Back-Office Best Practices

Transcription

1 Back-Office Best Practices How Travel Management Companies can achieve greater efficiencies and a competitive edge with an integrated back-office solution By PhoCusWright Inc. Overview Does your back-office system provide your Travel Management Company (TMC) with a competitive advantage? In today s environment, TMCs need to use every possible advantage to compete. Business travel agencies can no longer afford inefficiencies or dated technologies running their business because of pressure from mega-tmcs, online travel companies and regional players. TMCs that do not change their infrastructure are likely to become casualties as market competition intensifies and economic conditions worsen. The traditional, disparate set of disconnected agency systems are dinosaurs of a bygone era and fail to provide the more sophisticated business information and analysis enjoyed in other industries. TMCs with the vision to embrace modern, enterprise-level technology can use these tools to gain competitive advantages over their more traditional rivals. A Brief History of the Back-Office Most of the back-office accounting systems in use today were created back in the 1980s by the GDS or third parties and were deployed by travel agencies primarily to automate the airline ticket settlement process. In those days, business needs were simple and expectations were low, but now, nearly 30 years later, these systems are sadly inadequate in their role as the foundation for management reporting and agency operations. Many TMCs still have independent, disconnected systems for quality assurance, report writing, accounting and operational infrastructure. This patchwork of systems requires handcrafted modifications, or even manual intervention to pass information from one system to another. This process: Is inefficient and error-prone Increases costs and decreases productivity Is inherently brittle and unable to respond to changing business needs Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Explained Many organizations outside the travel industry have abandoned the traditional silos of information approach, favoring instead a fully integrated, enterprise-wide solution. These systems, known as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, are comprised of multiple, tightly integrated modules or applications that allow companies improved insight into and control over their internal business processes. Until today, they were rarely found in the TMC back-office. Of course, travel accounting has a unique set of needs outside the scope of general purpose ERP systems. However, an integrated back office solution that included travel-specific components would provide an unparalleled tool for managing a TMC s operations, customer service and profitability. In contrast to traditional back-office systems, an integrated solution: Offers superior efficiency with built-in error correction Increases productivity and reduce costs Provides the agility necessary to respond to changing business needs An Enterprise-Level Solution The Cost- Benefit Analysis A TMC may initially experience sticker shock when evaluating enterprise systems in comparison to the traditional back-office. ERP systems can look expensive at first glance, but the value they bring to the organization will invariably offset the cost, especially when an integrated travel accounting module is present. When evaluating a solution, the TMC should look at the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), a process that evaluates not only the cost of the product, but also the cost of support, customization and integration, and then balance these costs against the savings achieved by implementing the solution. This paper examines the core benefits of an integrated enterprise-level solution for TMCs. These benefits need to be compared to the cost of the system as well as to the total cost of current standalone applications or manual processes. Highlights Overview...page 1 What is Driving the Demand for an Integrated Back- Office?...page 2 The Benefits of an Integrated ERP Solution...page 4 Summary...page 6 Recommendation......page 7

