Globalisation drives corporate travel. Executives cross borders to close deals and make site visits to their various global operations be they manufacturing plants, sales offices or shared service centres. Regardless of the reasons for travelling, finance directors and travel managers need to make sure that airfares, hire cars and hotel bills are kept in check and the administrative burden associated with the expense cycle is minimised. For Diners Club executive Tom Edgerton, the solution is a single global card programme that delivers value beyond the traditional payment function method.
Why should corporates roll out a single global corporate card programme in the current economic climate?
In short, to strengthen vendor negotiation, improve travel policy compliance and reduce overall travel and entertainment spend, which is essential for companies coming out of the economic downturn. Through a single multinational agreement with Diners Club, the expenses for travellers around the world are consolidated to provide information.
Web-based reporting provides a consolidated global view that can be analysed by employee, department, division, country, vendor among others. A managed programme with global pricing, administered at country level provides consistent service around the world and the ability to respond to local situations that arise during the course of international business. Local Diners Club franchisees also provide local currency billing and reporting, multilingual customer service and regional infrastructure.
How should a corporate go about a global card implementation and how quickly can a programme be up and running (particularly in terms of ERP integration?)
We recommend a phased approach to this implementation; with Phase I to include top spending countries with Phase II incorporating the remaining countries. The first phase takes up to 90 days from the completion of the contracts to full implementation. Phase II takes up to 120 days. Our multinational staffing structure is designed to maximize effective communications at country, regional and global level, while ensuring singular multinational accountability for the programme’s implementation success. Through clearly defined programme requirements, goals and proven project management techniques, the Diners Club team will take full ownership and leadership to ensure a seamless implementation.
Have you any recent examples of global corporate card programmes successfully implemented by Diners Club?
Many large corporations spend a significant portion of their budgets on accommodation each year. One customer of ours knew that there were opportunities to reduce accommodation costs by focusing more closely on hotel selection and spending. To gain more control over these expenditures, the company launched an initiative to structure and refine the hotel programme. The key to its success was negotiating fixed rates with preferred hotels. The company’s travel agency provided some data, but not the highly credible data needed for effective negotiations with hotels. The travel manager quickly overcame this obstacle by working with Diners Club’s account manager and Global Vision tool.
The data reported via Global Vision provided the company with actual charge transactions, which is highly credible data from the hotel’s perspective. Global Vision data is granular and can be sorted in numerous ways, such as by brand, hotel chain, geographical area and by date ranges. Taking advantage of this capability, the travel manager and account manager created detailed reports that helped to identify those markets and hotel properties where most of its accommodation dollars were spent.
Global Vision data also helped shape the guidelines for the new hotel programme and reinforce employee compliance with the guidelines. The financial results were astounding. The negotiated rates are as much as 30 percent lower among preferred properties in the company’s top 80 travel cities. Over four years, this has added up to more than $3m in savings.
Tom Edgerton, Executive Vice President, Diners Club International, Telephone: +1 224 405 3196, email tomedgerton@discover.com or visit www.dinersclubinternational.com