Reporting Travel Data Throughout the Organization

BTN: We've heard a lot about data advancements lately and new tools on the market to deliver business intelligence. What data initiatives are you working on?

Michelle Hunt: The first challenge that I run into is data integrity. Depending on your source and other variables, you still have to clean it and validate it before you can make it actionable. That takes time. I can pretty much predict the questions that will come [once executives receive the reports], so I go through and figure that out first. That said, if the integrity isn't there, it delays everything.

BTN: What sources of data are you using?

Hunt: I mainly use travel management company data and credit card data. I would really like to get into the [expense] data because there's so much more there. Unfortunately, not all of my companies use [the same tool], so it's hard. Starting with Q1 data, I standardized the reporting that I share throughout the organization. I want to start to benchmark my [internal] companies against one another to see if that creates some friendly competition in the organization to get them to do the right thing.

BTN: What standard metrics are you using and what is the format of the report?

Hunt: It's an Excel report right now, but we have a stoplight theory behind it—red, yellow, green—to help visualize key areas. We are using fairly standard metrics like average ticket prices but also reasons for travel. We are looking for certain percentages that fall out of range [at which point] you get a red on that one or a yellow over here and, if things look good, a green.

Neil Corp: I do a similar report for my department heads. I compile expense data, TMC and credit card data and try to distribute quarterly. It gets fairly granular about top performers, a bit of name and shame, and all that data is shared to all the departments. They get to see what others are doing.

BTN: Internal benchmarking is a great lever, but it's been out there a while. Is anyone working on a new idea and what are your goals?

Corp: My dream, with the way data is going, is to show a true trip cost, from door-to-door. We have distribution centers, so there's regular travel to those places. I would like to show an average monthly cost to those places. Then, you could benchmark departments against that total trip cost, "the top end was this, the bottom end was this." [Department heads] would be able to go back and ask, "Why are we spending so much?" You could go into it even more, depending on the appetite for data. You could show trip cost when people booked 21 days in advance versus those who booked closer in and that type of thing. The data is all there right now to do it, but it's a matter of matching it back to the traveler. We rely too much on associates and how they input data into [the expense tool] or the agency miscoding a cost center or that kind of thing.

BTN: Do you bring your air costs into your expense system or do you have to merge two sets of data?

Corp: We have a travel card for most of our airline spend, so at least that one data [set] is quite good. That's lucky for that side. The rest of it is really on [our expense tool], so we have to try to match it somehow.

BTN: C-suite executives and department leaders probably care about performance against budget more than anything else. Is that the ultimate goal behind your reports?

Joe Monaghan: Ultimately, it's performance against the budget. That's really the number. The closer [the business leaders] get to that number, the more detail they want, absolutely.

BTN: There are solutions coming onto the market today to track travel spend against the budget and then provide notifications to business leads about percent of budget left in real time. Is anyone using those?

Monaghan: We have a product that I can pull data in from virtually any source, which works for us really well. It's as good as any other product that's out there, and we do look at multiple data sources. We distribute those types of budget reports monthly.

BTN: Do they reflect future, booked travel against the budget?

Monaghan: Yes, absolutely, and we do some unique things with that data. Every morning, for example, we rerun back through Sabre every [airline] reservation in the system that's less than 24 hours old. The tool spits out a [rebooking] report that can go in and rebook seats [coming in at a lower cost]. Fare classes change every night, so we watch it for 24 hours and [within that time frame] I can change it for free. We call it our "found money" report. That's been a huge windfall for us.

BTN: And do you typically report that type of savings or cost avoidance to management or department leads?

Monaghan: We call it value add, but it's effectively the same thing, so yes. We're keying in on [exchanges] so that we use money that's already spent. We're maniacally focused on that. At the end of the day, it's, "How am I doing against budget? Can I travel more? Do I need to watch my pennies?"

Corp: The budget is definitely where the sweet spot is for C-suite. But most companies don't have good travel budgets in the first place. I don't know how my company gets [budget] numbers sometimes. The total trip cost that I am working toward is aimed here, as well. It would improve company budgets and C-level suites would then have better data. Often, if you're looking at travel cost savings, people usually just look at a travel budget and reduce that. If they had the budget correct in the first place, it might change things. I'm working toward that in my partnerships with finance, and we're getting there.

Margaret Brady: That is such an excellent point. Finance and travel can't afford to be disconnected. You need to collaborate with your finance team so they're smarter and they advocate for you. They can offer new value to what you're doing … and you can educate them about travel because they probably don't know that much about ancillary fees, etc. It's actually shocking that these conversations don't always happen inside organizations.

BTN: Are others having these conversations?

Corp: We are starting to because without that, [travel buyers] constantly have to react to changes within the company [instead of] working hand in hand. When the company plans to expand, for example, travel should be a central consideration. "How much is that going to cost? Is that an expensive city to fly into?"

Hunt: DHL does a lot of expansion, and we went to the project managers about it. Now we're No. 1 on that project list. They have to notify travel when they're going to go open a new location. Are we involved in where the location's going? No, but we influence what comes next.

BTN: What other metrics does the senior level care about, or what should they care about that they are missing? Alternatively, what should the travel buyer care about that they sometimes miss?

Brady: We can't ignore the revenue side of the business. I mean, that's why we travel, right? To grow the business. When I share data with the senior level but particularly the P&L owners—in a global program [with] a partnership organization where they don't have to comply—my role has been first and foremost to support the business. They did comply, though, because it was business intelligent to do so.

We all have great ideas, but I don't want to tell the business unit what to do. I want to give them the information. They drive the traveler according to the business. That said, you have to work collaboratively by [pointing out the options]: Do you want to push online, do you want to push hotel, do you want to push airfare and compliance? And you show them, "If you want to save $2 million you can do this." You can show them 100 percent of that savings but also give impact options that scale savings from 10 percent, 20 percent, 30 percent and so on.

On the other hand, you've got a consultant working 60 hours a week and he has no life. Is anybody going to kill the guy because he spent the extra dollars? No—not if you're going to make $10 million in revenue with this client work and you're going to spend $200,000 on airfare. Travel buyers may not know but they should make a point to know the relevance to the business. And then demonstrate that in the reporting if they can.