2 Economic Pressures Create Opportunities for the Prepared TMCs need to recognize that the inefficiency of disparate systems hurts their bottom line. A fully integrated, enterpriselevel application is a much more efficient solution and offers a substantial Return On Investment (ROI). For example, an integrated application can dramatically change the process of branch consolidation / reporting. A process which may take days can be done in minutes. In addition, an integrated solution allows TMCs to equate the costs of doing business with the value of a given corporate account and assess the profitability of each account critical knowledge in today s competitive environment. Given these clear advantages of tightly integrated applications, every TMC should be evaluating its technological infrastructure and identifying the hidden costs of disconnected standalone applications. As we struggle through this economic downturn, TMCs that continue to operate on old 1980s and 90s technology will find themselves compensating for outdated technology with manual labor. This approach unjustifiably inflates their fixed cost structure and undermines their competitiveness putting them at risk of going under in the current environment. What is Driving the Demand for an Integrated Back-Office? Corporate travel agencies are faced with a complex set of risks, an ever changing environment and a set of requirements unique to the travel industry. This paper examines how enterprise-level tools can mitigate these risks, empower TMCs to manage change and satisfy their travel-specific requirements. The Need to Manage Risk in a Competitive, Global Environment Inefficiency and Inadequate Visibility Associated with Disparate Back-Office Systems Lack of integration adds layers of inefficiency and masks true operating costs. For example, understanding the cost of sales is directly related to the manpower requirements of a given corporate account. Does the account require more senior agents? What is the profile of the client with respect to corporate booking tool adoption and touchless ticketing? How many changes are made before and after ticketing? What does the corporate account require from the client services organization and what is the cost of this support? Evaluating the true cost of sales, can be a challenging calculation if human resources, payroll and the company financials exist in disconnected, standalone applications. Inability to Make the Jump from Reporting to Business Intelligence When airline commissions were eliminated and TMCs started charging transaction fees, successful TMCs began offering consulting services to pinpoint areas of additional savings opportunities for their corporate clients. Some mega-tmcs have created standalone consulting divisions offering proactive advice and analysis. To provide these services, TMCs require more than basic reporting tools; they need sophisticated management reporting and Business Intelligence (BI) systems that can extract meaning from multiple sources of data that might not be explicitly apparent from simply generating reports. With BI, TMCs can identify travel patterns, measure compliance to corporate travel policy and offer more competitive services to their clients. TMCs using dated, disparate systems are unable to match these offerings. Such integrated systems can improve TMC s reporting capability allowing TMC s to interact with the client in real-time quite an advantage over the days when reports had to be generated and mailed to each corporate account. The Demands of Global Commerce Global commerce is a fact of life, and even large regional TMCs must accommodate the global needs of their clients. Agency accounting systems must be able to manage multiple currencies and provide summary information in a common currency. This is needed both to track their own performance and to provide management reporting to multi-national clients. Additionally, large travel agencies are often members of a consortium or partnership that require seamless integration of data between independent companies. The Inability to Manage Change Turbulent business environments seem to be the norm these days and TMCs can face many kinds of change. TMCs still using disparate, independent systems and manual intervention are hard pressed to respond to new situations or requirements. Reorganizations Reorganizations can be highly disruptive to a company, and their impact on the internal system can be especially stressful for the IT and accounting departments. Enterprise-level systems that encompass multiple modules can react to reorganization more quickly and, once the change is implemented in the main system, the new organization is reflected in all modules. This process is vastly different in an environment where individual software solutions are deployed for travel accounting, human resources and core financials.

