What the heck does baking have to do with travel data reporting, you ask?
It makes for an interesting metaphor. I used this concept in the speech I gave at the ACTE Canada conference last week in Toronto. I’ll admit that my skit was a bit hokey, but the points about poor preparation of data, half-baked analysis and hanging Christmas lights on plain-jane data were too good to pass up.
Once I got beyond these process-related problems, we dived into some of the best practices in travel data reporting. The examples I presented involved spend analysis, policy compliance, supplier negotiations and management recommendations. If you’d like a copy of the 28-slide deck, please post a comment.
Yvonne Kerns, CIBC’s global travel manager, and Sean Brooks, associate director for travel management at Bell Canada were the “real world” co-panelists. Yvonne spoke about how she tracks average ticket price, and the success she’s had in getting senior management to support stronger compliance to policy. Sean described the challenges he’s had in dealing with fragmented hotel data, and how he has been able to combine it in a way that outshone some of his hotel suppliers.
Thanks to the excellent ACTE staff in Canada for organizing such a terrific conference!
These thoughts are excerpted with permission from Scott Gillespie's blog, Gillespie's Guide to Travel Procurement.
