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33:31












WHY MANAGED TRAVEL IS ESSENTIAL FOR GROWTH IN 2024

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Welcome to our managed why managed travel is essential for growth in twenty
twenty four webinar with our partners, AmTrav. We're thrilled. You can make it.
Let's get started with some introductions.

A little over two years now. I've been in the business for about, oh, god. Over
thirty years, a long time. And, it's all been in the managed travel arena.

And so always for a TMC, always in the managed travel arena. So I've had a lot
of experience throughout my career getting, talking about this subject. So I'm
excited to talk with you about it today, and and we'll go from there. So, again,
just a really brief intro, about myself I've been with Inverse for about nine
years now, this past September.

But prior to that, worked at a couple of different, travel management companies,
as well as some, an online booking engine and technology space and hotel
reclamation service. So had a a a pretty good career in the travel industry, now
on the expense management side. So I know Greg, you already, introduce yourself
and and what you do at Amtrak. So, with that, I'm just gonna get to our agenda
for today.

And we'll start we'll start with the program. I'm sorry about the, the little,
audio mix up. But as you can see, we're already moving ahead. We've already
covered the introductions part. We're gonna talk a little bit about how managed,
versus unmanaged travel, and a a comparison there, looking at some business
travel trends the industry and what really a best in class managed travel
program looks like. So from there, just wanted to first kinda talk about an
Amtrak. I you know, we've been a partner.

I in in you know, the technology side for about ten plus years, I and what
really led us to that partnership and what has led us to remain a partner for
ten years. I really was, started on the certify expense, platform, and Amtrak.

And what we really I and I had some core values, was, I, you know, ease of use
for our system, as well as, point. So I, you know, we looked at Amtrav.

They had the same kind of values as well. Their platform very easy to use in
terms of of booking travel, and they back everything up with a a a super high
level, of service. And And, Greg, I can you just add a little bit to that as
well?

Yeah. You bet. So so just what just to back, piggyback on what Steve said,
honestly, there's so many, there well, there's a big one that where they have
travel and expense as, you know, together. So having our own online booking
tool, we actually did really need a expense company that we could partner with,
that we could integrate with, that we could fully like I said, partner up with
and in verse and all of their tools, which we'll talk about a little bit later
today, is was the best fit. And so we have hundreds of mutual clients together
today. So we are very happy with our with our relationship and, We'll just keep
moving forward on that.

Yeah. I think I think there are about eight hundred clients that that use both
Amtrak and, one of our our expense management solutions. We'll talk a little bit
about that, but about that later. But Yeah.

But, what we wanna do next is really get an idea on, you as an audience and and
what you're doing today. So there's gonna be a a poll. How are you managing your
travel program? I is it I with a dedicated agency, is it, calling the the
vendors directly?

Is it a combination of both or you're just not sure? So if you don't mind, just
by clicking on either the the answer and get us an idea of what we're we're
talking about today.

Alright. I'm gonna leave the poll open for a few more seconds so get your votes
in.

Alright. I'm closing the poll.

Okay.

So some of the results, you do have a managed travel partner, about thirty eight
percent of you. I You do have, I, a dedicated travel administrator, and do
yourself not sure, four percent, or both. Alright.

Then there's there's one other quick pull right here.

Oh, lots of lots of different polls, but, what do you find or what is the most
important thing you're looking for in a travel program, and and we could
certainly, I talk about that in a little bit more detail. But is it savings, is
it compliance, Orativity duty of care.

Alright. We have about half of you signing in. Let's get a little more.

I'll be closing the poll in a few seconds.

Love that. Yep. Okay. Yep. And and we were talking about this yesterday.
Compliance with the the number one, response there.

Reporting is is pretty high up on the list as well as productivity, duty of
care, savings. Okay.

Excellent. Thank you for that.

So, really, what we wanted to talk about Next is is what is a managed travel
program. And, I'm gonna pass this over to Greg just to have him explain a little
bit about, what his organization does and how, specifically they help
corporations manage their travel programs and what that looks like. Yeah.
Absolutely.

Thanks, Steve. Yeah, this is This subject is near and dear to my heart and near
and dear to all of the team here, the relationship management team here at
Amtrak. So I'm just gonna kinda go down these bullet points one of the time for
those of you that don't have a managed travel program and those of you that do
have a managed program, maybe we could help improve on that. So the bullet point
number one, if that efficiently manage and optimize corporate travel programs,
this is a huge key, and and you need to be able to have the right tools and the
right mindset to do that, just that.

