Merchandising and Technology Optimization: Your Ticket to Big Savings

By Michael Silvey, Senior Director, Traveler Engagement

With a multi-million dollar spend on business travel, any savings will make a big difference to the bottom line. And we have proved that the way to achieve big savings is to use merchandising and technology optimization to create a more effective business travel program.

The merchandising and technology optimization offering is a core component of our Traveler Engagement™ services. And it’s really paid off for Advito’s customers.

In this article, we’ll take you behind the scenes so you can learn more about:

How traveler behavior has changed
How unoptimized programs cost you money
What merchandising and technology optimization really means and how it can help your company

We’ll also give you proven examples of how our customers have used this service to keep business travelers engaged while reducing travel program spend. First, let’s look at the context your travel program is operating in.

Understanding traveler behavior

These days, business travelers have a lot of different ways to get travel information, and they use a variety of channels, too. They can find information online via travel websites and social media or get it via a whole range of mobile apps.

Sites like Expedia and Booking.com are often their first port of call when thinking about any trip, and that includes business travel. Our data shows that 78% of all business travelers will comparison shop on third party websites before going onto the corporate program.

Based on our internal analysis, we find that corporate sites may have similar or better options but nine out of 10 times, those sites are not configured to provide options to travelers that are viewed as positive. Additionally, those corporate sites are usually not assessed by viewing the digital display or by understanding the traveler experience and program goals. The merchandising and technology service provided by Advito includes the ability to target and best optimize your online booking tool. This creates a better booking environment that supports the company goals and the traveler experience.

How comparison shopping hurts your travel program

That behavior limits the success of your internal travel program, and here’s why. Travelers who search for information externally will already have ideas about the price of the trip, and may be emotionally invested in a particular itinerary or type of accommodation.

If the options available through your program don’t match up, they’ll be disappointed or dissatisfied. That can snowball, making them less likely to want to use your program in future.

Even if they do make a booking, they may not select the travel options you’d like them to choose, because of the information they’ve already seen externally. That’s bad news, because your supplier deals rely on you delivering a certain volume of sales. If you can’t, your supplier discounts won’t be as good.

There’s one more thing. Sites like Expedia and Booking.com are great at highlighting their preferred options. They also work seamlessly no matter whether customers are on the web or on a mobile device. Business travelers expect that same experience internally – and many corporate travel programs don’t deliver.

Let’s be clear: business travelers don’t purposely set out to mess up your hard-won supplier discounts. What usually happens is they don’t get the information they need to make good decisions that fit in with your travel policy. That’s where the merchandising and technology optimization service comes in.

How merchandising and technology optimization helps

Our merchandising and technology optimization service aims to give your internal customers – business travelers – the information they need. That information is delivered the way they’re used to getting it: online and via mobile and personalized to meet their needs.

The service can:

display a variety of available travel products to stimulate travelers’ interest and make them want to buy
highlight the choice with the most value for them and the company
Reinforce that choice and educate travelers with mobile and digital messaging
Review, assess and optimize the online booking tool to create a positive traveler experience

All this is backed by robust analytics that helps us adjust messaging automatically as travelers shop. In other words, we fix how you communicate to your business travelers through travel technology such as an online booking tool or mobile app.

This has proven benefits including:

More awareness of available options by travelers
Travelers who are happier with the booking experience
Drive bookings to your preferred suppliers or away from non-preferred suppliers
Create leverage by managing the traveler’s choice so you can more effectively negotiate with suppliers from a position of strength by demonstrating your ability to influence traveler choices

Using merchandising and technology optimization for better compliance

In other words, Advito’s merchandising and technology optimization service gets the right information to the right travelers at the right time. Just like those external booking sites, it’s personal, and it’s available via mobile and digital technologies. We’ve proved over and over that this helps business travelers make decisions that fit in with your travel policies.

Here’s an example of how this would work.

