Business Travel News - November 30, 2009 - (Page 22)

Co. Seeks Total T&E Compliance Thomas Barrett, director of strategic sourcing for Ingersoll Rand— which continues to integrate his previous company, Trane, following last year’s acquisition—this month spoke with Business Travel News senior editor Jay Boehmer about supplier receptivity, compliance and the budget planning process. BTN: A lot of companies are in ent—that get more complicated. the budget planning process. I feel we demonstrated what How will things look next year? we were doing and brought Thomas Barrett: Many of us them all into the fold about how go through the budget planning we were globalizing our procycle, but I don’t think I’ve ever gram. We’ve demonstrated ourheard any company say, “We’re selves to be able to report consisexpecting a great year, increase tently, show and deliver the lowyour travel budget by 10 per- cost opportunity and value cent.” Budgets are going to con- proposition to all of our travelers. tinue to be tightly constrained We have been rewarded with and probably under even more good dialogue. The fact is that rigor than in the past. That’s not our analytics show that we are to say it hasn’t been rigorous in performing and they are being the past. Through all the plan- receptive and responsive. ning and all the meetings, there’s BTN: It seems that hotels have a lot more of that rigor going on, been even more receptive to but we’ve always valued produc- pricing discussions this year. tivity and aimed to meet our cusBarrett: As we bring both of tomer requirements. these companies together, there BTN: According to our large will be a rationalization process. market research, about 45 per- We’ve had an RFP and brought in cent of respondents said that air- all of the hotel vendors, and we lines have been more receptive are working to rationalize that, to negotiating pricing agree- because there are a lot of locaments. What have you found in tions. We’ve seen good receptivyour discussions? ity and I think it remains a buyer’s Barrett: For organizations that market, even as we move into can demonstrate data, demon- 2010. But, like with air, it’s going strate commitment, demonstrate to be how well you manage the management support, the air- program. If you’re just everything lines are being as attentive to our to everybody, you may not get requirements as they can. That the same receptivity. being said, I still think it requires BTN: Are you finding more us to deliver a value proposition opportunities to achieve savings across all sectors. through policy rather than the We have a global, consolidat- negotiating table? ed program, so we have got to Barrett: We continue to combe mindful of the market dynam- municate broadly across all areas, ics in every single location. In whether it’s the online channel some cases, with the require- where someone sees a pop-up ments in our foreign cities, we message or online portal meshave to be mindful about what sages or direct e-mails from senthe dynamics are—schedule, ior leadership. We still talk about prices and so forth. It’s easy to do compliance and using the prethe long-haul, but it’s the local ferred credit card and making markets, the technology that sure you’re using the preferred brings it all together, the faring vendors through all the data rules, the ticketing and the level mining that we do. It’s still very of sophistication that are differ- important for us to do those things. Because if everyone complies with these actions, you will find that the savings is all there. BTN: Where else are you focusing on compliance? Barrett: We’re really focusing on watching the entire T&E process. You focus so much on the air, and the hotel and car more, and we get more requests for information. BTN: Where is that request for information coming from? Barrett: The CFOs of our business sectors. We’ve begun to broaden and refine reports so you can see a lot more data. We’re trying to make them more actionable. Management loves seeing those reports, but they want them faster. It’s hard to keep the agency as the sole police entity. There has to be overall P&L accountability for each manager. The biggest challenge we see is the airline reporting cycle: It’s so lethargic that by the time ARC closes and it comes to the travel agency, there’s such a lag. BTN: One policy action that seems to have grown in popularity is pre-trip authorization. Have you put in a place a pretrip approval process? Barrett: If you withhold ticketing until the time of approval, then the fare perishes. We’ve established what we call passive pre-trip approval, which means the manager will get a notification, and they have time to call the agency and cancel that trip, but I don’t want to stop that booking before then. BTN: Are you leveraging your meetings and transient travel spending? Barrett: We are. We’re going with a new tool for our meetings department, but we also have integrated those small meetings into prepackaged opportunities for our local businesses. We have a small meetings desk. Managing meetings is the last frontier in many areas. In a world where more managers are becoming self-sufficient, this is an area where they’re not. That’s why we have tried to provide more tools. We’re looking more at credit card delinquencies and spooling up more reports from the expense tool. Thomas Barrett Ingersoll Rand rental, and we get huge compliance in these areas, but we’re starting to look at every other area that is charged on T&E. We’re looking at credit card delinquencies and all those numbers. We’re spooling up more reports from the expense-reporting tool. We’re a very compliance-driven company and these technologies allow us to report • November 30, 2009 www.BTNonline.com Business Travel News http://www.BTNonline.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Business Travel News - November 30, 2009

Business Travel News - November 30, 2009
Contents
Sizing Up the Large Market
Finding Travel Program Opportunities
Large Market Profile: Estee Lauder's Cynthia Shumate
Business Class Use No Longer Dropping
Expanding Travel Agency Consolidation
Keeping Buyer Control of Hotel Rates
Using Booking Tools as Tech Backbones
Large Market Q&A: Ingersoll Rand's Thomas Barrett
Embracing Meetings Management Practices
Finding Room For Making Ground Moves

Business Travel News - November 30, 2009