So with our online booking tool, we let you change a policy on the fly. So if
something that's not working, let's say you're threshold at two hundred dollars
and you need for hotels, nights per stay. You need to raise it to two hundred
and fifty. Done in, like, a three three seconds, it'll be done.

And from that, for all bookings moving forward. So you have to be able to
effectively manage it. There's no need to write tickets up and to get things
done and to wait two weeks or to wait three weeks. You need to have a booking
tool that will help you manage this and optimize your travel program
capabilities.

Implement control costs. Step those approvals. If they don't work, change them
change them up, change them down, do whatever you need to do. And then as as we
put everything together, and at the end of the of the month, or whenever you
need us to, we'll run reports and we'll be able to measure those to our
reporting tools or analytics tools or whatever we have.

So it and we can see who's, follow-up following compliance and who isn't you
know, the the the rogue travelers, but the compliant travelers, all of that sort
of thing. Due of care is key. We need to know where your travelers are,
especially in this world that we live in today. Where is everyone?

And that's so important. And if they're booking on different airline websites or
they're going here, they're going there wherever you never know where any anyone
is. Where if you have a a a total managed program, you'll see that. And then
compliance with corporate travel policies, my thought my philosophy is If you're
not gonna enforce your travel policy, why have one?

Because they'll people will be able to do what they want. They'll stay at
expensive hotels versus less expect you know, all of this in book higher
airfares versus lower airfares. So if you're going to have a travel policy, you
need to enforce it. And, and so important to do that.

And we, as a TMC, here at Amtrak, can help you do that. And then you could also
enforce it through your expense tools with your with your inverse programs. And
so it's so important to understand that travel policy enforce travel policy
equals compliance. And then measuring the effectiveness of policies is also just
what I have mentioned before through porting, through analytics, through.

We can we can actually we have programs that tell you if you would have booked
two weeks in advance instead of seven, you would have saved this much money. And
the same on the inverse side as based on what you're spending and and and that
sort of thing as well. So basically, A managed program is an enforced program.
If you don't do that, then you can have guidelines.

You can presets, you can have all sorts of things. But if you're not going to
enforce it, at least, you know, seventy five eighty, eighty five percent, then
then it's they're kind of what I've learned through the years is they're they're
kind of, not they're kinda useless, I guess, for lack of a better word. So Steve
back to you.

No. And and and what you mentioned is is, perfect in terms of what are what we
can talk about, in the next step So what are some of the challenges, that you
see from an unmanaged program?

For a the challenges from an unmanaged program is Yeah. I mean, you do have
flexibility and and all that sort of thing, but do you really want that? Do you
want people going to all the different carriers and all the different hotels and
different things, or do you want them following your guidelines so that you can
actually and remember the bottom line to all of this is cost savings.

And you're and if you don't have a travel policy, then second bullet point is
cost variation. You know, we we're gonna upload we're gonna load in your airline
contracts, your hotel contracts, your car rental contracts, all of that. If you
don't have that, you're going to have a hundred dollars here for a day, a car
rental day, or fifty dollar here and where we can stabilize that to be a rate,
usually a rate with a little bit of variation across support, but nothing like
you would have if you'd had an unmanaged program. And then you don't know where
your travelers are, limited duty of care, key, This is very, very key.

We need to know where your people are in case anything should happen again. You
can't pull the data together. So without a managed travel program, it's really
difficult to negotiate anything. So we don't know how much hotel spend you have,
how much car spend you have, how much car spend, to go to those vendors on your
behalf or with you as a partner to to, to to, negotiate those rates for you.

We we it's just a huge challenge and to pull all that data together. And then,
of course, time and productivity people are just doing everything on their own.
They're going to think about it for a minute. If how long does it take you to go
to ten different airline websites versus one one website that has all ten of
those listed.

It's huge. It's, you know, an hour versus ten minutes or five minutes or
whatever it is. So there you go.

Yeah. And and just to add to that that data challenge, you you know, you could
certainly look at your hotel expenditures over a period of time and and go to a
hotel and say, hey, this is how many room nights we're we're paying, and and
this is the average cost for that night. However, if you can't control those
travelers for, then staying at that particular property that you negotiated a
hotel discount with, then, really, that discount isn't worth too much. You know,
you're you have the data you don't have the controls in in place to move that
market share over from other properties to now your preferred one.

