Profiles In Travel Management: Fine Tuning Global Pre-Trip Approval

Fine Tuning Global Pre-Trip Approval

Company: Electronic Data Systems Corp.

Headquarters: Plano, Texas

2002 U.S. booked air volume: $61.4 million



Ten years after successfully implementing a pre-trip authorization policy at Electronic Data Systems, global corporate travel manager Jack Witherspoon has integrated more booking technology into the process, refining and streamlining travel approvals and bookings.

While the policy worldwide initially was enacted to justify and track bookings made through the agency res center, Witherspoon continues to tailor the workflow to apply to online booking channels. "We put pre-trip in because we wanted managers to think about whether a trip was necessary, or whether it was necessary to send four or five people on a trip when one or two would be better. That's what it actually did," Witherspoon said. "We were trying to change behaviors. It made managers think, 'Do I really need to approve this?' Also, it gave them a bit of insight because travelers are supposed to estimate a trip cost for hotels, meals and miscellaneous expenses. So the person who's approving can decide if the budget is too short this month or if the trip should be delayed to another time."

Long after EDS launched pre-trip approval, Witherspoon formed a single global policy, bringing the 137,000 EDS employees in 60 countries under the same pre-trip format. Although a loosely connected network of agencies is regionally positioned, Witherspoon has ensured consistency to travel processes, if not travel agencies.

When Witherspoon relied solely on the agency for travel bookings, "a traveler actually couldn't call and just book at will." As a matter of policy, travelers were required to first go into the company's homegrown pre-trip authorization module and fill out a request. After the request automatically is routed up through the management chain and approved via e-mail, the traveler is granted permission in the form of a unique numerical code—a password that is necessary to access approved booking channels. The code also automatically is sent to the agency to confirm the traveler's booking. "Travelers cannot book a trip through the agency without that code," Witherspoon said.

Now, Witherspoon is taking that same approach for its GetThere booking tool, which the company rolled out domestically last year. "When we started our self-booking tool, we didn't want just anybody booking anything and requesting a ticket," he said, "so we interfaced the GetThere system with the pre-trip approval process."

Travelers now must go through the same pre-trip authorization process for online booking as they had used for agency bookings. After managers grant approval, travelers take the unique ID code to access the booking tool. "When you start off to book the reservation through GetThere, we've incorporated a listing of pre-approved numbers and you have to select the one that matches up to the trip that you're booking. It serves as a check and balance," Witherspoon said.

With the booking tool gaining adoption in the United States—it stands at 25 percent without a mandate—Witherspoon is taking the tool to other locations to streamline the booking process. While both call center bookings through the agency and online bookings through GetThere are acceptable channels for travelers to book, Witherspoon is contemplating mandating the booking tool. "In the U.S., our booked to spend ratio—what's going through the agency versus what's going to the general ledger—stands at 89 percent for air bookings that go through approved booking channels," he said. "It's a little less for car and hotels; it's in the mid-80s for rental cars and right at 80 percent for hotels."

Maintaining that travelers book through these approved channels is critical for several reasons, Witherspoon said. In addition to making approvers think about the necessity and cost of a trip before a traveler books, the pre-trip policy also has helped cut back on cases of fraud since fictitious airline tickets are nearly impossible to book through the system. Furthermore, all trips not booked through the approved channels are audited to safeguard against abuses.

Pre-trip approval also serves as a traveler security precaution. Witherspoon said that Sept. 11 taught the company the value of knowing where travelers are at all times—and travelers have obliged. "We find that most of our travelers are following policy and are tracked through the system," he said. "If, heaven forbid, there is a plane crash or some emergency, we can tell our security department in a very short while if any of our travelers have been affected."

The pre-trip authorization serves as a check and balance throughout the entire travel process. That same unique ID code that a traveler receives upon a trip's approval is used to track the beginning-to-end process of each trip, from pre-trip approval and booking to expense reporting and reimbursement. "As you take your trip, the travel data will go into the expense report, which will have the same number that was approved in the pre-trip approval process," Witherspoon said. The booking information is prepopulated, as charge card data automatically is flowed into EDS' homegrown expense reporting module. When travelers fill out the expense report, they have to confirm what they spent, including out of pocket expenses incurred on the trip.

"After the manager's reconciliation of the expense report, we pay the out-of-pocket expenses, the credit card and then it will move on into the general ledger with the same approval number," Witherspoon said. "There will be a seamless track all the way from pre-trip approval to the general ledger."

Meanwhile, EDS also has taken the pre-trip approach for its temporary assignment program, which is for employee relocations of 30 days or more. Witherspoon said that when EDS establishes a relationship with a client in an area where EDS is not located, the company will send personnel to "support the new contract until it's up and running sufficiently." Before employees embark on such a trip, they must first clear it with management. "We want to make sure that whoever is requesting has the ability to sign up for that amount of time," Witherspoon said. "We use the same travel approval process that we put in there. When they are requesting an apartment for a certain period of time and the projected cost is X, we check to make sure that the person approving it has the ability to approve that much.

"We have a specialty group that does it," he continued. "We've also developed a system where they can make their request online, so the approving process is all tied together." After the approval process, the Web-based Corporate Housing System is used for tracking lease liabilities, providing automated renewal notifications, as well as offering reporting for management of long-term housing expenses.