Best travel management practices — to the regions!

ABT-ACTE Russia goes on introducing technologies, best practices and trends in travel management to business travel industry participants, and also creating new platforms for communication between corporate buyers and business travel service providers in different cities of Russia. An educational session in the form of a business breakfast was held in Perm Park Hotel on February 26. And the next day experts spoke at a regional conference in Ekaterinburg that was held in Moskovskaya Gorka hotel.

The contents of the educational program in Perm was fundamental, it was devoted to the basics of modern travel management, issues of document flow in business trip arrangement and management. Partners of the event were Etihad Airways and technological company Travelport.

Participants of the seminar were directors, heads of procurement and business support departments, protocol and translation offices and other employees responsible for business trip and event planning and arrangement of such companies as EAE-Consult, Uralkali, Sibur-Chimprom, Elkam-Neftemash, Zapravkin, Ural FD etc.

Deputy executive director of ABT-ACTE Russia Ekaterina Aleksandrova told the participants what travel policy was needed for, the right way to develop it, and what functions of a business travel manager were. According to the speaker, travel policy optimization will help not only standardize the process of business trip arrangement, but also ensure control and cost saving. The theme of cutting business travel costs and expenditure on events, which is a headache of many companies in the times of the downturn, was continued by Tatiana Davydova, director of Perm branch of Zelenski Corporate Travel Solutions, a business travel agency. The expert named the main cost items of business travel and gave a number of recommendations to optimize them. For example, maximum proximity of a hotel to the meeting site will let you save on transport expenses.

The introduction of an online booking tool can facilitate efficient business travel management. Sales manager of Travelport Valeria Zakharova offered the participants their product TripGate developed by the company. For example, the system allows managers to see the lowest rate that was available at the time of booking — transparency of processes ensures better travel policy compliance. Let alone the fact that an Online Booking Tool saves time and increases labour efficiency.

At the end of the educational session in Perm Vladimir Serdiuk, expert of business and conference hotel attestation department of ABT-ACTE Russia, spoke about business travellers` expectation of accommodation facilities and about the program of the Association that was aimed at helping the business traveller and the travel manager to find their way in the wide choice of hotels. Mr Serdiuk, as well as Valeria Zakharova presented his report at the conference in Ekaterinburg.

«The information we received at the educational session was very useful», head of business support department of JSC Sibur-Chimprom Oksana Sarakach said. «It would be interesting to hear experts` and our colleagues` opinions on using travel policy in secondment, as well as about using different online systems and opportunities to cut business travel costs. I liked the presentation of Etihad Airways as well».

Head of procurement department of EAE-Consult Ekaterina Rykova noted good organization of the event and the fact that for her personally the most informative was the lively discussion — in Ms Rykova`s opinion, some reports lacked adaptation to small-town realities. «Corporate buyers of business travel services in Perm are interested in and willing to share experience. This is a great platform for procurement experts to meet», Ms Rykova added.

Elena Lobanova, head of protocol and business support department of Uralkali group admitted she was very glad that ABT-ACTE Russia and its educational sessions and conferences had come to the regions. «There is no need to discuss the usefulness of such events: it is evident. I have never heard before about platforms in Perm or Ekaterinburg where you could meet business travel experts, share experience or learn how others coped with the same issues and tasks», Ms Lobanova stressed. «A good beginning has been made, the session was exiting, informative and successful, I suppose. I think I will express everyone’s opinion: we hope that the events of the Association will be held regularly in our region».

Elena Lobanova not only participated in the educational session in Perm, but also spoke at the regional conference in Ekaterinburg the next day. A large number of corporate buyers and representatives of business travel agencies visited the event — about 60 delegates.

Ms Lobanova shared her experience in developing, introducing and controlling the travel policy. As Ms Lobanova noted, a system approach to cost management is ensured by a consolidated business trip schedule for their group of companies, online booking tools and obligatory approval of business trips by the general director (or finance and economic affairs director).

Elza Abadovskaya, administrative manager of Covidien also spoke about ways to cut business travel costs. For example, airline rate groups were included into the travel policy of the company — now business travellers should choose the most economic one. The staff are allowed to book first class railway tickets only for night trips or trips that last for more than 6 hours. It is also spelled out that return or cancellation of a business trip is the employee’s personal responsibility. For example, if a business traveller forgets to cancel his hotel booking, he should account for it. By the way, due to this rule the amount of cancellation penalties in the third quarter decreased by 41,2%. The airline ticket cost dropped by 17,2% and that of railway tickets — by 18,7%. As the result, the company managed to save not less than 5 million roubles on airline tickets only.

