In our last article, “7 Hot Topics in Corporate Travel Management,” we offered a full recap of the Hot Topics Roundtable, an interactive breakout session at World Travel, Inc.’s Spring Symposium 2019. However, the Hot Topics Roundtable wasn’t the only session that provided actionable strategies to Travel Managers across the globe.
Another breakout session featured World Travel’s very own Director of Consulting Services, Kelly Wagner, along with Dave Whiteaker, Director of Analytics & Consulting at Data Insights. This epic duo explored ways technology can be leveraged with an expert consulting team to save your organization money.
For example, are you hitting a roadblock when it comes to reducing your air spend?
The good news is you are not the only organization facing this challenge. During the session, Kelly shared a quick case study showing the money-saving power of optimizing supplier contracts.
World Travel, Inc. Client Case Study
Headquartered in the Boston area, one of our clients came to us asking for a total overview of their program. This company had an annual travel spend of $5.1 Million, largely concentrated in Asia markets, which are very destination specific.
They wanted to learn what opportunities were available with their current providers or if there were any new providers in the marketplace who could service their needs. So, we took the entire program out to bid and sourced eight different carriers. By the end, we narrowed it down to four carriers, but we also worked closely with Account Management, enabling the client to make small adjustments to their policy if needed. Simply by dropping carriers and maximizing their contracts, we saved them $350,000.00 and 290% annually.
This is significant savings, but how can we take it a step further?
Our next step will be to review ancillary contracts that appear to be matured, as well as uncover any overlooked options within the matured contracts.
Additionally, we plan to offer a more holistic, consultative experience moving forward by expanding our use of technology, such as Data Insights, INCOMPASS, and EcoReporting.
Future-Focused Sourcing Strategies
Through World Travel’s partnership with Data Insights, opportunities for additional savings will not fall through the cracks. By understanding your organization’s data and how it contributes to contract performance, negotiations will become simpler and more streamlined.
What does this future-state consultative support look like? For starters, it will be focused on the following.
Scenario-based Consulting – We are implementing data-driven, scenario-based analytics to answer the most important airline consulting questions. For example, do you have the right supplier mix? What is the minimum and maximum volume you can put on each of your key suppliers? How much would any changes cost or save you?
Policy-based Analytics – Program cost containment can often be done by reviewing and modifying travel policy. Our services will work to quantify policy-based changes to traveler behavior, mandated cabin-based policy, and the cost of current non-compliance.
Data Visualization – Additional visualization tools will be provided to make the program more interactive and engaging.
Ongoing Optimization – Airline sourcing used to be at the end of the journey, but now it is at the beginning, and opportunities are recognized and acted upon. For example, with enhanced data and defined strategy, we can continue efforts to capture more spend by country and source, as well as expand in-scope program coverage. We can also help your organization implement targeted campaigns to rectify creeping sources of loss.
Client Collaboration – Tighter client relationships will lead to greater collaboration and program effectiveness.
Want to learn more about the consultative services and case study shared above? Check out the recorded session below!
If you have any additional questions about sourcing or consulting services, be sure to engage our team by reaching out to your World Travel, Inc. Account Manager or our sales team at sales@worldtravelinc.com. We are more than happy to discuss strategies for optimizing your program.
Missed Spring Symposium?
World Travel, Inc. provides several opportunities to learn, network, and grow within the corporate travel community. We’re sorry we missed you, but we hope you can join us at an event in the future!
Check out a list of our upcoming events here.