<B>Nabisco Cooks W/ Mandate</B>
By Megan Hjermstad
<I>East Hanover, N.J.</I> - As more companies are showing a willingness to mandate travel policy, a heavy hand has paid off for Nabisco Inc. The company has saved well over $1 million on hotel expenditures alone since it mandated last January that all travel be booked through its agency--and has gotten 100 percent compliance on hotel bookings.
"Mandating is the only way you can really save money," said Deborah Maxwell, director of travel. "We've been very successful with it." But, she added, "It would not have worked unless we had senior management buying into it."
Beginning in 1998, Maxwell began to focus on saving money on the hotel side, which had been a weak link in the travel program. Maxwell found that one-third of hotel reservations were not booked through the travel department. Although there were only 220 hotels in the hotel directory, employees were staying at more than 6,000 properties.
"We saw that there was a huge opportunity for savings there. We put together a proposal to mandate. We said that everything T&E related must go through the travel department and must have an itinerary attached," said Maxwell. "It is the only document that actually shows proof of where the travel was purchased." Now, a traveler must have senior management approval to go outside of the hotel program, which includes 205 hotels. The properties are in a variety of downtown, suburban and airport locations, and many are close to Nabisco's bakeries. The properties are broken into three different categories, with one to three hotels in certain cities.
Maxwell solicits continuous feedback and works with travelers to refine the hotel program. "Their feedback was very important to us. Naturally, we got a lot of complaints," said Maxwell. "The most sensitive part of travel is where you put your head down."
Mandating travel already was a part of the company culture. For the past few years, Nabisco employees have been required to take nonrefundable tickets and the lowest fares to get reimbursed. Maxwell has been converting many airline contracts to net-nets and negotiated agreements with three preferred carriers, effective July 1. While Nabisco's U.S. booked air volume is substantial, it is not a Corporate Travel 100 company.
Maxwell has found the airlines to be very cooperative with corporations, but that trust is essential to a good relationship. "I've been working with them for so many years. My philosophy since day one has been to be as honest as I can," said Maxwell. "We've proved over the years that we're not going to say we're going to move a certain market share when I know we can't."
Nabisco employees book through the onsite between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. All after-hours calls go to the American Express hotline. Maxwell reduced the hours of her onsite after she found that most callers between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. were on the East Coast and did not require the later service.
Travelers also have the option of booking through the GetThere.com product, which Nabisco rolled out in January of 1999, after a several-month pilot. Nabisco has a 12 percent adoption rate, and Maxwell by year-end would like to raise it by a another 20 percent. On average, tickets booked online at Nabisco are $50 less expensive. "The traveler now has the responsibility of booking that trip," said Maxwell. "The agent would give it a one-hour window, but the traveler is looking at all of the options that are available."
Use of the online tool, which can be accessed on the corporate intranet, is not mandatory yet, but Maxwell is working on it. Initially, she plans to mandate online booking for five city pairs out of Newark, including the number one Newark-Chicago city pair. "There are people who go from Newark to Chicago every week. They can save the trip as a template, open it, point and click, save it and it's done," she said. "It's that easy."
In the meantime, Maxwell has been marketing the product by running contests, such as a raffle for a $250 Amex gift check, and presentations every week to new employees. Maxwell has found that high phone reservation days also are high online reservation days. "So when they call, the first message when you get put on hold is, 'Remember to use Nabisco look and book,' " said Maxwell. "Travelers don't want to sit on hold all day."
Maxwell, who has been with the company 21 years, has been focusing on consolidating the company's global program ever since her responsibilities changed from human resources to procurement last June.
"The global procurement area as a purchasing function as a whole is fairly new. We were doing it in all categories, so we said, 'why not do it in the travel category?' " said Maxwell.
Nabisco first went out to bid on a corporate card to get data. The company signed a global card agreement with American Express, effective Dec. 1., and received its first quarterly report, with air, hotel and industry spending reports from countries already using the card.
Previously, Nabisco had a First Bank Visa in the United States, but there was no card consistently used worldwide. "Everywhere else was doing their own thing," said Maxwell. "We didn't know what they were doing. We wanted to get acceptance on a global basis."
Maxwell is continuing to work with Amex putting card contracts together on a country-by-country basis, and now is out to bid on the agency side. Nabisco has a 20-year domestic relationship with American Express, but the outcome is uncertain for the agency bids globally. "I don't know if we're going to have one agency or two or three," said Maxwell. "Everything has to fit into place. The numbers have to come in right.