Business Travel News - November 19, 2007 - (Page S17)

European 100 Spotlight SYNGENTA Shifting Selected Sourcing Functions M Syngenta opted to keep air sourcing in-house for several reasons. It is deemed a core subcategory because it is a substantial ultinational travel sourcing has become so com- spend. Furthermore, Brodbeck pointed out, airlines have a hisplex that the question of whether travel buyers tory of resisting agreements with purchasing consortia. should handle their responsibilities alone is inAnother decisive factor was that Brodbeck used to work for creasingly arising. Peter Brodbeck, head of glob- airlines and therefore was unlikely to find anyone externally who al travel management for Basel, Switzerland- could match his expertise. However, he did not rule out any based Syngenta Crop Protection, confronted this conundrum outsourcing for air. and decided to outsource hotel and car rental sourcing, but “I could see working with a third party where it provides the keep air purchasing in-house. tools,” he said. Brodbeck has mixed feelings One of Brodbeck’s main priorities for about outsourcing but examined air sourcing this year was negotiating the idea after Syngenta started to agreements with airline alliances. He consider whether to make it the has wrapped up a deal with Star Aldefault strategy for its indirect liance and now is working on one with spend. However, the company perSkyTeam, but has not found working mits in-house retention of what it with alliances a satisfying experience. defines as core subcategories of “I sometimes doubt whether they reexpenditure. Air travel is included ally want global agreements with coron this list. porate customers,” he said. “I don’t see a Despite his initial doubts, Brodlot of progress with them.” beck is pleased with the progress The deal with Star Alliance does not of the hotel outsourcing, which he include all its members. Instead, it covhas given to travel management ers six airlines in 12 countries. It does company HRG. not offer fares that are any dearer than “I am the project leader, but the Brodbeck would have achieved in sepwork is done by someone else,” acarate negotiations with each carrier, and cording to Brodbeck. “This is the in some cases it offers better fares future of travel management. Travwhere previously there was no relationel managers will not do it all by ship. He also has achieved lower fares PETER BRODBECK, themselves.” on some discounted ticket types. Syngenta Crop Protection head of Brodbeck always had found hoLess happily, Brodbeck said, “In my tel sourcing frustrating, especially view, it is a bit disappointing because global travel management when trying to obtain reliable data it does not give me maximum flexibilfrom internal sources in other countries. HRG is gathering data ity.” Syngenta was looking to be able to combine carriers on a sinfrom Syngenta managers but also has started sourcing man- gle itinerary, such as traveling outbound on one Star Alliance agement information directly from the hotel suppliers. The data member and inbound on another. Some Star Alliance memhas been used to draw up 2008 requests for proposals. bers agreed to this, but others refused outright or set condiBrodbeck believes that using experienced hotel sourcing pro- tions, such as restricting the fare types on which this would be fessionals with dedicated tools, such as RFP templates in mul- permissible. tiple languages, has helped. He expects that to achieve imNow Brodbeck is negotiating with SkyTeam, which, he said, “is proved rates and save time. However, the key benefit, he said, is even more complicated.” for HRG to ensure that negotiated rates are loaded into the globOne frustration has been that SkyTeam was only prepared to al distribution system. negotiate if Syngenta agreed to release data for the negotiaFor car rental, Syngenta has turned to KeyMRO, a procure- tions to data consolidator Prism—a growing complaint among ment services company that buys travel on an aggregated ba- European travel managers. sis for a small number of clients, most of them based in France. “I felt unhappy about it, but Air France already had a Prism IBM acquired KeyMRO in 2004. “We don’t have a large car rental clause in its contract with us, so I allowed it,” said Brodbeck. “Dealspend, so it has helped us,” said Brodbeck. ing with release forms has created a lot of bureaucracy.” ■ BY AMON COHEN WWW.BTNONLINE.COM BUSINESS TRAVEL NEWS EUROPEAN 100 17 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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