3 Mergers and Acquisitions Mid-sized TMCs often have to explore mergers with their competitors or acquire online businesses to augment their services. When merging with another company, the internal enterprise-level systems will need to import information from disparate systems and provide senior management a detailed review of financials and resources for the combined new entity. These tasks are easier when the two entities are on a common enterprise-level solution. Regulatory Reporting Requirements Government regulations that impact a TMC s business are increasingly implemented around the globe. In the U.S., the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) was enacted in 2002 in response to a number of high-profile business failures. SOX created new regulations that force companies to use specific accounting processes. Today s ERP systems satisfy these reporting requirements, thus an integrated ERP and travel accounting solution with a single version of customer information, receivables, payables and GL entries is the best and fastest route to regulatory compliance and internal systems need to be accessible to meet those country specific needs The Specialized Requirements of Travel Accounting As stated earlier, travel accounting has its own unique requirements beyond the scope of general ERP systems. Thus a travel accounting module should be integrated within a broader ERP solution, automating and linking the following activities with the rest of the enterprise: Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC)/ Billing Settlement Reporting (BSP) Reporting air ticket sales to ARC (U.S. only) or BSP (all other locations) must encompass the entire life cycle of the ticket. It is common in business travel to change plans frequently, meaning tickets often need to be re-issued or refunded. The residual value of a ticket should be stored and accessed for future travel. The reconciliation of the BSP report must be done automatically so the settlement can be completed and manual intervention should be minimized as it is directly tied to the value of the travel accounting module. An integrated travel accounting module will automatically feed the information into the general ledger, accounts receivable and accounts payable systems. Debit Memos When errors do occur, airlines are quick to issue debit memos. An integrated travel accounting module should provide quick access to the record in question and once paid, flow the expense back into the general accounting system. If the source of the debit memo is the traveler for example, he accepts a ticket that requires a Saturday night stay and then changes his plans to return on Friday tracking this memo back to his action can result in the corporate client being billed for this amount. An integrated system can include the cost of debit memos into the value of corporate clients and identify clients that may represent a liability to the TMC. Commission Tracking, Collection and Reconciliation Tracking, collecting and reconciling commissions from hotels and other travel suppliers can be a daunting task for most agencies. In cases where TMCs use their own personnel to track unpaid commissions, managing the process must be a standard function within the travel accounting module, including the automation of dunning notices to the offending supplier. When TMCs hire third-party companies to collect missed commissions, travel accounting module must be able to evaluate the performance of these third-party services. Account Services and Reporting Account representatives are generally tasked with providing corporate clients with services ranging from problem resolution to advice on areas of additional savings. The system used by account management must reflect the detail captured from the travel accounting module of the enterprise system. This system provides more than just the simple reservation data, allowing the slicing and dicing of information by origin and destination, suppliers, branches and travel patterns. Accounts services staff need easy access to this kind of detail and the system should allow as much self-service activity as possible. Data Validation and Clean-Up Raw information from the GDS must be analyzed and categorized but it often has missing fields due to agent POS input errors. These omissions or errors must be tagged and corrected prior to their inclusion in reporting and BI systems. An inefficient travel accounting solution greatly increases the amount of effort required to correct these mistakes. The GDSs remain the underlying engine for travel commerce and so travel-specific accounting applications are still necessary. But a vast number of TMCs still rely on traditional accounting platforms for their back-office technology and though the need for travel-specific accounting applications has not diminished, agencies that rely on these systems alone as the cornerstone of their back-office strategy miss the fact that more integrated comprehensive solutions are available. The Benefits of an Integrated ERP Solution The key difference between using standalone solutions and an ERP approach is the level of integration between the systems. The integrated ERP approach provides a TMC better insight into and control over all business processes, allowing greater efficiency between related functions. For example, automating the procurement function for the company may involve accessing the hierarchy contained in the human

4 resource application, the budget details in financial systems and the accounts payable module once the product or service is acquired. A Complete View of Corporate Financials without Manual Compilation A true enterprise-level accounting platform goes beyond simply managing accounts receivable, accounts payable and postings to the general edger. Indeed, an ERP solution will provide the TMC with a complete view of how the company s financial resources are employed at any given time. The ability to go from a consolidated P&L and drill down to performance by branch and, even further, to find out why one of the branches is experiencing a drop in profitability is a result of tight integration between the travel applications and all applications within the accounting suite. Without this integration, many of the questions from Presidents and CFOs could only be answered after spending days compiling and recompiling information in spreadsheets and MS Access databases, often resulting in incorrect results that cannot be duplicated. Informed Marketing Strategies An integrated ERP system allows TMCs to examine and analyze customers explicit and implicit preferences and to determine whether different industry types are more profitable across accounts. An in-depth analysis of the value of a given account or an industry sector enables TMCs to target their marketing initiatives and retain and win new clients. Many travel agencies still depend primarily on the profile system in the GDS. This is a limited flat file residing in the mainframe, which is tightly integrated into the Passenger Name Record (PNR). Rather than simply handing off files from a travel accounting platform, an integrated ERP solution for TMCs allows analysis of all modules through a single common interface that shares a common foundation. There is concrete value to integrated systems that blend customer information throughout the process. Faster Billing and Collections For TMCs that still offer credit to their corporate clients, an integrated accounting system provides not only visibility into information on receivables, but also into the impact of aging cycles on the financial health of the agency. By looking at a customer s total impact, a true cost of sales can be calculated, which helps the TMC understand a given corporate client s impact on its bottom line. Maximizing Purchasing Power When a TMC reaches a certain size, it should consider a more formal procurement process to drive discounting and to facilitate service to remote offices and employees, while maintaining control over expenses.this process must encompass all aspects of products and services purchased by the TMC. Just as the TMC s corporate clients have embraced purchasing to drive more value from their travel expenses, TMCs need to use procurement processes to closely control all expenditures and drive more effective supplier management techniques. Procurement systems can control all capital equipment purchases and services used by the agency. This is particularly important with respect to TMCs that are rapidly growing, opening new offices or acquiring existing competitors. Agencies need to standardize e.g. share a common phone system, computer hardware vendors and/ or service provider. An integrated ERP system will include a procurement module that is directly tied to budgets, HR hierarchies for approval levels and the accounts payable module to monitor payments to vendors. The goal is to allow the TMC to monitor and control all expenses. Realistic Budget Creation and Management It is amazing that many mid to large sized TMCs lack a formal budgeting process; budgets are sometimes created simply by adjusting last year s expenditures. Whether your existing budgeting process is non-existent or you are suffering from having to update and maintain complex spreadsheets linked together like a bowl of spaghetti, many ERP solutions will offer a way to simply and effectively manage the budgeting process and facilitate budget to actual reporting. An integrated enterprise budgeting module can look at various factors to allow division managers to create a more realistic budget that can be monitored and tracked. Sales projections, customer trends and the changes in various divisions or departments can be used to provide senior management with a more clear projection of next year s expenses. These budgets can then be monitored and integrated into the procurement technology of an ERP solution, ensuring that no product or service is purchased without proper approval and funds. Improved Internal Project Management In an age where TMCs are evolving their businesses by offering more and more consulting services, internal project management software can be very valuable. For example, many TMCs manage the selection and implementation of Corporate Booking Tools (CBTs). Managing this implementation process and projecting the impact on agency service fees can better establish fees for future implementation. This is also true for specific projects that focus on supplier contract analysis, a service being offered by more and more TMCs. Tracking Productivity and Assessing Service Fees Managing a TMC as a large enterprise should also include employee monitoring tools that consider the cost of an employee s time. The amount of time a travel counselor spends on a given account is an important benchmark in establishing the true cost of that corporate client. Balancing productivity with service fees that reflect the true amount of time required by a client can help the TMC understand its cost of sales and affect its pricing and sales process.

