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Monday Roundtables
Travel: Commodity vs Value-Add Purchasing?
Designed by researchers from the Kellogg School of Management, focused roundtable discussions centered around three predictions related to travel procurement and management. For each prediction, discussion groups considered whether the prediction was likely to occur or not, what the impact would be to each industry segment and what, if anything, should be done in response. A white paper summarizing the results of the discussions together with highlights from the keynote by Aaron Gellman will be published on this site and distributed to ACTE members in January '05. Some initial observations include:
Outsourcing and Shift to Purchasing
- Outsourcing is a continuing trend; highly dependent on company size and culture.
- Definite need for a dedicated travel manager to manage day-to-day operations and manage contracts in order to retain control for the company.
- Regardless of involvement of TMC or purchasing, direct communication needs to be maintained between the suppliers and corporate customers.
Cost versus Service
- Emphasis on cost is a consequence of increasing involvement of purchasing departments in travel procurement.
- Even if travel is considered a commodity purchase, there is still a need to balance cost and service, which are usually conflicting goals.
- Definite need to communicate and demonstrate value of travel; cost is easy to quantify while service characteristics are not.
- Suppliers and TMCs need to tailor offerings to provide value that can be provided given cost constraints.
Data and Analysis
- In many cases, data collection and analysis needs to be more sophisticated in order to measure contract performance and compliance and to communicate the value of travel.
- Corporate travel managers should perform their own data collection and analysis and not solely rely on data provided by suppliers and TMCs.
- Need to commit proper resources in terms of tools and people to maximize effectiveness.
Tuesday Roundtables
The Future of Distribution
Designed by researchers from Cranfield University's Air Transport Group, roundtable sessions focused on the implications of current market changes in distribution, with particular emphasis on the issue of the cost of using various channels, and the potential impact of GDS deregulation. A comprehensive summary of roundtable results together with highlights from Fariba Alamdari's keynote address will be published on this site and distributed to ACTE members in January '05.
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