A top priority for PricewaterhouseCoopers' $750 million global travel management program is expanding usage of a traveler tracking system amid heightened concerns of terrorist activities, natural disasters and other disruptive events. Corporations increasingly are undertaking such risk-management initiatives, but like many transnational programs, PwC's is challenged by leakage from preferred booking channels and differing local travel policies.
"We are able to track the majority of travelers, but it is hard to know which ones you are not tracking," said PwC global travel manager Nicki Leeds.
Because PwC generally has consolidated global travel operations with American Express and what had been known as BTI, Leeds said the company already can effectively track most of its 60,000 worldwide travelers using a system furnished by Philadelphia-based International SOS. "The agencies drop passenger name records into a queue and then [International SOS] accesses the queue, takes passenger name records and uploads the information to a Web site so we can locate our travelers," she explained. "For the simple PNRs, its easy. Once they're in, they're in. The problem occurs when PNRs are rebooked. It gets very complicated and I am not 100 percent confident we can track every single traveler. That is worrisome."
Executives at International SOS said the latest version of its Traveler Locator Service addresses that concern, though the solution relies on travelers to communicate changes to administrators who input them manually. "We have the ability to verify information directly with global distribution systems to ensure data integrity," said product manager Melissa Kreidie.
A consolidated global travel management program is key to comprehensive traveler tracking, but such efforts can fail when travelers book outside designated channels. Global travel managers show particular concern for hotel (rather than air) bookings, since hotels are less frequently booked through the designated travel management company.
PwC's Leeds pointed to several obstacles in achieving greater global hotel program compliance, including challenges in communicating specifics to more than 900 local PwC offices and traveler affinity for using familiar--albeit non-preferred--processes and properties. "It is a bucket of water with holes in it," she said. "If we can plug those holes--meaning enforce booking hotels through the agencies--we can educate the agents how to sell the preferred hotels that we chose, and why. We are looking at the big picture, and working with the [local] travel managers of the territories with the most travelers first to [make] the hotel directory and other supplier agreements visible to the travelers."
Leeds added that PwC usually can "convince another country to sign up for the traveler locator service" in the aftermath of natural disasters and terror attacks. "Unfortunately, certain countries may have to be affected by one of those before they realize how important it truly is," she noted. "We are trying to get them to understand, so they can then amend their policy to say, 'Book your hotel through your agency and here is why.' "
International SOS claims PwC as one of nearly 2,000 users of its traveler tracking system and complementary medical, security and risk mitigation services. Most of its larger clients are U.S.-headquartered multinationals, but Tim Daniel, COO of the firm's online division, said last summer's London bombings and growing fears of avian influenza have prompted greater interest in Europe over the past six months.
"We will develop some specific technical capabilities for the European travel data segment," to accommodate rail usage and address European data privacy concerns, said Daniel. International SOS interfaces with all primary GDSs, enabling most corporate TMCs to feed the tracking system. "We are working to develop technical interfaces for reservations systems in places like India, China and Japan, which tend to be proprietary," Daniel added. "Some have interfaces into the big GDSs, but oftentimes--because of proprietary elements--we have to work to make sure companies capture all that data, not just what sits in Sabre."