About this time each year, corporations say goodbye to the casual pace of summer as budget-planning frenzy begins. In this recession, budgeting for 2010 promises to be "more challenging than ever," according to 51 percent of 101 buyers polled for the Procurement.travelCover Story. Only 3 percent expected the process to be "easy" and 46 percent expected a normal cycle, despite the worst economic conditions in decades.
What is normal? Procurement managers lamented the myriad challenges as travel spending declined and along with it yield, occupancy and profits for most air, car, hotel, travel management company and other suppliers. Comparing rates, budgets or travel volumes against prior quarters or years may not help this year ... or next, some contend. Expect many revisions, maybe even an oft-updated travel budget, aligned with the latest corporate strategy and structure.
Supplier relationships also are undergoing greater than usual change. Nearly half of buyers we surveyed said they had or would issue travel management company requests for proposals this year as they strive for better deals or transparency in travel agency remuneration. As detailed in Feature, a new report from U.K. travel associations aims to put forth a better way for corporations to pay for TMC services.
Using mobile devices to pay for en route travel services is one of the emerging ways that corporate travelers could benefit from new mobile applications, according to Technology.
Meanwhile, some hotel buyers are interested in extending hotel contracts, rather than starting the RFP process anew this year, as noted in Leading Practices. Market conditions and staff reductions by buyers and suppliers have combined to prompt some to rethink the same old-same old in a year that is anything but. In Perspective, consultant and author in sourcing properties.
How are the airlines faring these days? Supply Chainexamines the operations, corporate contracts, service levels and ancillary revenues (bags, meals, preferred seats and other fees) in our State Of The Airlines report.
Elsewhere in the issue, read how ConAgra Foods relied on policy and strategyto cut its spending and how a href="/news.php?cid=Reed-Elsevier-meetings-hotels.Sep-09.01">Reed Elsevier devised a global procurement strategy to better leverage all hotel spending.