Globalizing a travel management program can generate various benefits--from leverage with suppliers and consistent traveler policies to consolidated data and cost-reduction opportunities--but there are limits to how far an organization should venture down the path. That was a lesson learned by Eastman Kodak, according to the company's manager of global travel and fleet in the worldwide purchasing group William Lasky. "For anything we procure, we start out with the assumption that it can be done with a global sourcing strategy and then dig into the details and back off from there if it is appropriate to become more regional or even local in some cases," said Lasky, speaking here last month at the National Business Travel Association convention. "There are certain things that will always make sense to do at a local level."
For example, Kodak's newest online booking tool deployments for Australia and a homegrown solution for China--initiated this summer--are being handled locally, with assistance from BCD Travel, the company's single, global travel management services provider. Elsewhere, all Kodak locations use one of two vendor-supplied online booking tools.
The company relies on consolidated BCD Travel reservations centers to handle all travel in certain regions. In North America, a single U.S. call center accommodates all Canada and U.S. travel. For 11 countries throughout Europe, Africa and the Middle East, BCD operates a single call center in Mechelen, Belgium. In China, Kodak's "hub of activity" in the Asia region, the company's six major locations are serviced from a center in Shanghai, Lasky explained.
Meanwhile, Kodak's global travel portal is online in 17 countries, according to Lasky's NBTA presentation. He said it includes access to online booking and expense management tools, the company's hotel directory, contact information and travel policies.
The global travel policies include requirements to use BCD Travel or one of the online booking tools to make all reservations, and to use the company's single, global corporate card provider to pay for travel services. Lasky also noted that travelers "cannot fly business class any time," anywhere in the world.
Kodak also has some global agreements with other key travel suppliers, including airlines.
Lasky explained that the travel management function at Kodak reports into the purchasing organization--itself global for several years--which in turn reports directly to the company's CFO. "We have a small staff spread around the world," he said. "No one has travel as their full-time job; in fact, there is probably not one person where travel takes up more than half of their time. So there are multiple hats being worn by all those people, which makes communication very important."
At the same time, the Kodak account management structure at BCD Travel "is quite similar to the structure we have in place internally," Lasky added. "They have individuals responsible for the overall look at the global picture, and they have feet on the street with regional account management and local representation in certain countries where it is appropriate."
Harnessing The Benefits
A globally consolidated travel program provides Kodak with "more leverage and visibility into how we are spending our travel dollars, euros or whatever," Lasky said. "Especially in the current economic environment, it enables us to be as lean as we can possibly be."
A key benefit is the ability to quickly collect worldwide travel data. For example, Kodak receives consolidated data from the center in Mechelen in less than 30 days, according to Lasky. "Our CFO is very interested in understanding how we are spending money on everything, especially on the travel side," he explained. "Responding quickly to management requests for information gives good credibility to the travel management function."
When Kodak conceived the online booking project in China, data from other parts of the world was provided to Asia management "to show the savings our company has achieved by utilizing online booking," Lasky said. "It made them pay attention to the point where they were ready to mandate to travelers in China that they must use the online booking tool that was being offered to them."
Appreciating The Boundaries
The Chinese online booking deployment for Kodak presented challenges familiar to multinational companies operating travel programs in the country, including restrictions related to the TravelSky global distribution system.
Though Kodak would prefer to use the same online booking tool at all global locations, Lasky doesn't see how that would be practical. "There is not one tool that we are aware of that covers all the bases for every part of the world," he said. "Maybe some day that's where we'll be."
In the EMEA region where the Mechelen center provides multinational servicing, Kodak "didn't do all" of the countries, according to BCD Travel vice president of global client management Juan Perez, also speaking at the NBTA event. "Some of that had to do with language, currency and culture."
Consolidating in the Mechelen center--which Lasky described as "quite an ordeal"--presented other challenges. "The office in Belgium is open till 6 p.m.," Perez explained. "Kodak asked the travel management company if they could keep it open until 6 p.m. U.K. time, which was an additional hour. We said, 'Fine, we'll just keep it open an additional hour.' But it doesn't work like that. In Belgium, they had to go to the Works Council [a national group representing workers], which put it on the agenda to explore in three months and would look at it then. You have to think about time zones."
Lasky also highlighted another pitfall: "We had a particular airline deal with a national airline, and when we told that particular airline that we were doing our ticketing out of a different country from [the Mechelen] call center, they said our deal no longer applies because 'the deal that we have with you says you need to do ticketing in the country where we struck the deal,' " he recounted. "So we had to, with the help of our travel management company, negotiate that. It was something we never even thought of prior to doing the consolidation in Europe."
Regarding supplier agreements generally, Kodak has some regional and local contracts to supplement global ones. "It is a good time to leverage what you have, but global doesn't fit everything," Lasky said. "You need the speed and agility that comes along with being at the local level as well."