IN CONVERSATION WITH... CARLA ZAPF, INFINEON TECHNOLOGIES

Carla Zapf, Manager Travel and Mobility Projects, Infineon Technologies is hosting a buyer

only masterclass at 1635 on Tuesday 21 February at the Business Travel Show: Realign your

travel programme after company mergers, acquisitions and divestments. To register for a

free pass, please visit www.businesstravelshow.com. 

Please sum up your conference session in one sentence.

Facing the challenge of a company merger or acquisition it’s not only about travel policies, travel service providers, contracts and hotel programmes. We must manage in addition different system landscapes and processes, from HR Master Data to Accounting and Finance activities. And you will need to cope with different cultures, travel behaviours and expectations.  

Why is it a must-attend for travel managers? 

Take the opportunity to catch some valuable experience if you have the task in front of you. Or share what you feel is important when managing mergers. The quality of the integration project has a huge effect. So, enlarge or create your network in travel management, even if it is not your daily work, to prepare you when managing this challenge.

I am happy to share my experiences out of several integration activities. I hope to provide a benefit to all who will have a similar challenge in front of them, while being able to extend my own network and find sources of inspiration.

GUEST BLOG: Why Companies Should Offer Employees Several Ride Services

Companies need as much diversity in ride services as they have in airline and hotel suppliers – if not more.

The reason is the variety of rides employees take. Ground transportation is often discussed as a uniform service. This view, though, doesn’t reflect the realities (pardon the pun) on the ground.

For example, an on-demand ride from a New York convention centre to a restaurant greatly differs from a Shanghai airport ride to a downtown hotel. Also, the needs of an individual traveller to the airport vary from those of executives on a multi-city road show. A company’s 200-person annual sales meeting has unique demands, too.

Furthermore, each provider has different strengths and weaknesses. Taxis and ride-hailing specialise in short-distance, inner-city mobility. But there are no global quality and security standards for vehicles or the overall experience.

Many local minicab services have fleets in one city or sometimes a few cities in one country. But they lack a multi-national reach and English-speaking drivers. Legacy limo services have trouble fulfilling rides at certain times of the day or on short notice. And many ride services impede cost certainty with added fees or incomplete receipts.

UBS Bank, based in the City of London, takes the multi-vendor approach. Anne Barlow, head of U.K. and NEEMEA (Northern and Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa) travel operations, told Buying Business Travel that the company uses four ground transportation vendors. The decision was based on duty-of-care concerns and the challenge of finding cars between 10 pm and 1 am.

We recommend companies to use both scheduled and on-demand services. Scheduled suppliers give travellers the peace of mind to seamlessly book rides, flights and hotels at the same time. All segments then have guaranteed, all-inclusive prices. We also suggest including a service that provides English-speaking drivers worldwide. This eases travellers’ international trips, especially in new countries. 

On-demand services, like taxis and ride-hailing, serve travellers' immediate ride needs. UBS Bank’s policy allows for ride-hailing “at the traveller’s discretion for non-pre-booked journeys.”

While organisations’ needs differ, those with a range of suppliers will best serve employees locally and abroad. Plus, you gain the most control over ground transportation costs and can scale your program as your company expands.

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This post was written by Sascha Meskendahl, Chief Revenue Officer, Blacklane, exhibitors at The Business Travel Show  - click on the link to register for a free visitor pass. 

GUEST BLOG: FIVE REASONS TO ADOPT A SELF BOOKING TOOL

There’s no doubt that technology is a critical element of managing business travel and clients are demanding more innovative tools and automation to meet the needs of their increasingly tech-savvy travellers. But corporates shouldn’t necessarily rush to implement a self-booking tool as this type of technology may not suit everyone. First, consider the following five reasons for adopting an online tool:

1.    If your company books at least 150 flights/transactions per annum which are straightforward point-to-point routes?– primarily this applies to domestic or European routes (London-Frankfurt, Manchester-Paris for example). However more corporates are now using SBT’s for long haul point-to-point.

2.     If you are looking for cost savings on transaction fees and airfares Online tools can drive airfare savings by up to 10 per cent via visual guilt. A traveller is more likely to take a cheaper fare if it is staring them in the face, rather than being told over the phone, especially If the self-booking tool is set up correctly, so that the traveller has to declare why they might not take a cheaper fare

3.     If the nature of your company’s business travel doesn’t involve complex itineraries, or frequent changes.  More corporates are becoming aware of the cost of changing tickets post departure. An online tool helps drive the behaviour that once booked, it’s more difficult to change.

4.    If your travellers prefer to book their own travel – this is particularly relevant for the Millennial generation who want to do everything via their smartphone and a self-booking tool provides the facility for booking on the move. CTM’s new proprietary online booking tool ‘Lightning’ has been designed with this demographic of business traveller in mind, with a fast, intuitive interface that brings a consumer-style ‘shopping cart’ approach to the corporate booking process. A self-booking tool can also tackle leakage. If travellers tend to go rogue and book on internet sites, the tool provides the online experience they are looking for, but still captures all the data the corporate requires.

5.     If you have a TMC that can support your bookers/travellers with training. A good TMC behind the scenes is essential. The TMC can provide training, reporting on adoption levels and identify non-users. A TMC can, in most cases, bolt on an approval tool so the corporate can be assured that trips remain within policy.

Stuart Birkin is director of account management, Corporate Travel Management.

CTM will be demonstrating ‘Lightning’, the TMC’s new proprietary online tool on stand B520. www.travelctm.co.uk. CTM is exhibiting at the Business Travel Show, 22-23 February 2017, Olympia London. Register for a free visitor pass at www.businesstravelshow.com