Say one of your employees is about to book a trip. They’ve done some external research and now they’re using your internal travel tool. With our services, you’ll be able to make sure they:

Know when an option they’ve selected is one of your preferred options (and when it isn’t)
Understand when a particular option breaches your travel policy
Are aware of the amenities and savings available with the preferred options

We’ve found that this approach results in big savings for companies by:

Providing information at the time when people are searching
Making sure those preferred options are actively highlighted and brought to the top of the list, and those that are not are demoted in the content display
Using marketing and behavior economic tactics to deliver information the travelers need through messaging capabilities during the booking process

Running the numbers on travel program optimization

We’ve got the stats to back this up. Get the messaging right, and deliver it at the right time, and compliance increases. In the companies we work with, we’ve seen a 5% increase in compliance with air travel policies across a year. During the same period, there’s been a 10% uptick in hotel program compliance. For hotels that have been removed from a preferred program, we have seen a 98% shift from the old to new within 30 days– simply by configuring and communicating the change during the booking process.

Merchandising and technology optimization also helps you give suppliers the business they need to keep offering a preferential rate. By bringing preferred options to the top of any list of search results, we’ve seen a swing to those options of up to 8% over a year. And if a supplier’s no longer working with a company, and we stop promoting a certain hotel or itinerary, this is where the 98% comes into play.

How merchandising and technology optimization helped Mondelez save

We used this service to help Mondelez build a trusted travel brand that complied with internal policies.

The global snacks giant has 100,000 employees and spends $130 million on travel each year. But travelers’ on the road behavior was costing the conglomerate a lot. Any deviation from preferred suppliers and policies seriously increased the travel spend.

We helped them put in place a program to

Educate business travelers about the company’s policy
Help travelers plan ahead for trips
Promote the use of official booking tools

This meant:

Refreshing and integrating the internal travel brand
Making the intranet easier to use
Raising awareness of policy via a concerted campaign

The results were a 45% reduction in late bookings, and a 20% drop in travel spending over the year.

The bottom line: creating a better experience boosts engagement and compliance, and results in big savings for your company.

Get in Touch

To learn more about Advito’s Merchandising & Technology Optimization Services, contact us today!

Improve Your Travel Program and its Performance All Year Long

We’ve been talking a lot about our Dynamic Performance Management™ approach and even touting its results, which has raised some questions- what does it mean? And what does it involve?

Dynamic Performance Management is proactive, ongoing travel program management. Using advanced analytics, our consultants provide monthly insights and actions directed toward both suppliers and travelers. They’re looking for opportunities, risks and areas of low performance and making adjustments in real time. On the supplier side, this ensures you’re getting the best prices and capturing incremental savings, leading to exponentially higher returns. On the traveler side, you’re increasing employee satisfaction and productivity, and fostering a culture of wise travel behavior. It’s an approach that balances the needs of the organization with the needs of its people.

Here are some examples of recommended actions.

Supplier actions

Ensure negotiated rates and/or fares are available for travelers
Add or remove hotel properties and/or airline routes
Renegotiate contracts before they expire

Traveler actions

Apply merchandising strategies in your online booking tool
Replace internal, in-person meetings with virtual meetings
Create, implement and improve your travel policies
Develop and launch an internal marketing campaign for your travel program

Again, these are just a few examples of our recommended actions. Our goal is to elevate travel programs to new levels of savings and satisfaction. So we’re always looking for new ways to drive additional program value. When we do, you’ll be the first to know with our Dynamic Performance Management service offering.

Our savings guarantee

We’re so confident Dynamic Performance Management will work for you that we’d like to offer you a saving guarantee. Use our Dynamic Performance Management services and get an ROI of at least double what you paid. If you don’t see these returns in one year, you get your money back. How can we be so sure you’ll save? Our clients usually achieve ROI up to 10-to-1 on what they invest in our services. We like those odds.

Get in Touch

Find out how Dynamic Performance Management can help your travel program today.

Dynamic Performance Management™ Helped a Client Save Nearly 4% in Hotel Spend. See What it Can Save You.

A longtime Advito hotel sourcing client had been fine-tuning their program for several years but was only seeing incremental improvements. They turned to us for a new approach to drive more savings, as well as improve program compliance.

We tailored our Dynamic Performance Management solution to complement the client’s existing hotel sourcing engagement, and to meet their program-specific goals. In addition to savings and compliance, the company wanted to optimize hotel spend in their top 10 markets, since those markets represent 58% of the program’s total spend.

