Business Travel News - November 19, 2007 - (Page S13)

European 100 Spotlight SIEMENS Globally Balancing Control, Flexibility ment companies. Each region must choose one. Likewise, there are two preferred online booking tools: E-Travel, which is used erhaps the key challenge of any business operating in North America, the Nordic and Baltic countries, the United a travel program across Europe and the rest of the Kingdom, Ireland, France and Singapore; and Cytric, used in Gerworld is striking the appropriate balance between many, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain. global control and local flexibility. With a travel and Siemens has one main card, American Express, with 240,000 entertainment spend of $2.6 billion across 190 coun- cardholders worldwide, although it also has 40,000 AirPlus cardtries and 460,000 employees, that challenge is greater for Siemens holders in Germany, where more than 150 of the company’s than for most companies. nearly 500 European subsidiaries are located. Using one of these As a result, its global travel team cards is mandatory for all travel expense maintains constant vigilance to enpayments. Siemens believes that rigid sure it gets the balance right. One consolidation of card vendors gives it example is the key performance a consistent worldwide approach, globindicators that are the mechanism al data and extra privileges, such as reby which each geographical rebates, delayed payments and a comgion reports on its travel program. mitment by the card company to sign “We started with 100 KPIs for loup all merchants that Siemens uses. cal travel managers, but now we Sehrt’s team has gone to great have 19, and only eight of these lengths to clarify Siemens’expectations need to be reported to the global of vendors and internal customers. For team,” said Sabine Sehrt, vice presexample, the team has drawn up a masident of international travel manter agreement that regulates cooperaagement for Siemens. “We found tion between Siemens and travel manthat we needed a clear, simple agement companies on a global scale. scorecard; otherwise, it becomes Previously, contracts varied by region too big to know what is going on. and some relationships were not forYou can’t centralize everything bemalized on a written contractual basis. cause each country has different Similarly, service-level agreements cultures, laws and tax regimes.” with travel management companies SABINE SEHRT, The Siemens global travel team were sporadic and inconsistent. These Siemens vice president of international sits within a wider category known have now been standardized to cover inside the company as “mobility,” such issues as financial terms and contravel management which also covers fleet manageditions, local account management and ment and meetings and events. This in turn is part of the Siemens type, frequency and format of data. Global Shared Services operation, based in Munich. Only four The company has procurement tools for both air and hotel people work for the global travel team, but there are around sourcing, called Fare Finder and Ratefinding, respectively. The 150 other Siemens employees with travel management respon- company’s general air travel policy is to use economy class or the sibilities in local markets—some full-time and others part-time. most cost-effective options for flights within each region. Sehrt believes the main task of her global team is to establish Siemens also has a data warehouse that was built in-house. “clear strategies with clear goals. It is easy if you have a clear Sehrt said the initiative was costly but gives Siemens full indestrategy,” she said. pendence from suppliers. The essential strategy consists of a six-part plan that embraces With 150 personnel throughout its subsidiaries responsible corporate card, travel agencies, policy, procurement tools, on- for managing travel, another huge challenge is communicaline booking and Move25, a program to reduce travel costs by tion. Sehrt regards this as a crucial two-way process, both for 25 percent. Sehrt uses a scorecard colored red, yellow and green conveying messages from the center and for understanding to evaluate each region’s performance. happenings in each country. She conducts online meetings The global travel team provides a framework of preferred sup- every six weeks with travel managers worldwide and all of them pliers and intermediaries from which each region makes its se- gather in one location once each year. In addition, Sehrt dislections. There are, for instance, four preferred travel manage- tributes a newsletter every two months to travel managers. ■ BY AMON COHEN P WWW.BTNONLINE.COM BUSINESS TRAVEL NEWS EUROPEAN 100 13 http://WWW.BTNONLINE.COM

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Business Travel News - November 19, 2007

Business Travel News - November 19, 2007
Contents
Avis Ups Its Bet With Carey Investment
Notebook: ACTE Assails Green Taxes
EC Adopts Revised CRS Code Of Conduct
Dynamic Discovery: General Dynamics’ Loper Mines Data
American First: AA Wins BRN's 2007 Air Survey
Perfecting Attendance: CA’s Brust Deploys Event Reg. Tech.
Mtg. Buyers Grapple With Price Hikes
Business Travel News - 2007 Resource Guide
Table of Contents
Airline Benchmarks
Siemens: Global Balance
Hotel Benchmarks
Syngenta: Selective Sourcing
Online Booking Benchmarks
Pfizer: Cross-Border Mtgs. Consolidation
Meetings Benchmarks
Planes, Trains and Striking Good Deals

Business Travel News - November 19, 2007

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