TRAVEL BUYER Q&A Alan Ryan
Bob Papworth talks to the regional travel manager EMEA at SITA, and judge for the 2018 Business Travel Awards
How many frequent travellers come under your aegis, how many trips do you manage, and where are your travellers going? SITA has 2,400 regular travellers making 15,000 trips per annum, with 96 per cent of those trips in economy. Our main destina- tions are Geneva, London, Atlanta and Singapore.
SITA is, in effect, a membership organisation with around 400 owner/ members around the world. From a travel management perspective, what challenges does this present? SITA operates as a global organisation throughout its business streams in the same way as PLCs and other multinational organisations operate. In terms of travel policy, etc, we have one global policy and one travel process across all countries that apply to all travellers. From a travel management perspective, this provides consistency and clarity to all – travellers and suppliers.
What are the basics of your travel policy and is it mandated? How do you communicate it, and what sort of compliance levels do you achieve? SITA operates a ‘lowest fare on the day’ policy alongside a pre-trip approval process. This is combined with a managed global hotel programme. The policy is communi- cated to staff through an intranet page with new entrants being provided with copies of the travel policy during their initial induction. Our pre-trip approval process provides the basis for compliance reporting for both air and hotel programmes.
How frequently do you review your policy, and to what extent are you influenced by traveller feedback? Is ‘price vs productivity’ an issue? Travel policy is reviewed on an annual basis considering any developments in the marketplace and travellers’ comments provided in our annual survey. Price versus productivity is a question posed by many, and we provide guidance in that travel- lers should use a schedule that maximises
38 BBT September/October 2017
is implementing an online booking tool in our top operating countries.
In general terms, how has the corporate travel manager’s role changed in recent years? What does the future look like? A travel manager’s role is now accepted by many organisations as an integral part of managing third-party spend through a strategic approach to travel, incorporating all aspects from travel policy, to negotiat- ing with suppliers, to the booking process, travel safety and security, and expense management. It is a long way from its formative years when it was considered an unmanageable spend category and provided little value. In the future, I suspect that travel management will continue to be as strong as it is today so it is always going to be a great area to work in.
To what extent do travel managers share ‘best practice’?
Sharing ‘best practice’ is one of the things that travel management/procurement, I
“Travellers should use a schedule that maximises value for them and the business”
value for them and the business. Where the lowest fare on the day is not accepted, travellers must provide justification for the selected schedule so the approver can understand or challenge the trip.
How long have you been in your current role? I started my career in banking with Midland Bank (now HSBC), and through a chain of events moved across into procurement with BP covering a multitude of spend categories, including travel for the UK and Europe. As consolidation progressed and travel was identified as a global category, I had the opportunity to move into travel management looking after operational and procurement activities.
In your current role, what would you say have been your greatest achievements to date, and what have been the biggest challenges? Looking to the future, what’s next on your agenda? It’s been exciting in SITA throughout my time here. We have moved from a relatively localised travel programme to a globally managed one, which although challenging to implement, has been re- warding in its success. Next on our agenda
believe, does better than most other third- party spend categories. I continue to do that within my network of contacts. It is important to understand how other com- panies manage travel and the issues they encounter in managing their programmes.
What advice would you give to a new entrant to the travel management sector? I would encourage them to embrace travel by getting to know the industry as much as they can, by joining the travel organisa- tions and participating in all the sessions to gain an understanding of all the various travel sub categories.
What are your outside interests? Come the weekend, what will you be doing? I like to play golf, watch live music and go to sporting events. I might put my feet up this weekend – it’s been a busy week!
SITA says it is the world’s leading air transport IT
and comms specialist. It is co-owned by some 400 air transport firms, and has around 4,700 employees speaking 60- plus languages serving 2,800 corporate customers in more than 200 countries.
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 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158