Our monthly insights and actions with ongoing program performance management uncovered areas of low performance for the client to correct. The result? 3.2% savings in total hotel spend, 3.8% savings in their top 10 markets, and an expected 17% increase in compliance by the end of this year.

To see the full results and our detailed solution, download our case study on Dynamic Performance Management for Hotel.

Want to know how much you can save with Dynamic Performance Management? Use our breakthrough savings calculator to instantly see your potential savings. And your savings aren’t limited to just hotel spend. You’ll also see how much you can save with travel demand and traveler engagement strategies.

Get in Touch

To get more insight into your travel program and how Dynamic Performance Management can help, contact us today.

Where to find Advito at GBTA Convention 2018

Where to Find Advito at GBTA Convention 2018

GBTA Convention 2018 kicks off Saturday, August 11, in San Diego, California. Now the world’s largest corporate travel event, GBTA expects nearly 7,000 attendees from more than 50 countries. And we’ll be there, adding our voices to the theme of momentum. GBTA has seen momentum created by the latest trends, changes and progressions in the industry over the last 50 years.

Here’s where you can find us:

Sunday, August 12 | 3:30 – 5 p.m. PT

Technology Committee- Roundtable Discussion

Lexi Honohan joins other members of the GBTA Technology Committee for a discussion on ways to optimize technology to improve corporate travel management.

Monday, August 13 | 8 – 8:30 a.m. PT

Create your own Traveler Engagement roadmap: Influence travelers through the channel of their choice

Lesley O’Bryan and April Bridgeman will be joined by several Advito clients to share new and improved ways to influence traveler behavior.

Tuesday, August 14 | 9:45 – 10:15 a.m. PT

Data Analytics & Trends

Lexi Honohan moderates a panel discussion on how a company of any size can manage its travel program using a data-driven approach.

Monday, August 13 – Wednesday, August 15 | Hours vary

Expo Hall

We’ll be in BCD Travel’s exhibit booth (# 2334) to meet with attendees, so hopefully you! And we’ll also be there to support DecisionSource demos since the platform pulls in our advanced analytics.

If you’re there, please don’t hesitate to drop in on one of our education sessions or stop by the BCD booth.

What today’s oil price indicates for future pricing

By Mike Eggleton, Senior Manager

Historic prices

In June 2018, OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) members announced their first increase in supply since implementing production cuts in December 2016. Over this 18-month period, the spot price of Brent crude oil increased by almost 40%, averaging US$74.41 per barrel (pb) in June 2018.

With this latest announcement, OPEC has reacted to calls from major consumers – most notably the U.S., China and India – to curb rising fuel costs, which they fear might undermine global economic growth.[1]

However, the decision does not mark a complete reversal of OPEC’s position. Any increase in supply will merely bring production levels back up to those previously agreed in December 2016. Some members – most notably Venezuela, Libya and Angola – have been unable to meet their official quota; so Saudi Arabia will simply increase its own production to make up the shortfall.

The supply situation improved further in July with the unexpected resumption of Libyan production, potentially returning 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) to the global market. A possible softening in the U.S. position towards countries wanting to buy Iranian oil has also taken some of the heat out of oil prices.[2] Between July 2^nd and 17^th, Brent crude spot prices fell by more than 5%.[3]

The boost to supply may prove to be short-lived however, with exports from Iran and Venezuela expected to decline from the fourth quarter of 2018.

Outlook for 2019

As the world economy loses some of its momentum in 2019, growth in global oil demand will slow from 1.7% to 1.5%.[4] Emerging markets will account for more than 80% of incremental daily demand, with China and India responsible for most of this increase.

With growth of 3.5% expected for 2018, OPEC forecasts non-OPEC oil supply to rise by a further 3.5% in 2019. Whilst growth in U.S. shale output will slow next year, production will ramp up in Brazil, and Canada will continue to expand output from its oil sands deposits.

As OPEC expects demand for oil produced by its members to fall by more than 2% in 2019, it should have sufficient spare production capacity to ensure oil market stability, should global demand prove to be stronger than expected.

