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How to... ACHIEVE THE OPTIMUM SBT


Procurement at The University of Manchester spotted a massive savings opportunity to better manage its travel spend, and began a long journey….


Michelle Kipling MANCHESTER BUSINESS SCHOOL Michelle Kipling has worked at Manchester Business School for the last 15 years in a number of positions. At the time of the pilot with Egencia she was the executive assistant to the director of the School, acting as a senior advisor and providing advice and support in relation to the operational and strategic direction of the School. Kipling is now Directorate and Projects Manager.


FORTY-two schools and four facilities under one roof at The University of Manchester is arguably a challenge for any procurement department but nonetheless senior procurement officer Janet Lewis knew that the travel spend of £13million could be better managed and was determined to do so. A review in 2008 highlighted wastage


and bookings that may compromise the health and safety of staff, and with no regard to reducing the University’s carbon footprint. The University had already piloted a self-booking tool with one intermediary the previous year and another with Egencia's own booking platform at two smaller schools in 2009. The latter pilot failed because their level of activity was too small to determine how good the product was. Nonetheless, Lewis doggedly suggested another, third attempt later the same year, again with Egencia, but this time with the Manchester Business School (MBS)


which had a much larger spend. A third attempt was a risky move


as the largely travel savvy professors, lecturers and students all believed they were more adept at getting better deals. Problems with the previous trials hadn’t persuaded them otherwise. It was a big ask that had to be carefully managed. Find out just how the University managed this process at MBS, to great affect, in our step-by- step guide below.


Step 1 The University identified the need to change the status quo and undertook an internal assessment then began the trials in 2008. A pilot was planned with MBS in 2009 as staff here better understood why the existing online booking tool wasn’t working and had a shopping list of what exactly they did want from an SBT. MBS had most to gain as the School


is one of the largest users of travel, with approximately £1million of the


£13million University travel spend. It is also one of the largest schools, with 250 academics and 250 support staff. The School runs a Global MBA in Rio, Hong Kong, Miami, Shanghai, Singapore, Dubai and Malaysia and this shapes its international travel pattern. Moreover, MBS was most vocal about the shortcomings of the existing online tool and willing to co-operate in a pilot. They were keen as mustard so a new trial began.


Step 2 The first step in the buy-in process was to gather together a number of main bookers for a webinar and focus groups. “We had talked about what was wrong with the previous booking tool and what they wanted instead,” explains Michelle Kipling, then executive assistant to the director at MBS, and effectively the lead client. What MBS wanted was an online booking tool that could book duplicate


6 I THE BUSINESS TRAVEL MAGAZINE


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