Constant change and constant disruption make managing multinational travel programs today as complex as ever, and there are probably more challenges ahead. At the same time, new technologies, new providers and a new mindset present opportunities for improvement
Central to many plans is a fresh look at assembling a program’s tech stack and perhaps redefining the travel management company’s role. During the August episode of the Business Travel Executive Town Hall via LinkedIn Audio, Faye Zeidlhack, Takeda Pharmaceuticals global travel manager, UBS head of global travel management Mark Cuschieri and Pedro Ceron, senior director of global travel management at oncology company BeiGene, explored the complications inherent in international travel.
With more severe weather, travel industry staffing issues and air traffic control deficiencies among the obstacles, Zeidlhack said, there are more considerations than ever before. “We are at an incredible turning point. It would be a challenge for the TMCs as well. These disruptions are things you’ve never dreamed of in a pre-COVID world. I talk to many colleagues, and none of us feel like we’re experts because the industry is in such flux.”
The trio ran through the daunting list of hurdles for multinational programs. Navigating geopolitics is always tricky, more so when hotspots flare up. Knowing where employees are at any given moment to fulfill the company’s duty of care has never been more critical. Environmental action is more urgent; sustainability is moving up the agenda and impacting more companies’ business travel volumes and program priorities. Dealing with data from sources worldwide has become more complex as new privacy regulations and cross-border data restrictions take effect.
Ceron discussed a technology and data “paradox.” On the one hand, he said, technologies to support travel management “travel a little better and are a lot more interoperable,” meaning “truly” global implementations of tools and systems are more possible than in years past. On the flip side are “more restrictions on the movement of data by regulations and laws and privacy in particular, for personally identifiable information. So we fixed one problem – we are now interoperable and using the same system globally – but we can’t do what we want it to do. We now have to do some workarounds.”
BeiGene’s legal team stepped in during a global reporting tool rollout to enforce a new privacy program requiring active consent by employees in certain countries, meaning those employees must explicitly give permission for their data to be used in the way intended. Since other countries with implied consent (granting consent based on actions taken) could switch to active consent at any time, Ceron said, the company decided to make active consent the default and “pre-empt any kind of challenges.”
Even so, these and other data-handling barriers create risks, and BeiGene started to “partition certain countries,” Ceron said. “That’s something that didn’t happen too long ago, but today, it’s a reality when you’re dealing with data flows.” With administrative offices in Basel, Beijing and Cambridge, MA, the company has about 10,000 employees in 40 countries.
Evolving Ideas
Some companies, including UBS – headquartered in Switzerland, with about 115,000 employees in 45 markets – use third parties other than TMCs to deal with data. “I still think there are huge challenges in data and the requirement for data normalization, especially when you have a global program,” said Cuschieri, also president of the board of directors at the Global Business Travel Association. “It’s a critical need. Have there been improvements in that? Yes.” He cited reporting requirements and sustainability initiatives as part of the impetus.
Other complications are more specific to travel and to travelers themselves. With distributed workforces in vogue, living and working arrangements are fluid, altering travel patterns. In many corporate environments, the age of policy dictates gave way to traveler flexibility. However, travelers still get disappointed when their workplace tech tools are less than consumer-grade.
“You have to be creative and be an internal marketeer, as well,” Cuschieri said. “You are dealing with multiple stakeholders. You are dealing with far more tech-savvy employees, challenging your process and challenging what you do and how you do it. It’s no longer simply just saying, ‘This is the policy, and this is what you have to do.’ Things have to be constantly evolving as the marketplace changes.”
When state-of-the-art systems, particularly for booking, aren’t installed in travel programs, the reasons often include marketplace and corporate realities. Cuschieri relies on a colleague to examine tech products in the marketplace because “when you lift up the hood, you find maybe it doesn’t do exactly what it says.” But he also said providers had improved their offerings, while internal company policies and regulatory requirements could hinder innovation.
“Over 70 percent of our travel bookings are initiated on a digital platform, which means that how I looked at our program 10 years ago is very different,” Cuschieri said. “Our program has to keep up with those employee experiences and their expectations.”
Changing the Approach
Companies need strong partners to help them manage all these complexities. TMCs are the traditional foundation for multinational travel programs. That’s typically still the case, but some program managers question whether there is a better way to assemble travel management infrastructure. They are reassessing TMC relationships and considering more flexible arrangements that allow for independent decisions on technology.
A third-party aggregator may be better suited for the data handling task than a TMC. The same goes for content; air, hotel and car rental rates and inventory are increasingly not available via a single source. Artificial intelligence undoubtedly will play roles in travel programs, but applications won’t always come from TMCs. For servicing, especially regarding enroute changes, many more travelers go directly to the airline app than their TMC. “In today’s world, you’re not really calling the TMC after-hours desk anymore,” Zeidlhack said.
Meanwhile, new entrants and other providers joining the managed travel space draw interest for their promises to reinvent travel and expense management processes. TMCs, though, for the most part, continue to be the chief component for most multinational travel programsGoing with a globally consolidated TMC or selecting the most appropriate one for each region or country is an age-old question; both approaches have pros and cons. The best path forward depends on the company’s culture, sophistication, available resources and other factors. Continually improving data consolidation makes it easier for some companies to go with multiple TMCs around the globe.
“There was a time when it was one TMC globally, and that made sense, and pretty much whatever tool they recommended, that’s what you went with,” Zeidlhack said. “And while there is incredible value in a very experienced global TMC, many of us are taking a step back. Is your TMC partner everything, or should we divide and conquer a bit?”
That’s because of all the complications some companies must deal with internally – pharma, for example, has unique processes, lots of candidate travelers, and a bevy of strict regulations – as well as changing market conditions, like the emergence of new airline distribution strategies.
“There is great value in a TMC with a lot of different processes in certain countries, but also we’re looking at the technology piece because of NDC and saying, ‘Maybe I should make that choice independent and bring my TMC into that,’ or connect the two,” Zeidlhack said. “I’m going to choose all the elements that add up to my program. You do need help in certain areas of the world.”
Tokyo-headquartered Takeda has about 50,000 employees operating in 80 countries. Like Cuschieri, Zeidlhack has a team member devoted to travel technology. “We have a colleague who is dedicated to looking at different online booking tool partners that might be new and different and something that we would not have ever considered before.”
“Everyone is taking a step back and asking, ‘Can I do it differently?’ ” said Cuschieri. “Ask challenging questions, whether that’s of TMC partners or other suppliers. Can we do it better?”