The latest forecasts from three organizations suggest oil prices will increase by more than one-third during 2018 to around US$73 pb.[5]

OPEC’s commitment to a stabilized global market provides some reassurance that prices should be reasonably steady in 2019. Price predictions currently range from US$69 to US$77 pb (Figure 2). These figures point to oil price movements of between -4% and +2% year-over-year.

Given the continued uncertainty about supply, particularly among key producers like Iran, Libya and Venezuela, it seems reasonable to predict at least a small rise in oil prices. When the balance between supply and demand looks under threat, markets can be quick to react with price hikes. And if often takes time for producers to restore stability. To accommodate these risks, we have therefore adopted US$75 pb as our oil price assumption for the 2019 Industry Forecast. Sign up for this upcoming report and see previous Industry Forecast reports and updates here.

[1] Reuters, June 22, 2018

[2] Oilprice.com, July 11, 2018

[3] Business Insider, July 17, 2018

[4] OPEC, Monthly Oil Report, July 2018

[5] Oxford Economics, EIA, EIU

Get in Touch

To find out more information on Advito, contact us today.

How LinkedIn achieved a 20-point improvement in traveler satisfaction with Advito

If you’re spending 50-75% of your budget on internal travel initiatives, you’d like to think it’s paying off. And you definitely want employees to be happy with your travel management approach.

But LinkedIn’s experience shows there’s always room for improvement in traveler engagement. And when travelers are engaged, managing corporate travel program demand is easier. Here’s how we helped the business networking site save money and improve employee satisfaction in just 18 months.

LinkedIn: Company and travel culture

LinkedIn has around 8,000 employees who take regular trips to more than 18 different countries. Its travel program is around five years old, and the company spends about $41 million on travel each year. But Leslie Hadden, LinkedIn’s Global Travel and Event Operations Manager, says a few issues stopped the program from being really effective.

Misunderstanding travel program and policy

LinkedIn has a “non-mandate culture” where employees take ownership of their actions. So, while there is a travel policy, it’s basically just a guide.

Many travelers and travel arrangers didn’t fully understand the policy or the travel program. It wasn’t always clear which suppliers travelers should use. When travelers used their own alternatives, that cost the company more.

Inconsistent messaging

Another issue was communication. Within the company, there wasn’t much consistency in travel messaging. So, people planning trips often didn’t know the best ways to manage travel and missed out on the benefits they could get.

Not knowing travelers

With the company in growth mode, and new employees joining all the time, LinkedIn didn’t have a current picture of who their travelers were. This made it hard to get the right information about travel to the right people at the right time.

Lack of satisfaction

Overall, that meant many of LinkedIn’s travelers weren’t happy with the company’s managed travel program. The company’s internal satisfaction survey revealed that:

only 64% of travelers were satisfied or very satisfied with the program
13% were unsatisfied or very unsatisfied

Clearly, something had to change. And that’s where Advito came in. In our experience, traveler engagement is one of the best strategies to improve corporate travel program demand management.

In working with us, LinkedIn knew they had to:

integrate communications
develop messaging that helped engage and inform travelers
make it clear what the travel policy was so travelers could make appropriate choices
use new tools to unify travelers, including social and mobile tools

Here’s how that worked.

How LinkedIn got to know its travelers

One of the most important parts of any travel management program is understanding who your travelers are, why they travel and what information, services and amenities they need. LinkedIn used a survey to start getting this information.

Once the survey data was in, the company dug deeper into the initial insights with focus groups. Those helped LinkedIn get clear about the different employee segments.

Suppliers also sat in on the focus groups so they had a better understanding of LinkedIn’s travelers. “Segregating the groups and really listening gave us a very good understanding of our travelers,” said Leslie Hadden.

They learned that 44% of LinkedIn travelers are in sales, products and services who travel often and care about their budget. But in addition to the road warriors, there are travel arrangers, new travelers, executives and people in the finance department who have an interest in travel.

And they learned that travelers were interested in exploring new accommodation and travel options, like AirBnB and Uber, when they were on the road.

Improving traveler engagement

With improved understanding of who their travelers were and what they needed, the company got to work to address the key issues.

The company created the Travelin brand to unify internal communication about travel. Via this brand, LinkedIn used mobile, digital, virtual and social media technologies to deliver consistent messages before, during and after trips.

