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Public sector
London Universities Purchasing Consortium (LUPC) framework. “You get cost savings through online booking itself and by making sure people have the comparative costs visible,” says Speller, who adds that having travellers connected also makes it easier to deliver other obligations, such as duty of care and sustainability reporting. He concedes, however, that online will not work for all. He says: “For some, online booking will never take off, so we focus on making processes efficient or providing better content.” But universities have needs beyond ticketing at a good price. “Universities such as the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and SOAS have people that fly to unusual places in Africa and Asia, so duty of care is important,” says Speller. Although the GPS mandated the use of the TMCs appointed to the central government framework, the same is not true for the wider public sector framework, or for the LUPC or SUPC frameworks. Eligible organisations are not compelled to use those TMCs, but instead might be encouraged to do so by the benefit of saving time and money ensuing from the fact that suppliers on the framework are Official Journal of the European Union-compliant, so are ‘approved’ and ready to use. Speller points out that this means that another sales push by the TMCs is needed to win university contracts. Moreover, because of the autonomous nature of academics, who are often travelling for research or to lectures courtesy of a grant which they have secured themselves, there is more work to do to encourage fuller participation in the travel programme. Nonetheless, in these days of lessened central government support and escalating student fees, universities need both to demonstrate and realise the benefits of financial prudence. Speller says that Key is increasingly using an ROI (return on investment) measuring for universities, as is commonly done for commercial organisations. “If you don’t define objectives, no one knows if you have been successful in what you set out to do,” he says. “We might agree three things to accomplish in the first six months. One might be compliance – can we get 80 per cent
on contract? The next target might be to get 30 per cent of eligible bookings online to save £10,000 in booking fees. “It’s all about moving forward and helping people. Not everyone has a budget big enough to employ a team of travel experts. People need to feel they’re making progress in whatever environment.”
REDUCED BUDGETS The Ministry of Defence certainly has a big travel budget, although, like that of other government organisations, not as big as it once was. Mike Holmes, worldwide government services director for its TMC, HRG, could be described as poacher-turned- gamekeeper, as he was previously in charge of travel at the MOD. He says: “Demonstrating value for money is a big challenge. Extra volume doesn’t always guarantee discounts. It’s not like buying light bulbs – there is a fare that is the lowest that the carrier can go.” However, says Holmes, HRG will maximise the value from these fares by adding benefits, such as greater baggage allowances. He believes that management information can be used “to identify poor practice such as hotel no-shows. If these are higher than expected, we work to address that,” says Holmes.
UNIVERSITY CHALLENGE
JEANNETTE HARRISON is in the vanguard of university travel management. She has used her procurement experience and position as a category manager at the University of Nottingham to revolutionise its purchasing and managing of travel. Nottingham has a large
research programme that demands travel, as well as campuses in China and Malaysia. In 2009 she convinced her board of the virtue of the potential value of introducing a managed travel programme to control the £10 million-plus travel spend. From her procurement background, Jeannette
knew she could not realise real savings in the travel programme without robust data and, for that, she needed a streamlined process to capture quality management information. Her project resulted in the appointment of a TMC (American Express Business Travel), a card (Airplus) and an expense management provider (Concur) to create an end- to-end process. To achieve compliance, Nottingham did what few in the public sector contemplate – it mandated use of the programme and its suppliers. It has been hard work, but the results are paying dividends for the university. And Jeannette? This work earned her the title of Travel Buyer of the Year at the 2012 Business Travel Awards (pictured).
“Unaccompanied minors, diplomatic mail, weapons carriage and escorted prisoners all have a legitimate requirement for offline bookings”
He emphasises that long-haul international travel often needs to be dealt with offline. “Unaccompanied minors, diplomatic mail, weapons carriage, escorted prisoners – these all have a legitimate requirement for offline bookings. You need to set realistic online targets. “We do need more end-to-end, but a fully automated process might be a step too far.” He thinks that the private sector
could learn a lot about data security and contract management from the public sector. “The way we have to deliver is very prescriptive, but it is clear and precise about supplier performance and targets being met,” says Holmes.
On the other hand, he believes the public sector could learn from the private sector in the areas of innovation. “Once you’re awarded
a contract, that’s great, but you can’t stand still. You have to look at reducing transaction fees and moving it forward.” Holmes also thinks that government delivery would benefit from incorporating incentives into government contracts. “The government should feel able to incentivise the TMC to be innovative in how they deliver the service. There has to be that balance between being prescriptive about what you have to do and deliver, while also being able to deliver savings that benefit both. If the client is saving money, the TMC should gain some revenue.
“I’m a firm believer in honesty.
You should be able to say: ‘This is the cost base, this is what we have and if we deliver beyond that, it should be recognised and rewarded.’” Let’s hope that turning around government thinking isn’t akin to turning round one of those battleships of the MOD for whom Holmes once worked.
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