Pharmaceutical Firms Benefit from Web-Based Managed Travel

Keep an eye on e-Travel Inc. (Waltham, MA), which provides web-based managed travel to companies in the pharmaceutical, chemical, semiconductor, and food industries. Just what is managed travel? It's a suite of web-based applications that helps business travelers find the best prices for hotels, airlines, and rental cars while keeping within corporate travel policies and preferred provider groups.

Those who work for large firms know that traveling—flying, driving, whatever—is the least frustrating aspect of business trips. At some global companies, corporate travel policies are as complex and far-reaching as the GMP regulation. For example, employees at various levels enjoy different spending limits for hotels and airline seats, even meals. Furthermore, the information available to travel agents don't always make it easy to take advantage of bulk discounts a firm may have worked out with airlines or hotel chains. And then there are expense reports.

Companies that sign up with e-Travel assign their travelers with a user-specific, password-protected URL that recognizes the user. Acting as a kind of guardian angel, e-Travel doesn't allow users to cross the line into inappropriate travel practices. No need to worry about getting reimbursed for that $500 hotel room or $3,000 flight on the Concorde: If those numbers exceed your corporate limits, you won't be able to book them, period. For those who find filing expense reports burdensome, e-Travel also provides an online form that reduces reimbursement times from two to three weeks to a couple of days.

e-Travel streamlines trip planning, using preferred vendors for airlines (above), car rentals (below), and hotels.

"E-travel allows companies to manage corporate travel better, manage vendors better, and lower costs," says Bart Littlefield, VP of marketing and business development at e-Travel, "while adhering to corporate policy and exploiting vendor negotiation tools to their fullest. Plus e-Travel is configurable. Companies can change travel policies on the fly and have them apply to everyone instantly, or change the status or spending limits for a particular employee, contractor, or consultant. And it's all done electronically."

Littlefield stressed that e-Travel is not a broker or travel agency. "In fact we work with a company's existing travel agent whenever possible." Instead, e-Travel collects a small transaction fee—around $10—per managed trip.

Benefits
Online managed travel will go a long way towards helping companies enforce travel policies uniformly and consistently, and without the acrimony sometimes involved in getting reimbursed for non-approved expenses. Companies that sometimes reimburse employees for borderline-high expenses will not need to do so; nor will they need to devote personnel to enforce travel rules.

According to Littlefield, the more a company's employees travel the more the firm benefits. "The pharmaceutical industry has unique travel requirements," Littlefield explained. "Product launches, although infrequent, can take up between 30 and 40 percent of a company's travel expenses for a given year. Launches involve getting hundreds of people from all over the country—physicians, product managers, public relations, and marketing personnel—to a single place." Managed travel can also streamline arrangements for companies to send 10–15 people to a scientific or engineering meeting, training session, or seminar. And since it's customizable to corporate and individual needs, consultants can be activated/deactivated easily to accommodate their travel schedules.

Direct cost savings through e-Travel are possible through:

• Reducing the administration fee paid to travel agencies for travel management—typically $50 to $60 paid directly to travel agents—to about $10 (paid to e-Travel)
  
• Uniform application of negotiated discount fairs which can save a company up to $500 per trip. Large companies waste millions of dollars a year by not following their own purchase guidelines, according to Littlefield, since often the discounts are improperly administered or not administered at all.
  
• Offering business travelers choices for lower-priced flights and flight-stayover scenarios. "When users are offered less expensive choices they take them," says Littlefield.

Another benefit for companies located in New Jersey, the world's pharmaceutical "breadbasket," is e-Travel's connection with Continental Airlines, the largest provider of airline seats in New Jersey and e-Travel's launch partner. e-Travel offers what Littlefield termed a direct (vs. brokered) link to Continental, whereby travelers can save even more.

For more information: Bart Littlefield, Vice President, Marketing and Business Development, e-Travel Inc. 1000 Winter St., Waltham, MA 02451. Tel: 781-522-8974. Fax: 781-522-9900.

By Angelo DePalma