«The conference was no doubt useful! We took note of Ukalkali`s experience in sending business trip arrangement requests in electronic form in a special program and decided to introduce it in our company. My special thanks to Elena Lobanova for it! Elza Abadovskaya’s experience was also useful — I would like to thank her as well!» was the opinion of Elena Korolyova, documentation management department of the Ural Turbine Works. «New contacts, especially those of agencies that sell airline and railway tickets and offer accommodation, were very useful».

The second session of the conference was devoted to the meetings industry. Ekaterina Aleksandrova spoke about the ways to arrange a successful event and offered the participants a case study — to plan an ideal corporate event for March 8th. Chairman of Ekaterinburg Congress Bureau Oksana Trofimova-Nidental reminded everyone that professional organizers of corporate events could be useful to corporate buyers and MICE agencies, and Olga Voytenko, senior expert of Ekaterinburg Committee on External Relations presented the city as a MICE destination. A modern airport and a large number of hotels, more than 130 MICE venues with capacities from 70 to 2 thousand guests, a lot of facilities for teambuilding and incentive programs make Ekaterinburg an attractive place for events, including international ones.

Speakers of the third part of the regional conference were representatives of business travel companies. What issues and difficulties does any agency face? According to Natalia Poroshina, head of online technology department of Zelenski Corporate Travel Solutions, agencies face the following difficulties:

— acquisition, storage and procession of data on all kinds of services;

— the need for human resources for the accounting department, booking experts and the fiscal group;

— data insertion into orders and database actualization in the manual mode;

— errors in financial documents caused by the lack of full information on orders;

— time spent on creating complicated management reports according to the customer’s forms.

Ms Poroshina explained how all these problems could be solved with the help of PLATON — a complex accounting automation system for travel companies and airline and railway ticket offices on the basis of «1C: Trade Management 8.2». The project developed by ZCTS has been used by the largest market players as a back office for their online products for corporate buyers and individual customers for more than 15 years.

Anna Vasilenko, general director of Pelican Bureau (Tyumen) spoke about the skills a business travel expert should have. According to the speaker, a balance of the following components is very important: technologies and progress, work with internal and external customers, knowledge of the market, products and services, process organization and self-discipline.

The myth that you can not be organized if there is too much work was dismantled by Andrey Bazarov from LICO training and consulting company. The speaker gave the conference participants practical advice on how to manage time and stress, shared the main principle of work time planning and ways to set your mind on work. «In general, a manager gets distracted every 6-12 minutes. And he spends not less than 5 minutes to return to his work he was distracted from», Mr Bazarov said. «That is why you should devote special time to read emails and write routine letters — 2-3 times a day». The expert also stressed that time management often consisted in rest management, which is not a way to avoid work, but an obligatory part of the working process of a responsible person!«

«This conference was very useful and I am glad I have had a chance to participate», Milena Gaisarova, office manager of Danone group of companies in Ekaterinburg said. «I liked the interactive part very much. Besides, I have learned a lot of new ways of cutting business travel costs, which is very important nowadays. It was interesting to learn about time management, and I have put into practice some advice already — and they work well! I am absolutely persuaded that the need for such conferences in the Urals and Ekaterinburg is obvious: when everyone shares their experience with each other, it helps in your work greatly».

«I would like to pay special attention to great organization of this event, strict adherence to the schedule and declared subjects. I think it is a reflection of professional skills of the organizers», Anna Gavrish, general director assistant of Schneider Electric Ural noted. «My special thanks for the really educational contents of the event and the opportunity to get the conference participant certificate. I am also grateful to ABT-ACTE Russia staff and external experts for their amiability, information awareness and readiness to answer questions. And the lottery made me really happy — it is always nice to get presents and souvenirs!»

Prizes for the lottery were provided by Moscow hotel Swissotel Krasnye Holmy. Partners of the regional conference in Ekaterinburg were Etihad Airways, Travelport, USTA Group. Active support of the event was provided by Ekaterinburg City Adminictration, Ekaterinburg Congress Bureau, Pelican Bureau, Uralterra, VisitUral, Europort, Royal Park Tourism Service.

Natalia Travova