Crossing Global Lines - 2001-01-15

<B>Crossing Global Lines</B>

By Megan Hjermstad

<I>Rochester, N.Y. - </I>When telecommunications firm Global Crossing acquired Frontier Corp. in August '99, it was "like a minnow eating a whale," according to Jeff Rowoth, manager of corporate travel for Global Crossing.

Rowoth, former travel manager of Frontier, took on the duties of consolidating the travel program and leveraging the volume of the Hamilton, Bermuda-based company, which had more than doubled its domestic air spend from $8 million to more than $20 million. Serving five continents, 27 countries and more than 200 major cities over its global IP-based fiber-optic network, the fifth largest telecommunications company in the United States last year approached $50 million in worldwide T&E.

Global Crossing early in 1999 had aligned with American Express One, which was providing travel service at its executive offices in Los Angeles. Meanwhile, Frontier in 1998 had gone through the RFP process and selected Carlson Wagonlit.

"One of the goals, above cost savings, was to provide a level of global parallel, unified, consistent service. When we looked at the company and global deployment of travel services we decided to retain Amex One as our sole travel services provider," said Rowoth. "The level of service was excellent; it was an excellent company with excellent references."

Rowoth saw value in using Amex as its travel services provider as well as its exclusive card provider. "By combining travel and corporate card--and purchasing card shortly--we can leverage synergies," said Rowoth. Global Crossing is seeing other opportunities for synergy: The company has been talking to Amex One about selling the services of its Westminister, Colo.-based videoconferencing division.

By leveraging supplier discounts of 15 percent to 35 percent off airfares, Amex One already has helped Global Crossing realize $1 million in savings this year, and Rowoth anticipates $3 million to $5 million in savings next year. "The biggest thing was consolidation of suppliers to leverage maximum discount. Some were in place, but Amex One really assisted in growing and magnifying those discounts, and really helped expand the boundaries of the global project," said Rowoth.

Rowoth found that it wasn't always easy communicating supplier changes companywide.

"A lot of people have their own idea of how and where they want to travel," said Rowoth. "It's been a challenge to roll it all out and ball it together."

While Rowoth said senior management certainly didn't micromanage, they were very supportive of putting the program together.

"They were very keen on a strategic relationship with Amex," said Rowoth. "They felt that their business practices and culture mirrored that of our own and they gave full endorsement."

Global Crossing just folded Amex One into its Rochester office, where it has an onsite with 16 travel counselors. The company is going to bring onsite its Los Angeles offsite service, but will continue to use a call center for international travel and after-hours service. Rowoth prefers the onsite configuration because he believes it delivers more dedicated service. "We bring people in as part of the firm, that way we know they are 150 percent dedicated," said Rowoth.

In creating a global travel policy, the company put together best practices. "We looked at over a dozen multinational companies," said Rowoth. "We also looked at like industries, our own internal infrastructure and at the best of what we had."

The policy now is on the corporate intranet and is reviewed and updated by Rowoth every two months.

"It is not carved in stone. I am looking for continual improvement," said Rowoth. "Just putting it there on the intranet would be a waste of time."

The travel pages reside on the intranet under the global services division, which includes real estate, security, health and safety. The travel site includes information on air, hotel, ground operations and private shuttle operations run between Rochester, N.Y., and Morristown, N.J. The site also has traveler profiles, a card application, travel survey for supplier feedback, as well as links to supplier Web sites, weather and travel advisories, maps and city information.

For second quarter, Rowoth is forecasting the worldwide deployment of Web-based self booking. He expects closure on a contract by the end of this quarter with American Express Corporate Travel Online or Sabre. "I am anticipating at least 10 percent to 15 percent savings on top of what American Express One already brought to the table," Rowoth said.

For 2001, Rowoth will focus on expanding travel services around the globe and into new areas of growth for the company, such as South America and Africa. Said Rowoth, "My main thrust will be universal deployment of products and services, policy compliance, cost control, active and progressive use of Web-based tools across time zones and consolidation in new areas.