Pitney Bowes Corp. Card Improves Traveler Service.

<FONT SIZE="+3"><B> Pitney Bowes Corp. Card Improves Traveler Service</B>

By Mary Ann McNulty

<I>

Stamford, Conn. </I>- A successful card consolidation at office equipment maker Pitney Bowes Inc. has helped the travel department prove it can offer strategic benefits to various business units by improving service and eliminating costly cash advances.

Two years after it selected American Express as its first corporate card, Pitney Bowes in April began distributing cards to one of its largest business units. The rollout was slow, said manager of travel services Connie Cirillo Freeman, because culture at the office equipment maker allows units to decide how to best run their businesses.

"The unit wasn't anti-card," said Freeman, "but their business was going through major growth and they had a lot of other priorities. The card wasn't one of them. They always said as soon as they got their heads above water, they'd implement."

The wait was worth it for Freeman, who now has 1,500 cards issued to frequent travelers and data that reflects the company's T&E spend, which includes air volume in the $25 million range.

Information in the first year and a half of the program wasn't meaningful enough to use, Freeman noted, because of the low number of cards. However, today, the data she's receiving is much more useful in negotiations because it comes from a larger base.

Freeman acknowledged that card consolidation has been a long-term project at her company, where efforts first began in 1991. "We set out to improve the process of our overall travel expense procedure," she said. "Like many companies, we had been involved with cash advances and all the administrative nightmares that go along with it."

Freeman spoke to other travel managers, vendors and her firm's travelers to compile a list of the advantages of using one card. Previously, the company charged air to a centrally billed account and required employees to use personal cards for business expenses. Beyond the "significant" savings from eliminating cash advances, one of the benefits of a corporate card program is the ability to segregate business from personal expenses, Freeman said.

A travel committee composed of representatives from the company's eight lines of business, corporate purchasing, human resources and other areas developed a card request for proposal and evaluated bids from vendors in May 1994.

The travel committee continues to meet periodically to review card issues while the accounting and travel departments look for ways to continuously improve the expense reimbursement process. For example, Freeman continually looks at the new automated expense reporting products on the market, trying to find one that will integrate with existing systems at Pitney Bowes to streamline the process for travelers.

"It's been an opportunity for travel services to have an audience with people in the different business units and to talk about cost savings," Freeman said. "Here's a program that worked, that has tangible benefits. They can really see that travel management can play some strategic role in their businesses.