Based on the survey data, LinkedIn also created social communities for its different internal traveler segments via the inSider platform. This allowed travel demand managers to deliver more targeted messaging to each community, and allowed those communities to communicate with each other.

Next, LinkedIn made its Bookin travel booking tool easier to use. The updated tool delivered in-app messages about travel strategy throughout the booking process, helping travelers to make the right decisions. Satisfaction in that tool increased by 13%.

Within a few months, the new traveler engagement program was already paying off. The stats showed an 8-point improvement to 72% in satisfied or very satisfied employees.

And by the 18-month mark, the benefits of the new traveler behavior management strategy were even clearer. The number of employees reporting being satisfied or very satisfied was up 20 points to 84%, while those reporting being unsatisfied or very unsatisfied was down to just 4%.

Lessons from the LinkedIn experience

The LinkedIn experience has several lessons for traveler engagement programs.

Know your travelers

It’s clear that the more you know about your travelers, the better you can meet their goals. Segmentation allowed LinkedIn to use digital marketing effectively to deliver targeted messaging about:

accommodation alternatives
lower airfares
additional incentives

This also benefited the company. Our data shows that even when you share travel incentives with your employees, you can reduce your travel costs by 12%.

Communicate transparently

Second, it pays to communicate clearly. That includes your travel policy, and education about options and preferred suppliers. The digital marketing tools available now make that easy. It also makes employees feel confident in making better decisions about travel.

The bottom line? LinkedIn wanted to enable employees to make the best decisions. Keeping them informed and keeping communication channels open achieved this. Sharing and openness builds trust – and that’s what makes for a traveler engagement solution.

“People are starting to really love our program. They’re noticing that we’re communicating with them and connecting with them,” says Leslie Hadden. “My goal is to make travelers happier and more productive on the road and traveler engagement is at the heart of that.”

Get in Touch

Are you ready to better engage with your travelers? Contact us today so we can get started on a solution tailored to your employees and organization.

The case for virtual collaboration as an alternative to travel

The Case for Virtual Collaboration as an Alternative to Travel

By Chelsea Franklin, Marketing & Communications Manager

In a recent Op-Ed for Business Travel News, Dr. Andrew Rundle of Columbia University shared research findings on the health issues of employees who regularly travel for work. Dr. Rundle, along with colleagues, studied the physical, behavioral and mental health of frequent business travelers over several years. The common issues faced by these ‘road warriors’ include:

Obesity
Poor self-rated health
Depression
Anxiety
Smoking
Lack of physical activity
Alcohol dependence
Sleep issues

Dr. Rundle notes how these findings are consistent with a World Bank study of the medical complaints filed by its staff and consultants. And he goes on to share the potential health costs of extensive business travel:

Higher medical claims
Reduced employee productivity and performance
Employee turnover
Absenteeism
Presenteeism (or working while sick)
Short-term disability

Dr. Rundle ends his Op-Ed with recommendations on how companies can encourage their employees to make healthier choices while on the road. But what if the need for business travel is cut down or eliminated? With virtual collaboration options, this is possible and it’s something we’ve been perfecting and promoting for years.

Our strategic, Total Collaboration Management approach balances face-to-face interactions with modern, virtual encounters to realize measurable benefits for employees and organizations. It gives travelers the choice for work-life balance and decreases the likelihood of the above health issues and costs. It’s also more cost efficient and better for the environment. More on this in a moment.

When it comes to virtual collaboration options, employees are ready. One-third of corporate employees report they already work remotely part of the time. Companies, and the technology, are ready to meet employees where they are- in a work office, home office, domestic or abroad. Nearly half of all companies (45%) offer video-conferencing and telepresence systems. What’s more, the cost of these systems is going down while the quality of the experience is going up.

Virtual collaboration options not only improve an employee’s health, but also improve a company’s cost efficiency and the environment. Cutting down on the amount of business travel reduces the costs and carbon emissions associated with a business trip.

Learn how a global agricultural firm avoided over 900 internal trips with an Advito virtual collaboration strategy. This boosted productivity by redirecting more than 15,000 hours of employee travel time while also cutting carbon emissions equivalent to the annual energy use of 112 American homes.