And it, you know, obviously goes further than just properties. It goes to the
the different carriers and car rental companies and things like that. So Yeah.
And, basically, what are those benefits of, you know, the the managed travel
program?

So real quick, cost savings for sure because what we can do is we can manage
those vendor contracts, and we can tell you you know, give you a good idea of
how much you saved me with those vendors to have a meeting, a mutual meeting.
The airlines are really good at that if you have a airline corporate agreement
with them. They'll show exactly what you're saving and plus the benefits and the
extra amenities and all that, all of that sort of thing. So cost savings and and
and you have control of that. So people aren't booking first class tickets when
they shouldn't be.

And then you've got traveler safety, you've got policy compliance and then, of
course, time. Just what we've talked about every before on on the on the prior
slide is, all of these key key things that that all consist of, an effective,
travel policy and a managed travel program.

Sure. And and that savings goes beyond just the direct cost savings. It goes to
the indirect, you know, time and and productivity that that comes with a a
managed travel program as well.

Perfect.

So Okay. There's another poll question. Keep everyone on their toes. What are
the biggest challenges that you currently face with your travel program?

Is it ease of booking? Is it controlling costs? Is it, compliance and lack of
reports or, duty of care? So we're gonna Give everyone just a couple of minutes
to, to answer that full question so we can kinda maybe drill down on on those
challenges.

We're about at half the audience.

Responding to the poll question. Let's try to get a little bit more.

Are about sixty percent.

Anyone else wants to jump in now's the time.

Alright. I'm gonna close it now. Hey.

Of fifty nine percent again sticking with compliance.

I and I expense, management reporting as well as controlling costs. So perfect.
I yep. Compliance is is really the key, and and all of these really kind of work
together hand in hand. If you have reporting and and analytics, then you can
look at your program and how you're doing, comparing to KPIs and then tweak that
particular policy so that now compliance goes up and costs go down.

So, Greg, good. The next thing that we were gonna talk about is really, you
know, what's happening today in the the land of business travel. So much has
changed in the last couple of years. Post pandemic now with the economy and I,
you know, possible recession, but, obviously, the the economic conditions, not
only in US, but globally.

What what do you see some of the, really, the the key changes in in business
travel? I think with regards to globalization, it the duty of care piece comes
in to probably the biggest part of that.

It's important to be able to work with a TMC that has that globalization
capabilities and to be able to find your travelers wherever they are with, with
the booking tool that we have with, in verse You can use that tool anywhere in
the world, and and then we also have partners available all over the world that
you can also book with as well, which all report into our central data system so
that they're all equal and it's all it's all combined together. So the And but
again, duty of care, because as we know what's going on in the world today, it's
important to know what airports are gonna be shut down, what's what's happening
with with, air travel, air traffic, all of that sort of things too, because
there's there are many, many complex regulations on that.

On that end. But the competitive markets, this is huge here. There are so many
there's so much competition out there right now. Especially in the hotel
industry, you know, during during COVID, we could get you a hotel room, a nice
hotel room for like fifty bucks a night.

Right? I mean, it was but now the competition is out there. The hotels are
filling up. The the rates, as you know, have gone Skyhigh, more than probably
pre pandemic in two thousand and nineteen.

So it's our job as relationship managers to go in for you. On your behalf and
negotiate those rates the best that we possibly can and get them loaded in the
tool. Sustainability is key. We have a sustainability, tool or component of our
online booking tool and our reporting.

And, again, post pandemic impact versus today, It's it's stronger than ever that
we have that you have a managed policy, a managed travel program.

It's just we're seeing all over with a we have about twelve hundred, twelve to
fifteen hundred clients that we manage travel for today here. And as you as you
can tell, a chunk of those are with the immersed partners. And so it's, and,
and, again, it's ever evolving. We are we are always having to keep up with
what's changing in the world of travel today.

And as you all know, it changes every day. So anyway, Steve, go ahead. Certainly
though. Yep.

No. Absolutely. And, just taking a a quick kind of gander at at the time, we'll
we have a a couple more things to talk about, but just in terms of how much do
you guys anticipate spending in twenty twenty four? You know, if if, if you know
that and what you're you're spending today compared to what you're planning out,
predictably for the next year.

You know, be really interesting to then I understand, well, you know, is it,
warranted to get discount programs, based on your volume, are there, I am
anticipating an increase in spend, but if that's a case, how can you control
those costs and and possibly, you know, re reduce that. So Alright. How are you
doing on the pole?

