Business Travel News - July 28, 2008 - (Page 56)

PAYMENT & EXPENSE SYSTEMS Amex: Europe Embraces Tech BY AMON COHEN UATP Powering Travel Payment Find out how to: • Reduce Credit Card Costs • Earn Revenue • Connect to Alternative Forms of Payment via Your Existing UATP Connection UATP Proud NBTA Member For more information, visit UATP in Booth 924. See you in LA! uatp.com of respondents have a shared service center for some or all of their expense processing activities. It claims that using a shared service center for back-office processing reduces the cost for handling a claim from $11.64 to $3.68. A further 45 percent outsource some of these activities to third parties. For example, 14 percent are using third parties to handle reclamation of value-added tax incurred overseas. Almost one-quarter—23 percent—are having some of their processes, such as auditing expense claims, handled offshore in low-cost countries. According to Penney, experiences have been mixed. “Some have brought these tasks back inhouse,” she said. There is evidence that European businesses are embracing what is generally considered to be good practice with more enthusiasm than in the past. For example, the number of respondents that audit all expense claims has fallen from 64 percent to 39 percent, with the majority sampling between 5 and 10 percent KAREN PENNEY of submissions. EMEA VP, Amex Commercial Card However, they continue to struggle in other areas, one of the most “TMC fees are like any other sup- notable being eliminating the use of plier costs in that they can be nego- corporate payment cards for pertiated down,” said Karen Penney, sonal expenditure. Although 74 perEurope, Middle East and Africa vice cent forbid this in their travel policy, president of business solutions for many respondents admit they are Amex’s commercial card division. finding it difficult to enforce. In the “For internal travel management worst cases, up to 65 percent of processes, you have to make inter- spend through corporate cards is for nal changes to take out costs.” personal reasons, with the integrity Fifty-two percent of respondents of data being severely compromised have introduced automation, with Overall, however, Penney said Euthe number adopting online booking ropean companies are making good tools rising from 32 perprogress but need to cent in 2003 to 59 per- Access the 2008 bring it to the next levcent. Examples it gives Online Black Book el. Amex believes comsee btnonline.com/blackbook include an average cost panies that introduce of $9.12 for manual trip requests a range of best practices can reduce against an average of $6.15 for those indirect costs by 2.1 percent of their that are fully automated, while the total travel bill. cost for the best performer was only “A lot of the low-hanging fruit has $2.38. Similarly, non-automated cen- been taken,” she said. “Companies tral billing costs are $2.55 per trans- now need to work with specialists action, whereas fully automated cen- on alternative models like automatral billing is 54 cents per transaction. tion and outsourcing if they want to The study reports that 59 percent make additional savings.” ■ Large European companies have reduced indirect processing costs as a percentage of their total travel and entertainment costs to 4.6 percent, according to the European Expense Management Study 2008 by American Express and A.T. Kearney, down from 5.6 percent in 2003, the last time this research was published, and 7.8 percent in 1996. The detailed study of 66 companies reports that expense claim processing accounts for 52 percent of indirect costs. Trip planning, including making trip requests, is responsible for a further 23 percent. Fees from travel management companies and other intermediaries are not included in the calculations. “For internal travel processes, you have to make internal changes to take out costs.” http://uatp.com http://btnonline.com/blackbook http://uatp.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Business Travel News - July 28, 2008

Business Travel News - July 28, 2008
Contents
Inside Track
Profile
Newsmaker
BTN Research
Forum
Aviation
Lodging
Ground Transportation
Meetings Today
Travel Management
Expense/Payment
Destinations
Executive Dashboard
Washington Wire

Business Travel News - July 28, 2008