<FONT SIZE="+3"><B>Buyers Swap Europe Data</B>
<I>Tech Corps. To Use Benchmarking Software</I>
By Mary Ann McNulty
<I>South Elgin, Ill. </I>- A group of corporations and travel agencies will by year-end be benchmarking their European travel management using a new, customized best practices software program.
Working with consultant Ralph Brown of South Elgin, Ill., representatives from Texas Instruments, Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems, Dell Computer, Unisys and four agencies-American Express, BTI International, Rosenbluth International and WorldTravel Partners-have held meetings throughout Europe to identify best practices and incorporate them into the new software program, "Best Practices In European Travel Management."
Work on the project began earlier this year, when Texas Instruments contacted Brown. "TI wanted to understand the best practices in European travel management and better understand how travel is perceived and implemented in various countries. They wondered why implementation is sometimes difficult," Brown said.
"We wanted to know how we could be more successful," said Yvonne Wootten, manager of travel strategies for Dallas-based TI. Shortly after she began working with the travel representatives around the world, Wootten found that many expectations of travelers, managers and travel management abroad were not defined.
The group began with the model of best practices that Brown incorporated into the U.S. software in 1994, but added changes to reflect country-by-country differences. In regional meetings held in London, Brussels, Stockholm, Madrid and Munich, corporate and agency executives noted the cultural, legal and other differences that must be reflected in evaluating travel management in Europe.
These include a reduced ability to negotiate airline discounts in certain countries because of domination by national airlines and little competition; the different levels of importance that corporate travel management enjoys in different countries; and the laws in some countries that restrict travel managers' access to data. In addition, sections on rail usage and the handling of value-added taxes were incorporate into the European version of the software.
European representatives debated best practices in eight major categories and 70 subcomponents of travel management. Categories included travel policy, travel agency, information management, supplier negotiations, communication, payment, group travel and meetings, and travel management strategy. In the policy section, for example, representatives changed "senior management support" to "management support," Brown said. "Some may be very minor things, but important in order to make things fit in Europe."
Brown also interviewed European executives at other U.S.-based and European-based companies to further refine the benchmarking software.
"The surprising thing to me was that the major components of good travel management are consistent in the U.S. and Europe," Brown said. "The differences are how they're applied by country. The implementation of practices varies because of culture, laws, language, competition, technology, supplier capability and communication."
After collecting all the data from the group, Brown started drafting the European software, which will be distributed in mid-September to all companies participating in the project. Agencies are expected to distribute the program to many corporate customers. Each participant will then use the software to document its travel practices and costs and forward the diskette to Brown, who will load the information into a database.
Brown will send participants reports that compare their procedures and metrics to those of other companies both in the country and throughout Europe. Agencies will be able to produce reports that compare one client's performance against that of others. Reports are expected to be completed after Nov. 15.
Among the metrics that companies will be able to compare are air, hotel and car rental costs; percentage of discounted trips; city pair costs; cost per mile; and use of discounted rates.
Recognizing that a European best practices project would require data from many companies, Brown also solicited the involvement of other high-tech firms and agencies in addition to the ones directly involved in the project. The agencies were tapped to expand the database to include air volume of several hundred million dollars.
Although the benchmarking project was completed for a core group of corporations, other companies can join the benchmarking group. Fees for joining the group are negotiable based on size and location of the company.