Get in Touch

Want to explore how virtual collaboration can benefit your employees and your travel program? Contact us today to get started.

What the Belt and Road Initiative means for corporate travel in the coming years

What the Belt and Road Initiative Means for Corporate Travel in the Coming Years

By Claire Ollivier, Senior Director, APAC

What is the BRI?

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), previously known as the One Belt One Road initiative, is a giant development strategy launched by Chinese President Xi Jinping in late 2013. Some view it as the largest infrastructure and investment project the world has ever seen. It is the conjunction of two parallel development projects: “The Silk Road Economic Belt focuses on bringing together China, Central Asia, Russia and Europe (the Baltic); linking China with the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea through Central Asia and the Indian Ocean. The 21st Century Maritime Silk Road is designed to go from China’s coast to Europe through the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean in one route, and from China’s coast through the South China Sea to the South Pacific in the other.” ¹

Today, the BRI regroups almost 70 countries and covers more than two-thirds of the world’s population, 30 percent of the global GDP as well as over a third of the total global merchandise trade amount. Some of the most dynamic countries in terms of economic or population growth, including half of the top 20 of the world’s fastest growing economies according to the IMF, are participating in the initiative, which further develops its potential.

Countries along the land belt and the maritime road have complementary economies and the objective is to develop trade between them at a faster pace, thanks to co-operation agreements, the extension of trade and the creation of free-trade zones. The BRI also aims to promote multimodal transportation with a high level of integration and connectivity between the roads, the highways and the ports that will be developed. With that, all countries along the belt and road will be in a better place to do business not only with China, but also with each other.

Finally, the BRI aims to create more efficient and less expensive delivery routes. An example is the CR Express that provides a “one-stop declaration, inspection and release” facility. It is said to allow the freight of goods from Germany to China, across eastern Europe, Central Asia and Russia in a quarter of the time required for sea freight and at a fifth of the cost of air freight.²

So, what does it mean for corporate travel?

Tourism exchanges have already started and will continue to increase thanks to cooperation between the participating countries. Li Jinzao, head of the China National Tourism Administration, expects that individuals from countries in the BRI will take over 85 million trips to China from 2016 to 2020, spending about USD$110 billion. And in 2016 alone, the number of trips booked from China to participating countries made via Ctrip, the largest online booking agency, have increased by 72.5%.³

The development of such large infrastructure will not only drive economic growth, but will also require companies to send staff back and forth to these new locations. Once ready, the new infrastructure will continue to drive demand for travel in countries or regions that are relatively new to business travel routes and these huge projects.

Developing new infrastructure comes with policy coordination. A number of participating countries grant visa-free access or visa-on-arrival to citizens from other participating countries. As an example, China has concluded agreements on mutual visa exemption with 55 countries along the route. In exchange, 22 countries unilaterally exempt visas or offer visas-on-arrival to Chinese citizens. The free circulation of corporate travelers, or the softening of the visa application process, will support the flow of travelers along the belt and road. ⁴

But the development of corporate tourism in new markets will not come without challenges. For travel professionals all along the value chain, they need to be ready to serve an increasingly international clientele and to ensure staff is fully prepared to meet new needs. Training, talent development and upgrading service excellence will be crucial.

Simultaneously, travel managers and travel buyers will face new challenges. Amongst them, several safety and security issues will arise (and are arising), such as political stability, geopolitical tensions and natural events, to name a few. These difficulties are not new but may increase rapidly, particularly for companies involved in the early phases of the development program.

Similarly, these companies will have to find safe and satisfying travel, lodging and transportation options for their employees, while the infrastructure is not (yet) ready and/or under development. All this in a context where duty of care and employee satisfaction are at the top of travel managers’ priorities. And of course, as the globalization of travel programs continues, organizations will need to rethink their travel processes, operations and potentially policies to address the needs of their travelers in new areas where they conduct business.

In conclusion, even if the BRI primarily impacts transportation, construction and shipping industries, it will certainly change the face of corporate travel. New infrastructure will take time to take shape but it will impact the corporate industry and the change has already started.