5 Managing and Controlling Expenses Large regional or global TMCs often spend a great deal in Travel and Expenses (T&E) whether for client visits, sales calls or attending conferences. TMCs need to control their own internal T&E. Integrated ERP systems often include an expense module that is tightly integrated into budgets, and can help the TMC understand how travel and expenses contribute to its cost of sales. There is also value in automating the expense process - doing so makes it easier to file expenses and reduces the turnaround time for reimbursements. Improved Human Resources (HR) Management Many TMCs either have no formal HR database or a standalone HR software solution. An integrated HR module of an ERP system can help manage employee services and help the TMC understand the impact of employees on the overall company s bottom line. These systems contain the hierarchy of the company and can store signing authority. They also contain employee files, which include annual performance reviews and can be used by management to evaluate employee roles and their true contribution. Additionally, HR must adapt to changes in organizational structure that are often part of a company reorganization or merger. Other modules such as purchasing or budgeting also need to be integrated with the HR database. The high level of integration needed between HR and other internal systems can only be achieved through an integrated ERP platform approach. Tying Employee Compensation to Performance By bringing payroll into the integrated enterprise system, employee compensation can be tracked against performance and adjustments to grade level can be implemented across individual employee categories throughout the company. An integrated payroll module of an ERP solution can contribute to a better understanding of the true cost of sales. Additionally, during mergers an integrated payroll module can be invaluable in standardizing employee compensation for varying offices. The Ability to Respond to Industry Paradigm Shifts and Other Changes The travel industry itself is in a constant state of change. For example, travel-specific accounting systems that were based on commission models needed to be altered as the era of service fees emerged in the 1990s. Legacy systems are generally ill-equipped to respond to significant change, often incurring significant cost and business disruption. Responsiveness to change should be an early selection criterion when choosing a long-term solution. Leveraging Current Technology for Better Information Today there is a stronger focus on business intelligence and systems that generate simple reports are now considered archaic compared to true BI insight. But there tends to be a lag between the evolution of enterprise systems and travelspecific technology. For example, large ERP systems have been web-enabled for years while many travel accounting applications still have a Microsoft Windows, or even DOS-type interface from the 1980s. As a result, enterprise systems with integrated travel accounting are more likely to anticipate changes in computing and react with product enhancements. Most ERP systems have a BI component embedded into the core system. Summary Large travel companies can no longer act like overgrown mom-and-pop travel agencies. Whether the TMC has multiple branches in different countries or multiple branches in a single country, a consolidated view of revenue and expenses is a business imperative. TMCs need an integrated travel accounting and ERP solution to manage all aspects of their business. Beyond Travel Accounting: Managing a Large Enterprise In today s tough economic environment, TMCs must seek out every opportunity to be more efficient and provide differentiated services for their clients. The inherent inefficiency of individual silo applications, where integration between systems is often on a batch basis, means the data flow from GDS to travel accounting to internal financial systems is incomplete. TMCs need an integrated ERP solution that allows them to evaluate the true costs of each customer so they can ensure that customer behavior doesn t detract from overall profitability. Understanding the Cost of Poor Technology Incomplete and single-function technology may appear less expensive than integrated enterprise-level systems, but often the true cost of poor technology is masked by the lack of quality information these disparate systems provide. Manual processes are by their nature inefficient and error-prone; if poor data reaches the customer, the entire relationship with the TMC may be put in jeopardy. TMCs must adopt an integrated, end-to-end system that takes the GDS information and populates a single true view of the customer across departments. Turning Accurate Business Intelligence into a Competitive Advantage In today s highly competitive business environment, information is the key. Providing customer dashboards is a vital service but if the underlying information contains errors, the value of the dashboard is lost. The archaic backoffice technology still present at many TMCs is notorious for inaccurate management reporting of corporate accounts. Integrated travel ERP solutions however have their own dashboard technology, and more importantly, the underlying

