2018 U.S.-Booked Air Volume: $59 million
Primary Global Online Booking Tool: Concur
Primary U.S. Payment Supplier: Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Card Program: individual bill/central pay
Primary Global Expense Supplier: Concur
Primary Global Travel Risk Management Supplier: International SOS
Consolidated Global TMC: BCD
Shire reduced the length of its global policy by 50 percent in 2018 to make it easier to read and to follow, removing ambiguous language and unnecessary or unenforceable rules. Shire worked with BCD Travel to create a leisure travel program for employees, and the company simplified and automated pretrip approval. Shire and BCD also developed a specialized travel agent desk for healthcare professionals, as regulations around the healthcare industry require more agent management, such as arranging prepaid, direct billed travel transactions. A specialized agent desk boosts compliance with regulations, while separating healthcare travel out also improves the productivity of the traditional transient travel desk.
The biopharmaceutical firm also completed the companywide alignment of SAP Concur that began after Shire's 2016 acquisition of Baxalta. First, Shire implemented Concur Travel in the more than 50 countries in which it operates. Later came a global roll out of Concur Expense, and in 2018, Shire redeployed Concur Travel to connect with Concur Expense. Shire rolled out the redeployment over four phases to avoid employee disruption.
More assimilation is on the way. Takeda acquired Shire on Jan. 8, 2019, and the travel team will spend 2019 integrating the programs, which are similar sizes; Shire's 2018 revenue was $15.4 billion, while Takeda's 2017 fiscal-year revenue was $16.5 billion, based on the yen-to-U.S. dollar conversion rate for the last day of the fiscal year, April 31, 2018. Shire's travel program kept the pending merger in mind as it made its way through its 2018 policy refresh.
The company's U.S.-booked air volume rose 3 percent in 2018 to $59 million, and the company expects that figure to maintain in 2019. Of its U.S.-booked air volume, 85 percent was for domestic travel. And 72 percent of U.S.-booked air tickets went through approved online tools.