¹http://english.gov.cn/news/top_news/2015/04/20/content_281475092566326.htm

²Hong Kong Trade Development Council

³ http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/travel/2017-05/14/content_29337992.htm

⁴ http://english.gov.cn/news/top_news/2017/05/17/content_281475658223028.htm

Get in Touch

To learn more about Advito, contact us today.

It’s Time to Change your Approach

By Chelsea Franklin, Marketing & Communications Manager

If you evaluate your managed travel program right now, would you say you’re getting your desired returns? Think about it for a minute. Even if you think you’re getting modest returns, we both know you can do better.

Here at Advito, we absolutely believe now is the time to change your approach to how you engage with your suppliers as well as your travelers. We want you to rise above the well-worn, traditional spend management techniques to exponentially increase your returns. We can help you get there with our holistic Dynamic Performance Framework approach.

Taking this approach, we provide ongoing analysis of what’s happening in your program, in the market and in your company with your travelers. Our analysis is backed by stronger analytics, which we’ve developed in-house to include more than just traditional travel and expense data.

This better business intelligence helps us develop impactful insights and recommended actions for you to take throughout the year. Adjusting your program in real time will take your program performance to a whole new level.

Our Dynamic Performance Framework brings two areas of actions together. One is around supplier management. Using our advanced business intelligence, our expert consultants custom-build and implement supplier strategies for your program. We piece together the right product mix, negotiating tactics and dynamic approach so you source and maintain the highest value agreements.

We take action with suppliers when the data tells us the time is right. For example, the preferred hotel rate you negotiated last September may no longer be competitive relative to what’s being offering to the consumer by the time the new year rolls around. It’s time to renegotiate. Or, if one of your preferred hotels is not making its negotiated rate available and it’s a last room availability rate, then it’s time to take action with that supplier.

Our second area of actions is around traveler engagement. For years, we’ve been perfecting our methods to influence behavior and getting proven results. If your travelers don’t understand what you’re trying to accomplish through your travel program, they’re not going to be able to make decisions that support your program goals. We take actions to inform, motivate and satisfy your employees to make them enthusiastic partners in your program.

Building on the previous hotel example, you tried to renegotiate with a hotel and have decided to remove that property from your program. We can adjust your online booking tool to reflect this change for your travelers in a way that will get noticed. So the next time a traveler goes to the market with the removed hotel, a pop-up notification will say: Hotel X is no longer a preferred hotel, please stay in one of the preferred hotels at the top of the list you’ll see below. It can be very visual. It can also have a significant impact on your bottom line. These incremental savings opportunities quickly add up.

Get in Touch

If you’re done chasing modest returns year after year and you’re ready to rise above and get ahead with Advito, contact us today. We’re ready to put our Dynamic Performance Framework approach to work for you.

New Look, Even Greater Offerings

By Chelsea Franklin, Marketing & Communications Manager

If you’ve been on the Advito site prior to May 23, you probably noticed our complete website refresh. Our goal was to update the site with a fresh, modern look and feel as well as with an improved user experience and simplified messaging. You can see this on our homepage. Through our consultancy services, Advito provides a brighter way to balance travel program savings and satisfaction.

And we’re not stopping there. Advito is committed to breaking boundaries in corporate travel.

Earlier this year we launched our Intelligence & Analytics practice. Analytics are at the heart of everything we do. We go beyond what traditional agencies and payment and expense systems provide by bringing in multi-source, full-spectrum analytics.

Visualized in custom dashboards and coupled with our expert insights, these analytics turn into actionable recommendations that help clients uncover opportunities to maximize savings, program performance and growth.

We’re known for pioneering dynamic, supplier management strategies, but did you know we’re also leading innovation in Traveler Engagement? For years, we’ve been perfecting our approach to balancing business objectives with travel and collaboration options that raise employee productivity and satisfaction. See for yourself with our growing suite of Traveler Engagement services. Today, our holistic approach spans collaboration, policy, merchandising and marketing. With it, we help clients create corporate travel programs that inform, motivate and satisfy travelers and company leadership to sustain a culture of wise travel demand and traveler behavior.

I’m proud that our refreshed site now showcases how Advito’s smart analytics, unique supplier strategies and integrated traveler engagement can elevate a company’s travel program to reach new levels of value.

Get in Touch

To learn more about how Advito can help you save on your travel program, contact us today.