I'm gonna keep it open for about ten more seconds.

Hey.

Alright. I'm closing the poll.

Okay. So the majority is doing in that that middle range, which is which is
really interesting in terms of, I you know, that is a nice area to be in in
terms of getting, some some discount programs, and and great. You can talk a
little bit about that. Right? Yes.

This kind of programs with the various vendors?

Correct. Yes. Yes. Yes. So it's important as as your travel management company
that we are on that team with to work with your vendors to get the lowest.

So we can go in and that and get, deals on car rentals, hotels, and airfare
depending on how much you spend, all of that sort of thing. The data is key
here. And so we will we do that on your behalf. And again, compliance is also
another key because if your travelers aren't using the preferred vendors, They
go away, and they mean nothing.

So it's very, very important that preferred vendors are at the forefront of in
your booking tool.

Yep.

And then just talking about what is the best in class, best in class travel
program. What does that include?

So a best in class travel management program, make sure that you have one
connected platform maybe you you you have your online booking tool that's
managed by the agency that you're not it's not third partied out somewhere else
in the world or whatever. And, and that is that is what we do in partnership
with InBERS and the online booking tools that we have everybody as an Amtrak
employee that manages the travel side of this. So it's so important that that
happens seven twenty four. We don't we don't outsource any of that.

Ease of use online booking tool, we design it for you. It's your it's your
online booking tool. And however you want it, travel policy wise, and you have
again, option you need to do on the fly to change up things on the fly. Due of
care, we've talked about that.

The reports are critical. The data is critical. And of course, this support, the
back end of everything that that when you call in and need help, you we we make
sure that you get help right away. And that is very, very critical.

Yep.

And just just to recap, from, from your standpoint, Greg, I know, Amtrak
customers.

I if you wanna just quickly, go through here. It's change in airfare change
fees. That just what it says right here on the the savings that we've
calculated.

And, with our negotiated contracts, with car rentals that we do on your behalf,
unused tickets. We have a huge, a very robust unused ticket monitoring system
that that helps you use up those unused tickets. So huge savings there that we
don't have a lot of them fall into the cracks or expire or anything like that.
And again, with your hotel contracts, it's seven percent It it's really a lot
more than that when when we talk about negotiating on your behalf. So there you
go. Yeah. And then NDC, if you heard of NDC, but we were one of the first agents
to come with the NDC bears on April first with American Airlines.

Yep.

There's a quote. Yeah. Alright. Yep.

Yes. And and and that savings is typically about fifteen to twenty five percent,
depending on on your program itself But but that's what, Amtrak customers have
tick typically saved. Is that correct? That's right.

Yep. Yep. Just what it says. Yep. Exactly.

So so be on the lookout, we are gonna send a a recording of of this particular
webinar as well as a white paper for managed versus unmanaged travel.

I I know, looking at time, we're we're very close to the end However, we have a
a minute or if people wanna stay on a little bit longer. We have, some time to
answer some questions and really wanted to thank everybody for their time today.

Yep. Couldn't have said it better, Steven. Yes. So we'll have a few questions
from the team and are from our attendees, and I will ask them right now, our
first one, from Cassandra, she asked one issue with our current travel
management program relates to hotel bookings.

Staff can reserve a hotel through the system, but the expense is not captured.
Does this travel program charge for rooms upfront?

So, so you're booking your hotel room through the online booking tool. And then
when the traveler checks out on the folio, it's not captured in the on the
inverse side. Is that what I'm hearing from that. Or I cannot catch it on the
extent side, not in person, but, yeah.

Yeah. That's what it sounds like.

And they're just kinda asking in general about how yes. Cassandra confirmed
that's correct.

So you just wanna confirm, like, how does this travel? How does Amtrak
specifically charge for rooms upfront?

So we what we do is we have several different ways of doing it. So the the one
way is when your traveler checks out of the hotel, then they just send it to the
expense tool and to the expense wallet, and then it gets recorded by then. But
we also offer, if you've looked into virtual car payments at all, we have rates
on our online booking tool that you can pay now. And it will actually charge the
card upfront. We can either make those nonrefundable or refundable.

We have both options there. And so we have, several different several different
ways of booking those so that that rooms are paid for when the client arrives.
And so, and then the receipts of those get put over into the extent site. Right?
Steve on that?

