Profiles In Travel Management: BDO Forecasts Travel

Company: BDO Seidman LLP

Headquarters: Chicago

2002 U.S. air: $3.4 million



Since joining BDO Seidman in 1998, Cindy Gillen—director of procurement and the first person to manage travel at the midmarket accounting and consulting firm—has driven down year-over-year average airfares, hotel room nights and car rental costs. While "making predictions is where the success of a travel program lies," she said, Gillen continues to take a unique approach to vendor relationships and negotiations with the hope of further driving down vendor costs.

At a conference in 1999 hosted by Women In Technology International, Gillen was introduced to Zoomerang, a free online survey tool. Although Zoomerang was not travel-specific, Gillen immediately realized the tool's application for her travel program and brought it into the fold at BDO. At first, Gillen used its surveys to quantify traveler satisfaction with preferred vendors and agency service, but has come to use the tool to get a grasp on upcoming travel trends. As a result, Gillen now can identify new places where the firm could qualify for negotiated discounts.

"We had a lot of information after the fact," Gillen said. "What good is a report that shows that you had 200 people in Toledo last month? So I came up with the idea that we'll send bi-yearly advance surveys to our partners and ask them to predict what they and their staff will be doing in the upcoming six months. That gives us some indication of some new clients that might be in the pipeline and major changes we might expect in their travel patterns so I can consolidate this information." The approach has given Gillen a leg up in estimating the volumes she will deliver to preferred vendors and the ability to maximize corporate discounts with those suppliers as a result.

Although the basic service of the tool is free, Gillen opted to take advantage of the tool's premium service, which has a stronger reporting functionality and gives her a better view of upcoming travel patterns. "It is particularly useful for us because we consistently have a solid compliance program, so vendors can see that in the past we've always come through on the volume," Gillen said. "If we expect to bring new business to a city, we'd like to set up a preferred rate program in advance and vendors are much more open because they see we've delivered elsewhere."

One hurdle remains for BDO to truly maximize discounts: As a midmarket company, BDO cannot deliver volume to the same degree as the corporate travel giants. However, Gillen is beginning to leverage relationships through the BDO Alliance, which, according to the company, "presents an opportunity for other accounting and consulting, law, technology and real estate firms to expand services to their clients." As the company uses its alliances to enhance its key services, Gillen is beginning to leverage travel volume across those alliance members to get better rates. "Avis has extended services to our alliances, which we work with to serve the same clients," Gillen said. "They are the leading service providers within their markets and cities, and they are in markets and cities where BDO doesn't have a presence. As we expand our position within these cities, they get the benefit of our presence on a national and international scale."