USING AN ONLINE TMC
BY EGENCIA’S DEFINITION, THE SME LABEL covers those businesses that spend between £500,000 and £1.5 million a year on travel. Clothing retailer Ted Baker is one such company. The firm started life in 1988 as a men’s shirt specialist in Glasgow but has since expanded into other types of clothing and accessories, both for men and women. When the company expanded by opening shops in North America it was looking for global consistency in its travel programme, and chose Egencia to create a system that could manage complex, multiple-destination bookings and handle these both on and offline. The company has used Egencia as its TMC since 2006 and around 80 per cent of its spend is air travel to the US, China and Hong Kong, with some domestic air travel. The remaining 20 per cent is spent on hotel and rail. There are some 100 bookers who use the booking tool and offline service. Ted Baker’s business travel consists of complex international bookings, that can
be time-consuming and difficult to fulfil. Egencia provided Ted Baker with a dedi- cated customer service team that is reliable and familiar with their travel programme
The pros
• Lower fees. • Access to preferred supplier rates. • Easily scalable as company grows.
The cons
• Transaction and other fees payable. • Harder to book complicated itineraries via online tools.
• Full TMC service usually chargeable.
and needs. “Ted Baker’s busy business support team is able to turn to Egencia customer service for any complex or unfa- miliar bookings in multiple destinations,” says Egencia senior marketing manager Adrian Whitcombe. “This helps alleviate workload and allows them to focus on other aspects of their roles, leaving the trip logis- tics to Egencia’s service team.”Meanwhile Egencia’s online booking tool is available for travellers to make less complex bookings, which saves cost, says Whitcombe. Egencia carried out a full analysis of Ted
Baker’s air programme, and recommended improvements and new contracting oppor- tunities. “The account manager’s proactive approach and close working relationship with Ted Baker’s travel director resulted in successful corporate airline deals,” says Whitcombe. “Ted Baker was able to save on air fares on their most-used routes.” Laura Kelly, Ted Baker’s business support manager, adds: “Knowing Egencia is working on our behalf in the background gives us peace of mind.”
USING A SPECIALIST TMC
DIGITAL ADVERTISING ASSET MANAGEMENT COMPANY Adstream was set up by Aus- tralian entrepreneurs in 2001 and now has 42 offices in 30 countries, including London, Sydney and Kuala Lumpur. In the UK, Adstream has 195 employees, of which the majority of the management team are required to travel. Emma-Jane Bentley is Adstream’s executive assistant to the CEO, CFO and commercial director, and based in London. “My guys are always travelling, mainly to the US, Asia and Australia,” she says. “Adstream’s account managers often do a lot of UK and European travel to clients. “When I joined, Adstream was using
a travel agency in London and having problems in terms of billing and cus- tomer service. Along with our CFO, we consulted a number of providers with a key requirement to shy away from the big global TMCs, to make sure we had that personal touch.”
After a competitive pitch, Adstream appointed Corporate Traveller in 2015 to handle travel in the UK and Australia. With more point-to-point travel, Australia
52 BBT JULY/AUGUST 2016
The pros • Access to TMC expertise but without the cost of a traditional TMC.
• Potential to transition easily to full TMC service as company grows. • Access to preferred supplier rates.
The cons
• Choice may be limited depending on the TMC’s relationships with suppliers.
• SMEs have to pay transaction fees which may be higher than other options.
• Potentially taking second place to higher spending clients of a TMC.
is serviced online. In the UK it is mainly phone-based (plus an online tool for simple bookings). “Our directors do a lot of multi-stop trips,” says Bentley. “By getting someone to tailor the bookings, you some- times get better deals you wouldn’t get from an online system.” Travel for both regions is billed to a
central account, with hotel bills handled through billback. Adstream uses Concur for its expense management but the system is not integrated with travel book- ings. It allows use of Uber, with expenses via Concur, but doesn’t use Airbnb. “We get good corporate rates in major cities – London, New York, Kuala Lumpur and Sydney – and our travellers prefer to stay in a nice hotel,” says Bentley. Adstream has a monthly review meeting with its dedicated Corporate Traveller account manager to go over regular reports on top spenders, trends and missed savings. Bentley says working with Cor- porate Traveller has really sorted out the account management issues they were having previously. “It’s like having someone in-house,” she says.
BUYINGBUSINESSTRAVEL.COM
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