Business Travel News October 27, 2008 - (Page 6)

NEWS Chauffeured Transport Hit By Financial Woes BY ELISSA HUNTER PROFILES IN TRAVEL MANAGEMENT Motorola Mandates Using Meetings Team,Processes “Once they register that meeting, the procureWireless equipment manufacturer Motorola last year developed a strategic meetings man- ment specialist is there as kind of a guardrail to enagement program as part of a Six Sigma certifica- sure the Motorolan follows all internal policies tion that resulted in mandating the use of its and procedures,” he said. The team also set up a meetmeetings team, a standard ading identification system. Once dendum and a meetings idena meeting is registered, an identification system. tification number is assigned to The change was driven by a it, allowing the team to check need to improve the overall such metrics as meeting sizes procurement and control and resource hours committed process for meetings, said Darthroughout its lifespan. rell Marciniak, global hotel Also new to the meetings commodity manager for Moprocess is getting funding aptorola Global Travel. proval through Ariba, Marcini“We had historically had a ak said. It follows the signature very fragmented process authority process, which goes whereby different business through the hierarchy of apunits and organizations withproval depending on the in the business units were hanamount of spending requested. dling the meetings and events DARRELL MARCINIAK The company also locked down differently,” he said. “We wantGlobal hotel commodity manager approval of purchase orders. If ed to put together a program a purchase order went through that ultimately would be very user-friendly for meeting and event owners and the system that didn’t have a meeting identificaallow them to push the tactical pieces of the tion, the order would bounce back to the meetmeetings and events they were handling to the ing owner. The process also is required to get a strategic meetings management program team.” meeting card. “Locking down the historic payment chanMarciniak and his Six Sigma team designed a meetings process that involves a partnership be- nels was definitely key in driving that complitween the meeting owner and a procurement ance,” he said. Compliance with the program is specialist. A meeting owner uses StarCite’s on- more than 90 percent. Any meetings with both 10 or more attendees and $3,000 in spending are required to go through the SMMP team. COMPANY: MOTOROLA Another project goal was to ensure the comHEADQUARTERS: SCHAUMBURG, ILL. pany had proper contractual protection. Now, 2007 U.S. BOOKED AIR VOLUME: $85 MILLION Motorola sends an addendum to the selected venue with its standardized terms and condiline tools to register the meeting, which then is as- tions, including cancellation and attrition claussigned to a procurement specialist in Marciniak’s es, insurance and indemnification and competiteam. The specialist “ends up being their first point tor clauses. “We’ve found that by slapping that addenof contact and liaison between all other departdum onto the hotel paper we get, Motorola is in ments,” such as legal and IT, he said. Once the procurement specialist conducts a a much better situation from a contract risk perneeds assessment with the meeting owner, sourc- spective,” Marciniak said. The Six Sigma project began in January 2007 ing is done and a series of bids are presented to the owner. The meeting owner then is guided to and finished one year ago. The CFO and the chief the company’s Ariba system to get approval and marketing officer promoted the meetings prois sent a declining-balance meeting card. The gram in a cobranded e-mail, which rolled out in strategic meetings management program team North America, Asia and the company’s five helps with data collection, reconciliation and clos- largest Europe, Middle East and Africa markets. ing out the meeting. —Elissa Hunter Chauffeured transportation consultants and executives are anticipating or experiencing a noteworthy demand slowdown, especially in New York City, epicenter of the financial industry’s continuing meltdown. “New York and Boston have been hit very hard, specifically New York, and some of our operator members are off 30 percent to 40 percent in their bookings,” said Richard Kane, president of the National Limousine Association and owner of Washington, D.C.-based International Limousine. “If any of their client base is related to financials, they’re off 30 percent to 40 percent.” He added that nationwide, “operators were off approximately 10 percent before the credit crisis hit.” “In the New York area, especially for companies who a large part of their business is the financial area, it’s going to have a large impact,” according to Dave Kilduff, managing director of ground transportation for Carlson Wagonlit Travel’s CWT Solutions Group. “There’s nobody shortterm who’s going to replace that. It will continue to have an impact on them and certainly fleeting and staffing because you have the downturn at the airport too.” “We’re in a situation where chauffeured car is being hurt very Visit the BTN Archive heavily here, besee btnonline.com/archive cause people are spending money very differently,” said Scott Solombrino, president and CEO of Dav El Chauffeured Transportation Network. “If you’re working in one of these firms that’s hanging on by a thread, I can assure you they’ve cut their chauffeured car budget as they’ve cut their five-star hotel budget and their first-class and businessclass air travel budget.” Some New York-based chauffeured transportation companies already are seeing a slight slowdown in business. “Our business is down 10 percent over prior year,” said Robert Mackasek, CEO of Long Island City-based Valera Global Inc. “The general economic condition is such that we’re starting to see clients tighten their belts and take a closer look at what their travel spend is.” Mackasek added, “We haven’t seen any cutback in airport travel and I take that as a very healthy sign. When that starts to fall off, we’re in for a much tougher haul.” Valera Global had adjusted its fleet, Mackasek said, reducing it approximately 10 percent. Continued on page 20 6 Monday, October 27, 2008 www.BTNonline.com Business Travel News http://www.btnonline.com/archive http://www.BTNonline.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Business Travel News October 27, 2008

Business Travel News- October 27, 2008
Contents
Inside Track
Profiles In Travel Management
BTN Research
Forum
Lodging
Travel Management Tech
Destinations
Washington Wire

Business Travel News October 27, 2008