The trends for 2004 in the Australian market can be summed up in three words – technology, education and compliance management.

As my TMC recently highlighted to me, the best way for a corporate travel manager to start the year is with a "to do" list, with item one being "reducing the number of people involved in completing a travel transaction".

Items to consider to achieve this include the following:

• Rather than encourage the use of an online tool – mandate it! This will require engaging your TMC to be involved in the conversion and follow-up work.
• Train your travellers rather than just expect them to make online bookings. This will increase the success rate.
• Continuously review the efficiency of the online booking tool. How can the system owners reduce the number of keystrokes? Can they reduce the number of support staff and cost, without reducing service standards?
• Can robotic ticketing be adopted? This should also reduce support staff.
• Seek more in-depth analysis of travel purchase habits.
• Ask your TMC to identify travellers and sections within the organisation that have non-compliant travelling habits, ie late bookings. Compare their per-trip cost against other travellers who adopt an advanced booking practice. Share results!
• Adopt inter-departmental competition schemes aimed at reducing per-trip costs. Establish company benchmarks. If feasible, organise a quarterly prize for best practice.
• If possible, offer cash incentives for using frequent flier points for business travel.
• Regularly audit your TMC’s best-fare-of-the-day practices and monitor internal resistance.
• Make sure management is aware of the additional cost incurred through senior staff having privileged arrangements; eg travelling business class, staying in five-star hotels, travelling on the most flexible fare. If you can win over the managing director on this one the rest is easy!

Certainly there are advantages and disadvantages of using an online travel system, but you cannot go past the prime benefit – placing the onus back on the travel co-ordinator in choosing a fare. It is quite easy to blame a TMC if your traveller believes he can receive a cheaper fare elsewhere but where does the blame lie when your travel arranger has the sole discretion to book the cheapest fare or forego this and take a more expensive option?