This blueprint lays out a plan for organizations wishing to
implement a managed travel program. It spaces the design and implementation
over a 24-month period. While some organizations could move faster, the
likelihood of limited project resources makes this a practical timeframe for
many firms. This blueprint also could be adapted by any company wanting to
overhaul an existing travel program.
Weeks 1–4: Organize
Find an executive
sponsor. Big projects need good executive sponsorship. Find a sponsor who
has significant political power and a vested interest in seeing that travel is
managed well and who won't spend the first 20 minutes of every meeting
describing their last painful travel experience.
Form a travel council.
Assemble a project committee of key travel stakeholders. At a minimum, you want
folks from HR, procurement, sales, IT and finance. This travel council will do
much of the work, even though the members are drafted under part-time
commitments. These folks are often at the manager or director level and will
make recommendations to the executive sponsor. Surprisingly, none need to be
experts in travel. Rather, they do need to be good at learning and at making
good recommendations. Beware the travel expert who shows little flexibility or
willingness to consider new ideas.
Create an initial
project charter. Building a travel program from scratch can seem daunting.
Start with an initial project charter that helps clarify expectations. Key
elements of a charter include executive sponsorship, staffing, scope,
deliverables and duration. Realize that the charter will change over time, but
the team needs a fairly clear starting point. Begin with a wide scope. Include
travel policy, procurement, management, payment and reimbursement. Consider
including groups and meetings, as well as demand management and
videoconferencing. You may reduce the scope later, but you'll benefit by
learning how all of these key issues affect the overall travel program.
Weeks 5–10: Baseline
Study the general
ledger. The general ledger is probably the most definitive source for
understanding how much a company spends on travel. That's not saying much. GLs
rarely track travel's subcategories, such as air, hotel, rental car, etc., but
you need a definitive starting point, and this is it. Look at the major entries
to see what's getting lumped into "travel and entertainment."
Take stock of current
policies and contracted suppliers. Identify which suppliers are under
contract. Go beyond airlines, hotels and rental cars. Include corporate cards,
travel management companies and expense reporting system providers. List
current travel policies on key dimensions of securing pre-trip approval,
choosing travel suppliers, making reservations and paying for travel expenses.
Triangulate and
guesstimate. Use the basic data reporting tools from your corporate credit
card and TMC suppliers to identify your top airlines, hotels and rental cars, whether
or not those suppliers are under contract. Be aware of double-counting and of
blind spots—travel that was neither booked nor paid via corporate-approved TMCs
and credit cards.
Weeks 11–14:
Anecdotal Evidence
Don't expect to build bulletproof business cases early on.
Instead, find a half-dozen good examples of how travelers are costing the
company money; not a witch hunt or a wall of shame, just real-life cases that
underscore the benefits of a managed travel program. Interview travel budget
owners—those folks who need to balance costs against traveler satisfaction.
Listen carefully to what they want, what they don't want and why.
Weeks 15–20: Informed
Vision
Get input from external resources, namely respected travel
and procurement managers, travel suppliers, consultants, publications and
associations. Quiz them on best practices. Understand the main pros and cons on
key issues of policy compliance, pre-trip approval, self-booking, form of
payment and integrated expense reporting. Sketch out a preliminary vision of
what your managed program will look like, including key elements of the travel
policy. Clearly address how mobile applications will be used. Begin shopping
the vision around to your key stakeholders.
Weeks 21–26: Approved
Plan
Refine the proposed travel policy language. Clarify the
scope, duration and deliverables for the remainder of the project. Build the
business cases, using a cost-versus-quality framework. Resist all temptation to
promise any savings percentage offered casually by any consultant. Get approval
from the executive sponsor. Begin a communication campaign targeting travelers
and travel budget owners.
Months 7–12:
Implement TMC, Self-Booking Tool And Card
Select and implement a single travel management company,
self-booking tool and corporate card. You'll use their consolidated data
reporting next year to negotiate corporate discounts with airlines, hotels and
rental cars. Until then, you won't have enough data to drive good deals.
Instead, focus on running good request-for-proposals processes and smooth
implementations. Keep your stakeholders informed.
Months 13–15:
Category Strategies And Key Performance Indicators
Use these three months to develop strategies for sourcing
and managing your airline, hotel and rental car categories. Seek advice from
respected consultants and your top suppliers. Define how to measure savings in
each category. Measure initial compliance for use of contracted TMC,
self-booking tool and corporate card. Use internal stakeholder input to
determine early barriers to higher compliance. Agree on relevant travel program
KPIs and their delivery method. Streamline the data collection and reporting
processes.
Months 16–21: RFPs
For Air, Car And Maybe Hotel
Send requests for proposals to airline and car rental suppliers,
which can be sourced at any time during the year. Hire a consultant for the air
RFP if you spend more than $3 million a year. Hotels are typically sourced
annually in the fall. Use a cost-versus-quality framework. Gauge senior
management's willingness to support traveler compliance. Communicate the
intended benefits to internal stakeholders. Coordinate the implementation of
contracts with your travel management company and suppliers.
Months 22–24:
Re-Vision
Take stock of what's working, what's not and why. Conduct
preliminary business reviews with your key suppliers. Survey your travelers.
Interview your travel budget owners. Update your category savings projections.
Identify new technology and emerging practices. Place in scope whatever you
left out of the original project, such as expense reporting, demand management
or groups and meetings. Prioritize the major areas for improvement. Sell the
revised vision to senior management. Get going.
This report appears in
the Nov. 8 issue of Business Travel News.