BENCHMARKING
benchmarking in the future. “And understanding how your approach to travel and your travel policy stacks up against your competitors is also critical to recruiting and retaining the best talent,” she says. Of course, Koch continues, buyers benchmark against cost, but he argues today it can get “a little murky”. Back to the fruit analogy, he notes: “It’s hard to get an apples to apples comparison as there are so many variables. If someone has a frequent city pair, then most people will turn to their TMC. They say ‘you know us, give us a like-for-like com- parison to someone whose programme is close to ours’. That’s as close as you can get. “But there are companies like
ARC [Airlines Reporting Corporation] that can help, pulling in interline and IATA data, trying to get that apples to apples comparison.” ARC settles more than US$88.5 billion in transactions annually between airlines and travel agencies in the US, repre- senting more than 287 million passenger trips, covering 60 per cent of the world’s passenger air tickets. “Then there are specialised silos, and for accom-
modation you have the likes of HRS who can compare specifically in the hotel sector, and can drill down to cities. But with ground transport, the suppliers may be reluctant,” he adds. However, with a growing number of large consul- tancies emerging, travel buyers can turn to them for benchmarking advice. But it depends on their clients, and their clients’ industries, if they can make relevant comparisons. Koch adds: “Consultants can be good at not only benchmarking overall cost, but services beyond the price of fare, the ancillaries that are bundled in.”
MAKING COMPARISONS Koch describes the most common type of benchmark- ing as “rear view mirror benchmarking” – looking back at what has happened, over 30 days or 60 days. But, he adds, some companies are saying they will look at rates more often, because they do not want to get locked in with certain suppliers, or locked in over a particular period of time. However, a comparison of actual activity on a monthly or quarterly basis can be helpful when determining if a travel programme has the best negotiated rates. One buyer in the food and beverage sector told BBT they ap- preciated the quarterly reports from their TMC, which presented the statistics in a clear way, highlighting any trends or anomalies, importantly saving the buyer the task of sifting through reams of data. But some buyers are opting more for spot-buying, allowing travellers greater flexibility to choose the
78 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018
A TMC CAN
ONLY PROVIDE BENCHMARKING ON THE DATA IT ACTIVELY RECORDS
BENCHMARKING: THINK BIG WHEN SMALL
Michelle Taft, managing director of consultancy Apensia
“We’ve all heard the term ‘small fish in a big pond’, and many smaller organisations can often feel this way when they’re not getting the attention they require from their TMC. However, a number of the larger TMCs now offer services specifically tailored to SMEs, and
there are numerous small to mid-size TMCs who target the SME market almost exclusively. I’m aware of a number of smaller TMCs that
offer benchmarking insights that compare the performance of their travel programme with similar anonymised companies to their clients, so these services are available. It’s important to remember, though, that you should be benchmarking your busi- ness against other businesses with a similar travel profile to gain realistic feedback on what you could be doing to improve your travel programme and the impact these changes could have on your business. Also remember that a TMC can only provide
benchmarking on the data it actively records, so be sure to find out what information it can offer bench- marking on. Headline figures are interesting but the more you can drill down into the data the better you’ll understand what opportunities there are for improvement.”
buyingbusinesstravel.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123