6 information is automatically cleansed and therefore represents a more sustainable BI solution. With all the data in a single integrated ERP system, travel companies can track the true cost of sales and the value of individual corporate accounts. They can also differentiate themselves from the competition by offering their clients BI services that track expenses and highlight possible areas for savings. The Substantial ROI of a Fully Integrated Enterprise- Level Solution When calculating the ROI of an integrated solution, TMCs need to look at all aspects of their company and their cost drivers. Are disparate systems installed across branches? Is there only partial integration between GDSdriven data and corporate information systems? Are unnecessary personnel employed due to weaknesses in individual systems? Can a single system be easily queried to extract complete information about a customer, employee or supplier? It is by answering these questions that an investment in a truly global enterprise system can be justified. The cost of an integrated back-office solution is significant, but the ongoing benefit such a solution provides far outweighs the initial cost of the system. Establishing a Business Case for Integrated ERP Sometimes TMCs need help looking beyond the stickerprice on an ERP system. If they don t fully understand all the real costs of their current system, these costs can get buried or even taken for granted but they add up fast and can quietly jeopardize the business. Establishing the true value of an ERP system is much easier once dollar values are attached to the many inefficient processes, errors and deficient commission collection.

7 Revenue Opportunities and efficiency savings Achieved by Example Increase revenue by eliminating commission tracking services Commission tracking; TMCs report an ability to increase commission tracking by 100% Cost of a commission tracking service can be $4,000 /month. 2 staff - each researching, correcting and preparing the third-party hand-off for commission tracking and bank deposits for 7 hours/week (at an estimated $20/hour) costs $280/week. An integrated system could save around $62,500 per year (plus the value of the additional revenues collected) Efficiency-saving through error reductions and data cleansing Identification of missing information before it hits the database and automatic correction of the data by sending it back to the point-ofsale Identifying errors during the interface and pushing them back to operations for correction reduces the burden on the accounting staff. 2 staff - each correcting errors for 3 hours/day (at $20/hour) costs $120/day. An integrated system could save around $31,200 per year Reduction of errors in debit memo handling Querying the database to quickly research and resolve debit memos Identifying errors at the time of processing can decrease debit memos. 1 staff spending 8 hours/week (at $20/hour) to open, print and code debit memos as they arrive at the agency at a cost of $160/week. An integrated system could save around $8,300 per year GDS reconciliation and Integration Automation of the GDS feed making it available for all modules Real-time interface to the GDS allows accounting staff to simply flag and correct errors without stopping and restarting the interface. 1 staff spending 4 hours/day (at $20/hour) transmitting GDS messages in real-time, watching the interface process and correcting any errors that might stop the process costs $400 per week. An integrated system could save $20,800 per year Automated bank Reconciliation Connecting with the bank electronically to improve cash flow Automating bank reconciliation processes reduce errors. Jobs that once took days now take hours. 1 member of staff spending 3 hours/day (at $20/hour) reconciling the agency bank statements costs $60/day. An integrated system could save around $15,600 per year

