Dun & Bradstreet Builds An Internal Consortium

<B> Dun & Bradstreet Builds An Internal Consortium</B>

By Jay Campbell

<I>Atlanta</I> - Normally when a company spins off entities that generate half of its travel volume, the corporate travel program loses clout with suppliers.

But at Dun & Bradstreet Corp., director of travel services Beth Castleberry has managed to hold onto the volumes of four legally separate corporations and maintain central management of a scattered group of travel needs--leading to solid supplier relationships and the global expansion of her program.

By maintaining central control in "sort of a virtual office, not in headquarters," Castleberry said, D&B has developed relationships with suppliers that enabled it to recover much of the revenue lost to the recent international commission cap (<I>BTN,</I> Feb. 22). In return, she offered increased, but "reasonable," commitments.

"That took history," she said. "We are good partners with two particular airlines and have been successful in improving their market share. So, without demanding it, I said, 'You've got to let us recapture this or I have to figure out another way.' If we hadn't produced in the past, I could see them saying no."

Castleberry reported other successes as well. The combination of increased usage of preferred airlines and tougher policies on airline classes at some D&B companies led to a 6 percent drop in average ticket price between 1997 and 1998--at a time when airfares were on the rise. She estimated that the managed travel program logged a 1998 overall T&E savings of $3 million.

It is numbers like these that drew the different companies operating under the D&B umbrella to the program in the first place, back in 1993. "People really do see the value in it," she said. "They go from a company with between $70,000 and $12 million in air, to one that does $35 million."

As some of the entities were spun off, its agency, American Express, supported Castleberry's attempts to keep the travel program together, and travel vendors accepted the consortium-like situation "as long as we maintained central control," she said. Now the program includes four IMS Health companies as well as Dun & Bradstreet's two, R.H. Donnelley and Nielsen Media.

Castleberry said communication was key to holding the program together. "We rewrote the travel policies last year for several of our companies," she said, "and then it was a matter of making people aware of them."

Because headquarters for the four corporate parents and their eight operating companies are scattered around the country, Castleberry focused on electronic means--the company's travel Web site and e-mail--to communicate policies. To draw travelers to the site, she raffled off a free airline ticket to one employee who came up with a question that was not already on the site's Frequently Asked Questions page, in a sort of "stump the travel director" game.

The Web site also offers breaking travel news, guidelines on electronic ticketing and information about D&B's rollout of the AXI automated booking system, which went online in November.

With Amex's help, Castleberry has found a new way for travel management to benefit from frequent flyer points: Although usage of AXI is voluntary, every traveler who signs on is added to a pool for 250,000 OnePass miles. The company now has about 500 enrollees out of 7,000 travelers.

Castleberry's accomplishments are particularly noteworthy given the scattered nature of the corporation, and the fact that she reports to two bosses--one at Dun & Bradstreet corporate and another at IMS Health.

The experience has become a lesson. "I remember there was a lot of talk about consortium buying at NBTA last summer," she said, "but we couldn't have this program together if we weren't previously part of the same corporation."

Going forward, Castleberry is planning to explore the possibilities of flat airfares for certain city pairs. "Although we'd like to get that in place on more domestic city pairs, we may be more successful on routes to Asia," she said. "Recent fare increases have almost wiped out our improved point-of-sale discounts--it's like two steps forward and four steps back. So we think there's lots of room for expansion of flat fares, especially in our top markets. Now we just have to convince the airlines." Already she has talked to one carrier about the concept.

Meanwhile, Castleberry is working to expand the travel program to D&B's major foreign regions.