Richard Crum
The Association of Corporate Travel Executives in July will install as its new president Richard Crum, AirPlus International North America president. He will serve a 16-month term and succeed current ACTE president Greeley Koch, who agreed to an extended term after Dupont global travel buyer Nadine Dewart resigned last spring as president-elect. Crum last week spoke with Management.travelabout ACTE's plans and the latest developments in the corporate payment sector.
Have you been satisfied with the quality of ACTE's educational programming, and in what ways can it be improved?
I have been very satisfied and the reviews that come out of each conference verify that members have been satisfied. The opportunities are for us to continue to expand globally. We'll have an executive forum in Russia this year for the first time. The more our education can carry us into more markets and take advantage of the learning we get in those new markets, the further it strengthens what we can do for our members. Members also want networking and we provide--and will continue to innovate on how we provide--those networking opportunities, whether at executive forums or global conferences, to make sure members are learning from each other and not just through the presentations, the research and the education. As a global organization, ACTE is a great platform for executives that manage global organizations, whether its global travel managers, or suppliers or travel management companies who, more and more, have global challenges. Networking is the crux of what our product will focus on and develop.
What topics are on the top of your agenda?
We have been out there on a number of issues: corporate social responsibility has been an initiative that ACTE has led by holding the first carbon-neutral conference in Barcelona. We will continue that trend to make sure that ACTE as an organization is helping our members understand and find ways to be friendly to the environment. And we will be prepared to deal with new topics as they come up. When the automated targeting systemcame up, we were quick to respond by understanding the issue, studying it and making our position known to the government. Security issues have been very important. That is something that travel managers in general and travelers in particular are dealing with more and more. There still is a concern with contagion, and making sure companies are ready to deal with that--whether bird flu or something else--and have the business resiliency and plans to continue their operations. There also could be economic issues. There was a lot of talk about global distribution systems last year and, from my perspective in the payment industry, I suspect there will be changes in how the cost of payment is shared over time.
Why should people be thinking differently about AirPlus, UATP and other alternatives to the big payment system providers, as compared with a few years ago?
Two things: Specific to AirPlus, we have developed into a true global provider. We are now local in 32 markets, we have customers in 120 different countries, we offer a complete travel payment set with both lodge card and individual corporate cards, we have a superior reporting platform and we have received high marks for customer service. This year will be about growing into additional markets--China, India, Russia, Latin America, other parts of Asia--and we will continue to innovate our products. The second reason why AirPlus is getting on the radar of more corporations is because of the realistic expectation that the airlines, like they have in dealing with other costs, likely will surcharge, pass through, add a transaction fee--whatever it will be is not crystal clear--and begin to look for ways to pass on the cost of accepting credit cards. It is going to happen. You can see it. Low-cost carriers in Europe are already doing it. You have seen British Airways talk about doing it on ba.com. SAS has done a little experimenting with it. In Australia, the government basically legislated it and now Qantas tacks on a fee. It is coming, and that drives people to look for a low-cost solution, when they realize that they are going to end up paying for it. It is well known that UATP, for the airline merchants, is the lowest-cost credit card they can accept.
What strategies can alternative payment systems employ to compete in the corporate market?
From the perspective of the travel management companies and otherwise, it is important that we are neutral. We only offer corporate payment. We focus on just that. We are not a bank, we are not providing agency services, we are not providing every financial product in the world and we are not doing personal cards or travelers' checks. One-hundred percent of our resources go to corporate payment. Because we do that, we make a very attractive partner for airlines. And for agencies, our partnership with Travizon last year is an example of what we have done with mid-size TMCs, working hand in hand with them. And there are 30 others like it that we have partnered with. Even the mega TMCs ... We will announce soon, in the next few weeks, that one of the megas is partnering with AirPlus in the U.S. to make our offering part of what they have in the marketplace. In terms of customer needs, data is the key to a lot of what they are asking for. They want enhanced data on all of their transactions, and the ability to integrate that data into their internal systems. We are looking at new reporting opportunities to identify cost savings and ways to better manage the program. Last year we launched in the U.K.--and will roll out to other markets--a product called AIDA [ AirPlus Integrated Data and Acceptance]. In many markets, but in the U.K. particularly, a lot of hotel purchasing is still done on a central account, and typically an agency is holding that receivable and managing it. We knew that with our reporting capabilities and the AirPlus company account, if we could enable acceptance at all these hotel properties, we would give both the agency and the corporation a better solution. By connecting MasterCard and UATP through the AIDA technology, we were able to solve that need and bring a better solution to that market. Now we will bring it to the rest of Europe and the United States. For the U.S., we have not set a date, but it will probably be later this year.
Earlier, you mentioned the legislation in Australia. What is the latest thinking at the International Air Transport Association, in terms of payment for airline tickets?
They are looking for ways, on a non-competitive basis, where they can help airlines reduce those costs. It will be interesting to see what they can come up with. There are ways in the back office, on a non-competitive basis, where they can help [airlines] deal with charge-backs better, or have systems that make it easier on the acceptance side. The bigger opportunity is to try to move business to a lower cost on the merchant side, and that is UATP. IATA is looking at that and I will be interested to see in 2007 what kind of ideas they come up with.