Oftentimes, changing point-of-sale preferencing is necessary to reach multiple contract goals initially laid out in road maps generated during the program modeling phase. "But the amount of policing you need to do as travelers make reservations can be minimized if you do a good job up-front," said Nick Vournakis, Carlson Wagonlit Travel manager of strategic sourcing. "That is where we spend the bulk of our time."
Travel managers likely will have to spend even more time on modeling, now that airlines have made extensive changes to their schedules. Indeed, tying in schedules during the modeling phase is key in determining carrier viability, negotiating leverage and the proper supplier mix for a corporation's overall air program.
CWT's air program modeling—one of several available from agencies and outside tech vendors—relies on the agency's global data warehouse and comprehensive analyses of optimization scenarios that consider traveler behavior, corporate culture and airline offerings. Once scenarios are developed, CWT then reaches into its benchmarking database for further analysis. "It helps us to see where the client fits in the marketplace so we can push the envelope in terms of negotiating with carriers," said Steve Shook, CWT vice president of strategic sourcing.
Meanwhile, similar to recently formalized AutoPilot from American Express, Air Program Manager from TPS—an independent consulting firm under the WorldTravel BTI umbrella—can reside on a travel manager's desktop. The tool also runs a series of scenarios, spelling out savings derived from potential airline contract combinations.
The PepsiCo/Pepsi Bottling/Tricon Travel Management Council this year employed Air Program Manager to calculate possible deals by culling spending patterns from the various companies and divisions covered by the council. From the final analysis, PepsiCo negotiated a new airline program that resulted in $11 million in incremental savings.
Barry Rogers, TPS senior vice president, said a key to the software is easy data imports from a variety of sources tied together with historical biases and assumptions on preferred carriers, overrides and traveler compliance. "Air Program Manager provides the science, but there still is the art," he said, referring to preferences for a company's particular divisions, for example.
As of last month, APM had been installed for a total of 11 clients from both TPS' and WorldTravel's client rosters. The overall goal is 20 by year-end.
WorldTravel BTI clients benefit from agent use of TRX's Screen Highlighter to ensure performance on the APM model ultimately implemented with preferred carriers. Rosenbluth clients reap similar benefits from Dacoda, which encompasses both point-of-sale preferencing and program modeling (see story, page 1). APM and Amex's AutoPilot both are available to non-clients for a higher fee.
Meanwhile, as an intended "door-opener" to its Tango modeling tool, independent Travel Analytics developed a free online airline sourcing assessment service. Based on answers to a series of questions on organizational structure, policy and travel volumes and patterns, Travel Analytics will determine the potential savings opportunity for a company's next airline sourcing project. It also will suggest five key inhibiting and enabling factors for a given company's airline sourcing efforts. Travel Analytics already has done 10 such assessments. Overall, more than 70 companies to date have made direct use of the Tango software, with another 30 accounts analyzed for airline clients.