Business Travel Executive, December 2018

PHAT DATA The Future is Phat 18Business Travel Executive DECEMBER 2018 of your data Information coupled together gives you data and we want that data to be actionable and wise Buyers need to start asking the right questions What do you have now that is actionable and supports the business objectives What is a complete waste Hint Get rid of it Tell suppliers to stop sending data if it is not in alignment with your strategy Or on the flip side start asking for the right data that you can actually use There will be some pieces of data that you have but need to supplement to make it truly actionable You want the data to tell the story of your programs success The next step is to do a policy and supplier timeout What this means is you need to evaluate the conversations you have had with key stakeholders and assess whether your program has the right combination of suppliers During these conversations many buyers discover they arent getting the compliance to their supplier programs because those suppliers truly arent fitting the need in a specific market The same goes for travel policy Your travel policy should be a living breathing document that gets reviewed and modified based on what your Phat Data strategy is telling you No point in having a policy that doesnt fit your culture and business objectives Looking at your suppliers and policy also helps you to develop more dynamic conversations with your travel providers Suppliers need to understand what your data strategy is and how it is aligned with your business These types of conversations help strengthen these partnerships And it is OK if you have to break up with a supplier because it just doesnt fit in your program any longer Big Story Big Picture Now one of the questions that is often heard in the industry is How do I manage all of the different data sets that I have access to Your program doesnt have to be a huge one to generate an avalanche of data everything from TMC booked data to expensed data credit card data and supplier data And now we are hearing that machine learning and artificial intelligence is going to be providing us even more data How are buyers supposed to get their arms around it Remember this data is telling a story and you have to make sure you are telling the right story to the right people at the right time There are many products in the marketplace that focus on data and analytics for the managed travel program You can also look at your companys own business intelligence tools that are used for internal purposes tapping into those may also help you manage the data It is important that buyers remember a Phat Data strategy cant rely entirely on TMC data You want a complete picture so having a strong analytical tool that can manage multiple sources of data is ideal Once you have aggregated your data buyers must consider what data they are sharing with whom and when The story you tell a front line manager is different than what you share with a CFO Keep in mind that the story you tell is doing two things It can either inform the audience or call them to action or it may be doing both Dont forget to make sure that you always highlight your ask if you want someone to take action This next caveat shouldnt even need to be mentioned but I will anyway Check the data to ensure it is accurate In fact this is so important let me say it again a different way Dont let the data go out unless youre certain its right Do the numbers add up and as important do they mean something relevant There is nothing worse than having holes shot in your data and suffering a loss of credibility Its happened to the best of us at one time or another The last step in the process is to make sure as a buyer you are reviewing and renewing your strategy The conversations keep happening the data inventory continues to grow supplier policy reviews and data delivery dont stop Your business changes and your travel program is directly affected by those changes so keep your finger on the pulse of your business and make sure your Phat Data strategy adapts over time The data doesnt lie So buyers use it to your advantage and allow it to help tell the story of what is working in your program and what is not working The buyers role is evolving and we need to be more technically savvy and more analytical than ever before Technological innovations will continue to drive change in our programs providing us access to new data elements that we have never had available before It will get harder to keep up if you dont keep your Phat Data strategy at the forefront of your managed travel program BTE Jennifer Steinke is vice president Global Travel Experience at WHoldings and an industry thought leader with over 30 years experience managing corporate travel She holds an MBA plus Certified Corporate Travel Executive CCTE and Global Travel Professional GTP certifications from GBTA Jennifer strives to deliver innovative and thought provoking ideas to the corporate travel industry What are we doing to prepare ourselves to be able to use even more data than ever before