That is that is correct. Yep. And and from from a hotel folio, Yeah. The the the
integration between, Amtrak, and and the the number of systems that we have at
at at Emverse, whether it's certified or Nexonia or Chrome River.

Yeah, those, I those ticketed airline receipts or pre purchase hotel rooms will
certainly flow right into the individual's wallets, on the on the tech side. If
I they are still, booking hotels through Amtrak, and they are checking out of a
hotel. Well, that hotel generally, sends them full folio and they get just auto
forward it over to one of the various systems, automatically, and we'll capture
all that information.

Awesome.

I have another question from Shannon.

When the expense is recoded in the inverse tool, does it give or does it include
journal ledger coding and or any other detailed descriptions such as a reason
for the travel.

This could probably be Steven Moore.

Yeah. So so those fields can certainly be created on the on the booking side.

So if I if on, you know, compliance, I you would like your travelers to give a
particular reason for why they're traveling, and it relates to a particular
event, or client visit or In my case, I'm going on a going to a convention in a
couple weeks. Those can certainly be, selected.

On the booking side so that if you then need approval from a manager, that
manager is gonna receive all the information.

On the expense side.

Those same allocations are available, with coding that can then go back to your
ERP so that now you know exactly what that travel was was booked for.

And we have a question from Rhonda. She wrote, does a system like Amtrak Track
canceled and unused tickets. It's a big issue for her team. Yes.

Yes. For sure, we will we will track cancelled and unused tickets.

We have a a very robust report that actually you can pull that up within the
online booking tools. Just to let you know, our reporting suite is all captured
in side of the online booking tool, so you can pull up reports at any time you
don't need another login or anything like that. And it and we do have just one
particular area that set aside for unused tickets. It captures them at cancels.
The unused tick that cancel tickets when they need to be used by, when they need
to be reticulated by All of that sort of thing is inside of the reporting tool,
which is inside of the online booking tool.

Great.

Let's see. Melissa asked why is everyone so concerned about duty of care? From a
compliance perspective, what do we need to report on?

With with regards to duty of care, it's just knowing where your travelers are.
It's it's just that's that's really what it is. There's so many levels of duty
of care If you're involved with it like an international I SOS, they'll
actually, you know, med back you out of a situation. If that needs to be there,
they're the the the really deep, you know, embedded ones that that really help
you out in extreme circumstances, but the other part of it is just knowing,
like, if something should happen in Brazil and you've got four people down in
San Paulo that's affected by whatever's happened down there, then we work with
you guys to get them out of that situation. So that's the duty of care aspect.
It's just knowing where your travelers are in case they need help, basically.

Perfect. And I think, we have time for just one more question since we're
already five over.

George writes, can we preload in our policies from certify into Amtroph?

So in terms of, in in terms of writing policy and certify and having them come
over, automatically that that's not possible.

However, you know, one of the the really great things about Amtrak is is the
fact that their administration area and their their policy creation is is very,
very, straightforward and and easy to set up a a policy based on a user or a
group of users. So, they also have more upfront policies on the booking side
than, post purchasing, on the expense side. So things like preferred vendors I
classed a service, when you're booking hotels, looking at different ways to to
book based on international or domestic affairs, and we can kinda go on and on.
But those those are types of policies that you really wanna control on the front
end at the at the point of sale, whereas on a on on the expense side, We're
taking that information after the fact, after it's been purchased, and we can
kinda compare, what's in or out of policy more so on a on a on a cost basis. So,
but but that's why they don't they don't flow right over.

And and just to add to that real quick too, on the front side of this, if you
have your travel policy written up And all you would need to do is upload it to
us, send it over to us, and we will get that added with a the implementation
process is very slick with us because we're we have it down to really down to a
science. So, and and it might be good to go over it as well. Maybe we need to
change some things up. Maybe you need chasing things up and the policy's been
around for a while or whatever, but we can get that, and put it into the online
booking tool within just a very, very short amount of time. So No. No problem
there. Yeah.

Since we're already seven minutes over. I think we'll end the questions here. We
did receive a few more questions towards the end of this call, but we will reach
out to you.

Afterwards and respond to your questions individually, also be on the lookout
from an email for myself at lauren dot boyd at inverse dot com, and it'll have
all the follow-up information including this webinar recording and the Manage
versus unmanaged travel white paper that we have got, with Amtrav. So thank you
for attending our webinar today. Thank you, Steven and Greg. We hope you have a
great rest of the day. Thanks, everyone.

Thanks, everyone.