Few buyers believe a single travel management company is the best in class in every country worldwide, or even in every country in one region. Yet using just one TMC anyway for consistency of policy and service delivery, and above all for consistency of data is tempting. One travel buyer consortium believes it has found a way to square this particular circle, among the greatest dilemmas multinational travel managers face.
The answer, according to Copenhagen-based TravelpoolEurope, a consortium that manages travel on behalf of 35 different companies with a combined spend of 85 million euro across 30 countries, is to turn yourself into a "virtual TMC" via an office identification furnished by a global distribution system provider, said managing director Søren Schødt.
"We can work with any TMC as long as it is on Amadeus," Schødt said. "We have our own central back-office systems. We can just pick another agent and plug it into the same infrastructure."
The benefit, Schødt said, is that "you have flexibility in choosing your local partner. If something goes wrong with a TMC in a country, we can find a new one." TPE has changed its TMC in recent times in France, Germany and the United Kingdom. Among the TMCs it currently uses are BCD Travel, Omega World Travel, Lufthansa City Center, FCM Travel Solutions and the GlobalStar Travel Management network.
TPE's virtual travel agency concept is made reality by the allocation of an office identification from Amadeus. GDSs usually give these IDs to individual offices belonging to their TMC customers. It is not the same as an International Air Transport Association accreditation that allows an agency to issue tickets. Instead, the office ID ensures a record of each reservation fulfilled by an accredited TMC on behalf of TPE is sent to TPE as well.
"All data is captured centrally," said Schødt. "We have a mirror of every booking we do globally. We maintain all our traveler profiles and make them available across all TMCs working for us."
Centralized data capture, according to Schødt, gives TPE a much clearer understanding of spend, as well as higher standards of traveler tracking for security purposes. "There are a lot more things we can do because we only have to do them in one place, not with each TMC." One example he cited is hooking all reservations up to a third-party automated system to claim compensation from airlines for delays and cancellations under the European Union's Regulation 261.
The latest addition to TPE's centralized system has been a robotic quality control system built by the travel technology provider Troovo. Although TPE's TMCs locally carry out their own quality checks on bookings, Schødt felt it important to add a layer of control. "TMCs are doing quality control on their business. We are doing quality control on our spend," he said. "It has been a big improvement. It has saved a lot of hours."
Among the checks the Troovo robot carries out are ensuring that relevant cost centers have been attached to reservations. Most importantly, it verifies that anyone booking a trip ostensibly as an employee of a TPE member company has a traveler profile to confirm they are authorized to do so.
Next on the list are introduction of a fare and hotel rate assurance tool and virtual payments, Schødt said.
According to Schødt, TPE’s combined spend has grown 30 percent year over year in 2019 thanks to new members. The lower TMC fees it negotiates through collective bargaining and assuming many of the tasks normally performed by TMCs are enough to fund TPE's activities and produce additional savings for members. Other savings claimed by TPE include 5 percent to 22 percent in additional rebates through mutual negotiation with airlines and hotels, and 10 percent to 24 percent in process savings.