Consolidation Helps BP Amoco In Crisis

BP Amoco Corp. sent commemorative plaques last month to key suppliers recognizing extraordinary actions in bringing home the oil giant's travelers after the attacks of Sept. 11. The closure of North American airspace left 500 BP employees stranded, but 90 percent of them were repatriated by the following Monday, thanks to the endeavors of its global travel agency, Carlson Wagonlit Travel, and priority treatment from such preferred airlines as British Airways.

In common with many other agents for many other clients, Carlson Wagonlit staff voluntarily worked late nights and weekends to locate and rebook BP travelers. They also had verified within four hours of the atrocities that no BP personnel were on the four aircraft that crashed. Meanwhile, BP updated employees on every continent through e-mail and messages on Sabre Business Travel Solutions.

For John Guarneri, Warrenville, Ill.-based global travel manager for BP, the successful management of the crisis vindicated the company's consolidation of its travel program into a single, streamlined entity with one global travel agency, one corporate card and a small group of global suppliers—six for air and three for hotels. "Sept. 11 proved that what we are doing makes sense," he said.

Few companies genuinely have consolidated to the same extent as BP, which has maintained a coordinated program in the past four years despite mega-mergers with Amoco, Arco and Burmah Castrol. With an annual air spend now in excess of $200 million, the logistics of managing such a huge entity and keeping down costs are difficult enough. Added to that is the need for high-touch service for BP employees traveling to remote and hostile destinations.

The same considerations apply to travel agency configuration. Carlson Wagonlit is closing its nine U.K. BP onsites and transferring calls to a dedicated outplant at Sunbury, a few miles from London Heathrow airport. Antonia Sheedy, BP travel manager for Europe, Middle East and Africa, and Guarneri said the main advantages of the consolidated U.K. reservation center are standardization of service and ease of communications, which greatly aided the rapid, coordinated response on Sept. 11.

Carlson Wagonlit handles BP in 43 countries and can consolidate management information from 40 of them. Along with the implementation of Diners Club in 25 countries, this comprehensiveness of data has been the backbone of BP's ability to negotiate global supplier deals.

BP also has moved quickly into online booking. U.S. adoption rates for BTS have reached 25 percent since its introduction last year, already yielding a return on investment. When Guarneri consolidated the Burmah Castrol travel program, he found no need to take on extra travel agency staff because BTS had reduced the workload so significantly. Sabre is phasing out BTS, however, and plans to move BP over to its newer acquisition, GetThere, in June 2002. In Europe, Guarneri's predecessor Richard Herbert had selected KDS Corporate. BP introduced it in the United Kingdom in February, where, like BTS in the United States, it has been branded internally as E-Travel Planner. Usage in the United Kingdom currently stands at 6 percent, but a new feature that enables both the agent and traveler to manipulate the same screen should help.

Next on Guarneri's agenda is sorting out BP's massive but unquantified meetings spend. He now is reviewing bids to outsource this project. "We are going to test a program in the United States, then bring it to Europe."