Business Travel News - Procurement Practices 2010 - (Page 12)

Procurement Practices Managing Demand And Structure By MICHAEL B. BAKER M 28% any travel procurement executives this year are ratcheting up use of such demand management practices as remote conferencing and more restrictive pre-trip approval processes after a year of trimming doubledigit percentages from their travel budgets. Companies saving travel dollars through videoconferencing technol- ogy neared critical mass in this year’s Procurement Practices survey, with just under half of respondents saying they saved money through that demand management practice, compared with 37 percent in 2009. The same percentage also reported yearover-year increases in videoconferencing levels, which is fairly consistent with levels in the survey in the past few years. In particular, companies focused on using the technology to cut travel for internal meetings, said Christa Manning, director of Expert Insights Companies saving money from using videoconferencing rather than travel 10% 35% 28% 37% 47% 25% 2009 Yes No 2008 Don’t Know research for American Express Business Travel Global Advisory Services. “Customer-facing travel remains important, and a priority,” Manning said. “Face-to-face meetings are important.” Christopher Wall, global manager of meeting services for Johnson & Johnson, said that has been the case for his company. Examining citypair and hotel data, the company determined that its highest volume of travel occurred between New York and Brussels and Amsterdam, he said. Johnson & Johnson installed two telepresence sites in Belgium and four sites in its New Jersey headquarters and is establishing a global network of them, Wall said. “We’ve built sites throughout the U.S. and throughout EMEA and are expanding them in Asia as well, though we only have a couple in South America,” he said. “We really went about trying to figure out where they would go within J&J. They were a project of the IT structure, and we worked with them to provide travel data, identifying where would be the Companies raising videoconferencing use from previous year 32% 47% 21% 31% 18% 51% 30% 26% 10% 43% 2010* *Estimated Yes 2009 No Don’t Know 2008 logical locations.” Improvements in the technology have widened its adoption. Tommy Hilfiger purchasing director John Ingegneri said his company only recently has begun a significant investment in it. “Being in the clothing industry, look and feel is very important,” Ingegneri said. “Years ago, somebody would be on the screen, and you’d have to ask if they had a blue jacket or a black jacket. The quality of the HD now is so good that you can really see the fabric, the different contours on the fabric and the colors.” Marriott International and Starwood Hotels & Resorts each in recent months has gone live with inhouse remote conferencing studios at key gateway city properties, and both hotel companies plan to add more studios across the world during the coming year. As those efforts proliferate, and the technology suppliers work on interoperability among the disparate systems, remote conferencing usage stands to grow even further. “If the interoperability issue does get solved smartly, we wouldn’t have to have rooms everywhere,” Wall said. “We’d be able to do it by having them go to a hotel or some other public facility.” Ingegneri said it remains to be seen how extensively Tommy Hilfiger travelers use the equipment. “This is coming down from the CEO, so I have to think there will be some buyin in the beginning, but some people truly love to travel,” he said. 12 April 19, 2010 // www.BTNonline.com // BUSINESS TRAVEL NEWS http://www.BTNonline.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Business Travel News - Procurement Practices 2010

Business Travel News - Procurement Processes 2010

Contents
Letters to Our Readers
Ebbing of Procurement Tide
Reining in Disciplinary Measures
Managing Demand and Structure
Evaluating 2010's Travel Outlook
Negotiating the Role

Business Travel News - Procurement Practices 2010