McCord's Shared Services, Synergi Grow

<B> McCord's Shared Services, Synergi Grow</B>

By Sarah Welt

<I>Chicago</I> - McCord Travel Management last month promoted Paul Craft from director of the technology department to vice president of technology, and Bob Brindley from director of the marketing department to vice president of marketing. Both Brindley and Craft report to COO Bill Wass, who is the overseer of the shared services department.

McCord officials defined shared services as including finance, human resources, strategic development, marketing and technology. Shared services in Corporate America was defined by one outside consultant as "consolidating services within one organizational component and utilizing another. For example, in a shared services model, all departments go to one other department for human resources or finance, so individuals don't have their own department."

Craft now is responsible for leading the staff supporting all front-office, mid-office and back-office technologies and telecommunications, and will remain in Los Angeles. Brindley now is in charge of pricing sales proposals, helping with market expansion and will help introduce new technologies, such as automated booking and expense management tools, to clients. He will remain at corporate headquarters in Chicago.

Brindley said shared services was formed a year ago after the acquisitions of New York-based Zenith Travel Management in December 1995 and Hoffman Travel Service Inc. of Los Angeles in July 1997 (<I>BTN,</I> July 28, 1997). "As part of the integration process, shared services was created to provide headquarter support services for all profit centers," Brindley said. He noted that the integration of Zenith and Hoffman is an "ongoing process," with Hoffman still using its name, especially in the Los Angeles market.

McCord opened its Dallas office a week ago and is planning to open three to four more offices by the end of the fourth quarter. The agency is looking at Atlanta, Houston, Seattle and Washington, D.C., and wants to "be in the top 15 business markets in the next couple of years," Brindley said. The goal is to move into markets where the company either has a strong relationship with the market-dominant airline or to move into competitive airline markets to help clients negotiate better.

In related business, Synergi--the $7 billion New York-based global travel management network for which McCord is its U.S. affiliate--late last year announced that Donald Carter had replaced J.J. Doran as CEO. Doran left the organization at the end of his contract last fall, and Carter--a former Synergi board member and previously president of Worldwide Travel Management in Canada--assumed the position in November 1998.

Said Synergi chairman Bruce Black, "We appreciate the contributions J.J. made, however, as we enter a new phase of Synergi's business development, focusing more on the day-to-day services provided to our affiliates, this was an appropriate time to make a transition."

Synergi also announced the addition of overseas affiliates, with a combined volume of $100 million--Focus Travel and Stars Travel International in New Zealand, Ireland's Neenan Travel and Agri Reizen in Belgium.

The organization also introduced its new proprietary hotel database, which will allow affiliates to access global and regional rates. Synergi also created a preferred supplier relationship with Hotel Clearing Corp. to facilitate commission collection by Synergi affiliates.