THE LOWDOWN ➔ HRG crunches the numbers
HRG CONSULTING claims to have the analytical know-how to drive down the additional savings that corporates will be looking for in 2012, having already tackled the low-hanging fruit of their spend. “Corporates have taken action to shave travel spend but where else are their savings opportunities?” says Paul Dear, HRG's head of consultancy. “As an example, 70 per cent of airline spend is negotiated on an airline rate but only 50 per cent of tickets issued are on that negotiated rate, so what’s happening to the other 50 per cent?” asks Dear. “Another example is to analyse whether advance purchase tickets are the best purchase because if they’re being cancelled too often it creates dead money. “We can dig out these anomalies
and work with clients on a day-to- day basis to pull out opportunities for corporates to enhance their savings,” explains Dear. He says one of the biggest opportunities to eke out more savings comes in the first month
HRS EXTENDS ITS REACH
JON WEST, HRS managing director for UK, Ireland, India and North America, claims huge impact and implications from its takeover of
Hotel.de/ info last month. “Our position as The Hotel Portal acting as a global hotel content provider has been enhanced by the acquisition of
Hotel.de/info, but underlined by five major UK corporates now fixing HRS as their hotel supplier. This is a big step forward for corporates and for HRS,” says West. It means HRS acts as an HBA
when clients use its corporate portal, but becomes a hotel aggregator for distribution through TMCs and OBTs, reflected in its five new generation clients. HRS's hotel content will be enhanced by 25 per cent following the acquisition of
Hotel.de/info.
GUEST COLUMN
FAY SHARPE MANAGING DIRECTOR SALES AND MARKETING, ZIBRANT
THE meeting industry is now very much part of the travel industry, but what are the differences? Well, the procurement of travel is more mature so shouldn't the meeting sector adopt everything that the travel sector does? At present, one of the differences
after an hotel or airline RFP, when, finally, the TMC can deal with live data rather than historical data. Dear also makes a plea to keep
the travel manager informed of company changes, giving the example of a potential acquisition which might change travel patterns, such as frequent travel to a new destination where a takeover is occurring: “If they're not told then they can’t recognise where trends are moving.” In what many may see as a
dangerous move, HRG Consulting is offering less factual data for clients. Explains Nigel Meyer, director of group technology and data services: “We can plot future trends on certain assumptions for key areas of data. This will be an additional suite of services that will help with data modelling and scenario planning.” He stresses that reporting will not become any less accurate at its core, but will become more so. HRG Consulting also work with other TMCs’ clients.
KDS TAILORS NEW T&E TOOL TO SMES
is in the cost model area. Meeting agencies operate various models, including management fees, but, in the main, as commissions are freely available and many organisations have not budgeted for this area, commission seems to be the main remuneration model. But what about transparency and
extra commission deals, I hear you cry! The corporate is generally better off under a commission model in that most good agencies provide multiple services: rate negotiation, collation of MI, quality account management, marketing and implementation, specialised delivery, bill back or management of card, preferred venue programmes, and, of course, venue sourcing. Subject to services offered and
your volumes, a rebate is also given. All in all, it's a great deal for the corporate. For smaller meetings, transaction fees are a possibility but I’m yet to see a fair and successful model that works for both parties. Management fees are also difficult
for some corporates as they don’t always have the visibility of spend across their business, so providing data to the agency to ensure an accurate cost model can be tricky. I believe commissions are here to
TRAVEL and expense management specialist KDS has launched a new tool aimed at SMEs in the UK called TMC Express, available exclusively through its TMC partners. The new facility provides users
with an easy-to-use web-based solution that offers a full range of travel options across air, rail, hotel and car hire, and also automates many of the administrative functions of expense reporting. KDS says the tool is configured
for simple deployment in a time frame of less than four weeks and, as a hosted solution, requires no
extra IT investment or maintenance. “Demand for a unified travel and expense solution represents four out of five of the requests for proposal that we receive, and small and medium-sized organisations account for half of these requests,“ says KDS CEO Dean Forbes. “While KDS already has a
sizeable SME client base, we realise that many such organisations really rely on their TMC for personal service and guidance, which is why we have chosen to create a system which supports and strengthens that relationship.“
stay as, unlike the airline industry, there is such a wide range of venue choice on offer. If you need to travel to New York then you have a limited choice of carriers, but if you have a meeting requirement in London then you're spoilt for choice. Agencies must act in the best interest of the client. As long as they are open with corporates and work ethically, then in most cases it’s a win, win situation. More and more corporates want to get a hold of their meetings spend and hotels want the ability to consolidate business, especially the transient and small meeting mix. The bottom line is, as for all services, someone pays. Let's hope the best model wins!
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