process,” she admitted. “I spent 18 months on it and not until I got robust MI did I get compliance into it.” After that, the going gets easier, by engaging all stakeholders, issuing an RFP then negotiating commercial terms with suppliers. PwC has saved £12million over the last four
years and now feels the company is protected vis a vis contracts and health and safety issues.
GREEN TRAVEL The fourth session asked whether the bubble has burst for green travel, exploring whether environmental issues have fallen off the agenda during the recession. Mark Avery, head of business services at PwC, believed it was more of a puncture than a burst and advised having a bit of fun with the sustainability message. “We’re seeing cost fatigue, they’re fed up with having to save money,” said Avery. PwC has saved £5.3million in 2010 attributed to the use of VC and 5.2 per cent in air carbon year on year. His message was that green can return value to a business as opposed to a cost. Hotels can shave 20 per cent
off running costs if they go green, was the message
“What your travel manage- ment company is doing for you manually won’t be done afterwards by an SBT”
Simone Buckley, director of travel programme optimisation, Bouda
from Andrea Nicholas, managing director of The Green Tourism Business Scheme. The largest certification programme in the world has attracted over 650 hotels, including Ramada Jarvis, QHotels, Jurys Inn, Radisson, Marriott and Best Western. Nicholas believes hotels’ tardiness in going green stems from a mis- conception that it would be costly in time and money; while those that joined cited market demand and RFPs as the reason. Ramada Jarvis has identified £1million in savings as a result of joining the scheme. Final speaker, consultant Chris Pouney, a senior partner of Severnside Consulting, believes green issues have gone from an afterthought to a must- have and a key procurement differentiator today. He cited poorly defined goals and a lack of an executive sponsor as two of the reasons why green projects often fail as part of a corporate travel programme. In the Q&A session, Terry Plumer, travel and logistics manager from the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, explained how the FCO runs a carbon budget: ”The more carbon used, the more the travel budget decreases.”
SELF BOOKING TOOLS The final conference session tackled the value of self booking tools (SBTs) with a warning note that it is still not plug and play technology. ”It’s not easy to implement and it’s not right for every customer, particularly if you don’t want to change behaviour,” explained speaker Rachel Watson, director of Opteva. Fellow speaker Simone Buckley, director of
travel programme optimisation and co-founder of travel consultancy Bouda, highlighted other pitfalls: “What your travel management company is doing for you manually won’t be done afterwards by the SBT; likewise hotel contracts for items such as LRAs. These deals must be watertight before the switch. “What do SBTs work best with? GDS content, point-to-point journeys and a very simple but well defined travel policy,” explained Buckley. “They work best with TMCs that they are already integrated with,” she added. Gregor Falck, regional partner manager at Amadeus e-Travel, pointed up the pros of SBTs, including the ability to become more efficient, help reduce cost and satisfy the next generation who want self-service travel. Delegate Eve Todhunter of Leo Pharma asked
how bookers would get the right level of expertise. Opteva’s Watson conceded: “It’s a big ask – you can’t ask your bookers to be TMCs.”
16 I THE BUSINESS TRAVEL MAGAZINE 18 I THE BUSINESS TRAVEL MAGAZINE
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