated travel managers for larger markets in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and India, and assigned "procurement agents" to the rest.
"Travel and entertainment spend is about $45 million, but 30 percent was completely unmanaged," Morris said. "We were unable to find reports from several countries. Even now we are uncovering pieces of information" that help to further refine T&E spending numbers. "That did give me the attention of the CFO."
Morris worked with accounting departments around the world to examine credit card reports and piece together spending information. "Even though we did have a travel management company in most countries, not all of those travelers were compliant," she explained.
In another early step, Morris formed a committee including travel managers from North America, EMEA and India, and a senior sourcing manager. She also sought support from senior management, communicated with very frequent travelers and conducted presentations for various Convergys departments. "My priority was to change the travel company, but I also had to include IT, human resources and legal. Unfortunately, their priorities aren't always what my priorities are," she said. "I had to reach out to all and make sure we were accommodating their needs for their travelers."
That required collaboration with managers around the globe. "Take time to find out about the travel program; center on the dislikes to find out how you can fix those," Morris said. "In a lot of countries, a procurement agent was assigned and didn't know much about travel. They were more interested in buying chairs or desktops. When someone comes in and says, 'I can help you with your travel program, what do you like and what don't you like?' you get them on your side."
The 'Tedious' TMC RFP
Morris described the travel management company request for proposals process--which took "probably about a year and a half"--as "thorough" and "tedious." She included representatives from each country, established a "scoring matrix" to chart those representatives' wants and needs, engaged a travel consultant and examined each country's employment laws, licensing requirements, cultural nuances and available resources.
"We wanted to make sure that [whichever TMC] we did pick would be able to service not just our largest market, which is North America, but also our smallest market," she said. "We were able to get a good group. We chose four." Morris named Radius, but did not list all four agencies selected. She was not available by press time to provide additional information.
According to a Radius newsletter, Convergys selected the TMC network in June for a five-year contract. "Convergys is moving away from Carlson Wagonlit who has been their North American provider for 17 years," according to Radius. It noted that Radius member Travel Inc. "will be handling U.S. and Canada--which accounts for about 80 percent of the total spend," and highlighted "incumbent agencies Portman [based in the United Kingdom] and [Israel's] Amsalem" as among those that will service the account.
According to Morris, implementation is starting this quarter in the United States and Canada and "then we'll move onto EMEA and the other countries--phasing in the larger countries, then going down to the small ones." Other markets identified by Radius include Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, India, Israel and the Philippines.
Small Steps
The new TMC implementation comes after "15-plus years of [having a] 'complacent' program," according to Morris' presentation. "Change after years of 'status quo' does not come easily."
"One of the cultural differences is in our India program, a program that is very service-oriented, meaning we have onsites there that they want to remain onsite," Morris explained, noting local travelers' lack of "access" to online booking. "You have to be sensitive to the fact that we have to accommodate them in the style that they wish. To get them to agree to a new agency means you have to move in small steps."
In that situation, "consider offering the onsite agents positions to keep them there, to see if they would change [travel] companies," Morris suggested. "You are not trying to make drastic changes."
When asked about agency pricing, Morris said, "In some of the smaller countries, the practice [of paying transaction fees] is going to be different for them. We have support of the procurement departments, and we have to explain the process and why the fees are there."