That is why either the travel depart- ment or the travel category manager within procurement is often still the lead on any payments solution tender, but other departments will have an interest in the functionality of what’s chosen. David Wood, global hotel technology
relationship manager at Conferma, uses the example of recruitment to explain: “Many different departments need to recruit, but the whole process of getting them all to the office can be a minefield,” he says. “Most blue chip companies will offer to fund the travel of those potential new employees. They may have 50 people come down for one placement. Asking every potential employee to pay, send receipts through and organise the reimbursement can be a cumbersome process. The virtual card can generate a card for that booking, the airline or rail travel and hotel – where they’re going and staying for that interview. “The travel department might end up doing the booking. It will source it, or use the travel management company – whatever the structure might be. With a virtual card they can use the designated resource (and adhere to company policy and rate ceilings). This removes any admin and potential conflict later on, whether it’s chasing payment or removing any friction that might arise post-interview from an unsuccessful applicant.”
CORPORATE NEEDS Tony Pilcher, an independent consul- tant who was formerly the head of travel for a global financial institution, knows all about management and collaboration. He reminds us that payments is like any other element of corporate strategy, in that the manager must never forget the objectives. “Ultimately, what every corporate is looking for is the overall cost effective- ness of their programme,” he says. “And aligned to the effectiveness and value the programme brings is ensuring that you’re bringing the traveller productiv- ity and satisfaction. “It’s not just about the component
parts. So think about what you are trying to achieve. You want either to own the component parts or make sure
In association with
whoever does is part of your team and you’re all aligned. And you need a sponsor to make it successful. So when you’re starting, ask: ‘who’s going to sponsor this?’ Senior level sponsor- ship is vital to ensure that the people you want to talk to are actually going to talk to you.”
CLIENT CONTACT Payments providers are strikingly united on advising their clients – and potential clients – on first steps. Jon Fox is UK & Ireland commercial director at Airplus. He says: “We ask potential clients to tell us what the challenges are in their business, because they are almost always different. They can range from an organisation that doesn’t have full visibility of its spend, to automa- tion of account payable processes. Or you may have an organisation that’s looking for better working capital optimisation.” Maria Parpou, product director for
Barclaycard Commercial Payments, be- lieves that, “in order to transform travel buying to a strategic decision, corporate decision-makers need to be clear on the end objective. There are no right
Amadeus UK, which recently launched an integrated booking and expense management tool. He says that this “makes expense reporting quick and easy, removing the chore of hours filling expense management reports”. Parpou stresses “gathering key stake- holders from all teams that may be affected”, and this is a tactic with which Tony Pilcher agrees. “Like anything in putting a
programme together, it’s about putting your right structure, team and programme together and then how you source who’s going to deliver that programme and how they’re going to deliver it,” he says. “You don’t neces- sarily own the card programme or the accounting department, but they have to be part of your team. Make sure you’re engaging all the relevant parts – HR, employee relations, accident compensation, security and duty of care, environment aspects.”
INTERESTED PARTIES Conferma’s Wood also points out how different departments are looking for different things from a payments solution. “The finance man
“Finance is looking for data and improved reconciliation, while the ops person wants the ability to make bookings in as quick and streamlined a way as possible”
or wrong answers; the key is iden- tifying what is appropriate for your corporate culture. “Corporates are aware that payment solutions may work well for some teams and not for others.” For example, she says, travellers may be using their own cards to book travel, but without an API or some mechanism in place to link it to ERP (enterprise resource plan- ning) software, this will mean more time for the finance team that needs to reconcile purchases with charges. The same reasoning would apply to
travellers not in an integrated or auto- mated expense management system. Kevin Myhill is head of corporate for
is looking for data and improved reconciliation, while the ops person wants the ability to make bookings in as quick and streamlined a way as possible.” He agrees with Pilcher that the
procurement or travel manager tends to be the main point of contact, but the person who will always have an interest is the person entrusted with corporate security in general and PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) in particular. “These are the core stakeholders.” Wood reminds us that as well as the specialists, such as IT, which have an interest, some individual needs cross
BBT CORPORATE CARDS SUPPLEMENT 2017 11
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