Mandating, Consolidating And RenegotiatingCompany: Agilent Technologies
Headquarters: Palo Alto, Calif.
2002 U.S. booked air volume: $25 million
When Agilent Technology's senior management posed the challenge to kick off companywide cost-cutting initiatives, global travel manager Stephanie Kashevaroff stepped up to the task by mandating the company's travel policy, consolidating its global agency and implementing a midyear hotel negotiation strategy, yielding "significant" savings as a result.
In 2001, the company's U.S. booked air volume stood at $37 million. Through a general decline in travel coupled with cost-slashing initiatives, Agilent last year cut its U.S. booked air volume by nearly 33 percent, reflecting a downward spiral of travel costs that Kashevaroff expects to continue. The cornerstone of Agilent's travel cost-cutting plan was a recently implemented mandated policy.
"I presented the mandate to senior management when I knew we had cost-cutting initiatives to do," Kashevaroff said. "Before, we took the 'If you feel like it, it's okay' approach. Well, those days are gone." She said travelers now must use the agency to book air, car and hotel, and the GetThere booking tool in the United States for all transactions with four segments or less. Agilent's adoption of the GetThere product stands between 35 percent and 40 percent, but with the mandate Kashevaroff this year plans to bring that up to 70 percent.
Through taking a harder line on the company's travel policy, Kashevaroff has been able to drive negotiated volumes to the company's preferred vendors. The revamped travel policy also enables the company to have a better grasp of traveler security, since the whereabouts of employees on the road are available in the company's system.
Meanwhile, echoing an emerging trend in hotel negotiations
(BTN, June 23), Agilent this year "did a midyear renegotiation for our hotel program, and it has helped save a significant amount on hotel rates," Kashevaroff said. "We took our top 200 properties and tried to consolidate those to a smaller number of hotels and give them more marketshare. We did the RFPs in late May and early June. Now they're back and completed, and the new rates will be in in July."
The company's mandated policy also bolstered hotel negotiations, she said, noting hotel vendors were more receptive to volume delivery estimates since she could back it up. "We can put some meat behind it since travelers need to be booking with our preferred suppliers," she said. Kashevaroff estimated that the renegotiation has saved the company 15 percent on hotel rates.
By consolidating the agency worldwide, mandating the online booking tool and moving all online transactions to the lower-cost corporate fulfillment center, Kashevaroff also has been able to cut agency staff, as well as costs. "We'll just have a handful of specialized people in the agency," she said. "Our goal is to save a significant amount on overall agency costs." With Europe and the Americas largely placed under the WorldTravel BTI umbrella since the end of last year, Agilent has set the goal to move to a completely consolidated global agency program by the end of 2005. The company is rolling out WorldTravel BTI in some of the "first-tier" areas in Asia/Pacific, which include Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong. "It is fragmented, but we're making some major strides," she said. "So far, we've moved 10 agencies down to four."