Western Digital Pursues Array of Travel Initiatives

<B> Western Digital Pursues Array of Travel Initiatives</B>

By Sarah Welt

<I>Irvine, Calif.</I> - In ten years as senior manager of travel services of Western Digital Corp., Susan Lapham has implemented a variety of travel initiatives--and she shows no sign of easing up. Her plan to use videoconferencing to reduce travel (see story, page 1) is just one of her projects. Others have included implementing a strict travel policy, helping to open the first onsite operation in Singapore, negotiating global vendor contracts and centralizing meeting planning. She even has entered Western Digital into the apartment management business.

Lapham started off 1998 with a focus on corporate cards, as the company in January switched from American Express to U.S. Bank Visa. With its travelers accustomed to cash advances, Western Digital liked U.S. Bank's ATM cash advance feature, which Lapham said is driving the cost of cash transactions down from $50 to $7. Global acceptability of the card also was an important issue, she said.

But travelers' acceptance of the program is not much of a concern for Lapham. She credits senior management support from the very top of the company with pushing traveler compliance with corporate policy to what may well be an industry record. "The CEO lets us mandate travel 100 percent," she said. For the past six years, "travelers let us know their destination and we fill in which airline they will fly."

In doing that, Western Digital turns first to its six-year global contract with the Northwest/KLM alliance, which handles about 80 percent of the company's global traffic and 99 percent of Pacific and transatlantic business. Western Digital also uses Reno Air and United and American for domestic business.

"Last year we reported 18 percent savings in the program itself--that doesn't count full coach versus discounted seats," Lapham said. "That translates into $1.7 million off contracted fares."

On the hotel side, Western Digital guarantees at least 100 hotel room nights to preferred suppliers. In Singapore, it has negotiated 3,000 room nights with the Sheraton Towers. Not surprisingly, "We get a very good discount" on that contract, Lapham said.

Because Western Digital has a large number of employees who come to the United States from Singapore--and often stay 30 days or more--Lapham eight years ago decided to move long-term visitors into rental apartments instead of hotels. "It's $70 a night versus $120 a night, and there is no tax," Lapham said. "We've seen huge savings. On an average stay of 30 days, we've seen 35 percent savings on room spend."

Western Digital has used Rosenbluth International as its consolidated domestic agency since 1992. In addition, the company has two Rosenbluth agents onsite at a full-branch office in Singapore to manage its considerable traffic between Los Angeles and Singapore. Rosenbluth also handles group air travel, though Western Digital for the past eight years has pushed meetings to its own facilities wherever possible. At such sites, food and beverage is provided by the company's own catering department. When offsite meetings are necessary, planning is centralized through the travel department.

The strict policy holds for car rental as well, where Western Digital delivers 90 percent of its business, with the exception of a couple of city pairs, to Avis.

In September, the company will be hosting the first meeting of a local travel forum just being formed in Orange County to benchmark travel purchasing with other buyers. Six local companies each will host a meeting at its corporate site "combining an onsite tour with best practices," Lapham said. The first meeting will focus on what travel departments should do as commissions dry up. The companies, all Rosenbluth clients, plan to include their account managers in the meetings.

Western Digital's travel program also is ISO 9001 certified; indeed, the company itself was the first to be ISO 9000 registered in the country, according to Lapham. "All travel policies go through the ISO program. Each travel associate has a job description, and any process is in document form," she said.

The company does not have an online booking system, but does utilize e-mail for travel authorization request forms. Requests are e-mailed to the travel department, then picked up and booked by Rosenbluth. Itineraries are faxed back to travelers. The use of e-mail and fax has reduced the travel agent headcount by one full-time person, Lapham said.

Next on the Western Digital agenda is an automated expense reporting system, which the company hopes it will roll out by September.