Profiles InTravel Management: Centerprise Enterprises With Orbitz

Centerprise Enterprises With Orbitz

Company: Centerprise Advisors

Headquarters: Chicago

Annual U.S. booked air volume: $1.3 million



Mike Berent, COO of professional services for accounting firm Centerprise Advisors, in September was among the first to implement Orbitz for Business as an online travel agency, and since has seen the infant program's positive effect on his company's bottom line. Centerprise has averaged a $5 per transaction reduction in service charges, which has saved the company about 30 percent to 40 percent compared with previous booking fees the company paid before using Orbitz.

"In every company in this economy—I don't care if you're GE or if you're Centerprise—right now you're concerned about every dollar spent that is a pure expense," Berent said. "Everyone knows out there in the business world that it takes $4 or $5 in revenue to pay back $1 in expense."

Before settling on Orbitz for Business, Centerprise—which has seven regional firms in the United States and 1,000 employees, nearly half of which comprise the company's traveler population—had tried several travel management options: individual travel agencies at the regional firms, a consolidated national corporate travel agency and a variety of Internet-based "low-fare" Web sites. "There was a lot of Internet traffic," Berent said. "Name the site, we've probably used it."

Berent was disappointed with both the travel agency model and the lineup of Internet booking tools that seemed to claim the lowest fares. Berent said the agencies Centerprise worked with could not fully meet the company's demands and were inconsistent in offering the lowest prices.

"Late last year and early this year, we were trying to work with one of the national corporate travel agencies and see if that would help us do what we needed to do with regard to managing our program," Berent said. "The travel agency model is unable to keep up with the demands on really finding us the lowest-cost provider, especially from an airline perspective."

While booking air has been Orbitz's primary function, Centerprise views Orbitz as an online travel agency with the ability to book hotel rooms, incorporate the company's Avis car rental arrangements into the program, as well as take advantage of Orbitz's most common function.

In addition to booking capabilities in the key travel markets, Centerprise will use data collected from Orbitz for Business for reporting expenses and looking at employee compliance with travel policy.

"We're calling it Trip Tracker," said Kendra Thornton, an Orbitz spokesperson. "It's all rolled up into Orbitz for Business and it's a monthly report that we provide all our customers at the end of the month that gives a 360-degree view of all the spending."

The data give Berent both a comprehensive view of travel spend and individual employee traveler profiles, which has served as a tool for monitoring compliance and regulating travel spend within the company.

"Because we've captured the name of the employee and can link the Orbitz ID into our employee numbering system, it's pretty easy to bracket expenses and timeframe," Berent said.

Although the company has not yet claimed preferred vendors for air and hotel, Berent will use the Orbitz data as the groundwork for negotiating deals in the future. Berent considered the company's firms and destinations to be located in "secondary markets" and not in the "big city primary markets."

By using data from Orbitz, Berent will see where Centerprise has heavy air traffic and negotiate with the airlines based on that information. "This year I'm obviously using the system for its most basic purposes, to help us do our travel," he said. "Next year we can take this year's data, especially on current travel trends, and decide what we should be doing special in negotiating with specific carriers, especially if our volumes in certain corridors make a lot of sense."

Although Orbitz for Business is still a work in progress and Centerprise is among its first guinea pigs, Berent expected that Orbitz will become a full-service agency and continue to add more robust and personalized features for clients.

"The future with Orbitz for Business is that they'll be able to instill our business practices into their model," he said. In the meantime, Berent is content with his savings on service charges.