8 Recommendation An investment in an enterprise system clearly outweighs the up-front and ongoing costs. Corporations in other industries have abandoned standalone, function-specific applications and are on board with the trend toward ERP. Travel companies can no longer afford to keep information in individual, insular applications. Competition will continue to drive down service fees and progressive TMCs can turn an investment in an integrated solution into a vital competitive advantage.

9 Appendix Evaluating Stand-Alone vs. Integrated ERP Solutions FUNCTION STAND ALONE SOLUTION EXAMPLE Integrated accounting Basic one-way hand-off. Fully integrates all GDS information. Can be used by all modules. Specialized IT support Must support travel-specific accounting platform and other agency stand-alone apps. Knowledge of single system, reducing need for specialized support Business intelligence access to all reservation information Improved processing for debit memo handling Limited to reporting capabilities of the system. Often must feed system into stand-alone data warehouse or BI system Research debit memo, but no option to charge back mistakes caused by customer An integrated data warehouse is part of the solution and thus all information is available across modules Easy tracking of debit memos and charging back if error originated with the customer Integrated HR module N/A Fully integrated solution that can look at the employee based on total contribution. Ability to use employee costs as a way to calculate true cost of sales for a given corporate client Integrated financials Efficiency savings Total customer view Hand-off from travel accounting to external financials can be incomplete and prone to errors. Unique skill set needed to query data in stand-alonetravel accounting system Limited customer view based on transaction only. No hand-off necessary as entire system is integrated Single standard interface across all modules Can evaluate total value of customer across functions and industry types Integrated BI Hand-off of data to BI system may result in incomplete or inaccurate information Data stored in a single system and BI tools can be used to evaluate all data for the customer and for internal operations.

10 Glossary of Terms ARC (Airline Reporting Corporation) An airline-owned company that provides the travel industry with financial services, data products and services, ticket distribution, original travel solutions and settlement in the U.S., Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and American Samoa. ARC accredits travel agencies and Corporate Travel Departments (CTDs) in these same locations. BSPs (Bank Settlement Plans) Local organizations that provide settlement services for travel agencies. BI (Business Intelligence) BI refers to applications and technologies that are used to gather and analyze data about company operations. True business intelligence extracts meaning from multiple sources data that might not be explicitly apparent from simply generating reports. CBT (Corporate Booking Tool) Applications that automate online business travel bookings and automatically enforce corporate travel policies at the point-of-sale. Cost-benefit analysis The process of comparing the cost of an investment against the benefit achieved from that investment. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) A business management system that integrates all facets of the business, including planning, sales, and marketing. As the ERP methodology has become more popular, software applications have emerged to help business managers implement ERP in business activities such as inventory control, order tracking, customer service, finance and HR. IAR (Interactive Agent Reporting System) The feed from the GDS records that goes into the agency s travel accounting system. IATA (International Air Transport Association) Represents, leads and serves the airline industry. Its members include some 230 airlines the world s leading passenger and cargo airlines among them and represents 93% of scheduled international air traffic. GDS (Global Distribution System) The primary platform for travel reservations. GDSs aggregate travel content from multiple sources, and power online and offline bookings. MIS (Management Information Systems) A general term for the computer systems in a business that provide information about its business operations. PNR (Passenger Name Record) The basic reservation record that contains predetermined parameters such as name, itinerary, telephone contact and reservation. POS (Point-of-Sale) The desktop of the travel agent used in traditional or virtual call centers. ROI (Return on Investment) An accounting formula used to obtain an actual or perceived future value of an expense or investment. QC (Quality Control) The process by which reservations are checked for accuracy and completeness. Standardization Creation of a common process across locations to ensure uniform implementation of desired actions. TMC (Travel Management Company) Travel agencies that specialize in corporate travel management. TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) A measure of the value of a product or service that factors in all associated costs, both direct and indirect.