Profiles In Travel Management: Tyco Uses Agency Tools To Upgrade Travel Program
Company: Tyco International
Operational Headquarters: Princeton, N.J.
2007 U.S. Booked Air Volume: $32.2 million
Changes Tyco International made to its travel program last year—including transitioning to a new online booking tool, updating its global travel policy and beginning the process of formalizing a meetings management program—are on pace to save the manufacturing conglomerate millions of dollars in 2008 from expenditures that included $32.2 million in 2007 U.S. booked air volume.
Tyco, with operational headquarters in Princeton, N.J., in October, switched from Sabre GetThere-based American Express Online to the Rearden Commerce-based American Express Intelligent Online Marketplace. Tyco now has 85 percent online adoption for U.S. eligible transactions, up from 74 percent in 2006. Average ticket prices are 15 percent to 20 percent less for online bookings versus offline transactions, according to Tyco global travel manager Rose Speckmann.
Tyco now uses a customized Axiom hotel booking capability that has helped increase its preferred hotel compliance by 15 percent to 25 percent. A dropdown menu is loaded with all the company's preferred hotel properties in Canada, Puerto Rico and the United States within a 65- to 70-mile radius of the destination airport.
"That has really saved a lot of frustration and additional time in trying to find the right property," according to Speckmann.
Tyco also introduced an automated travel management service fee allocator, which displays the service fee on travelers' itineraries.
The tool links service fees to the employee's expense report as a segregated data field. The technology gives travelers visibility into the differences between online and offline reservation fees and streamlines monthly fee reconciliation by travel management company American Express Business Travel.
Earlier last year, Speckmann got buy-in from the presidents of Tyco's business units, who issued communications in preparation of the move to the new platform, including a one-page quick-start guide and instructed employees to update traveler profiles.
"We knew that it wouldn't be popular," Speckmann said, "but if we introduced it early we wanted current and up-to-date data in their travel profiles."
Executives receive weekly online booking exception reports for reservations made outside of the suggested travel policy. "We don't want international reservations made online," Speckmann said. "They are too complex and employees probably aren't familiar with booking New York to London and beyond."
The global travel policy has been extended to include flexibility for additional regions, including parts of Asia/Pacific and Europe. According to Speckmann, Tyco's various operating units and geographic regions' key stakeholders from the audit, human resources, legal, security and tax departments now have added input and local expertise into the development of the updated travel policy.
At the end of 2007, the company convened a European travel council primarily made up of representatives from finance and procurement, similar to its U.S. travel council.
Last year, Speckmann also began to consolidate some meetings expenditures for four business units and Tyco's corporate operations in time for the start of the 2009 hotel negotiating season. Speckmann expects to negotiate better rates and save up to 20 percent of its untracked meetings spending.
"When I came into this role, there was no clear understanding of what the company spent on meetings," she said. "Even today, we are still struggling. You can't manage what you don't know."