Delegates at China Business Travel Conference See Benefits of Data Collection

To make the most cost effective policy decisions and vendor negotiations, travel managers need to know which data is most necessary to collect, and they must understand employee behavior to do so, said Kevin Smith, Corporate Services Manager, Global Supply Management, Delphi Corporation.

Speaking about the importance of metrics in travel management at the 2008 Corporate Travel & Technology World China conference in Shanghai last month, Smith told attendees that communicating with employees is the key to receiving the best feedback.

“We need to understand traveler behaviors,” said Smith. He encouraged travel managers to “educate and communicate with travelers so they understand” how their comments help to shape and enhance travel management programs and policies.

Smith suggested seeking information from travelers such as advance bookings, airline preferences, preferred departure and return times, and length of stays. “People love to talk about travel,” he said.

Smith went on to discuss the benefits of data. “The important part of data is to set policies to help negotiations,” he said. Through collection of traveler data and feedback, he said, travel managers can negotiate maximum flexibility at the lowest possible cost to match their behavior.

Michael Whitesage, Ph.D. President of PRISM Group, Inc., a global technology company specializing in information systems for the travel industry, touched on the advancements in and future of data quality.

According to Whitesage, his Asia Pacific customers have increased and markedly improved their data collection and quality in the last two years. Although the region currently falls behind the North and South America regions, as well as the European, Middle East, Africa region, we can “expect to have some of the best data in the world out of Asia Pacific in the next two years,” he said.

Whitesage said he is “very optimistic about the future of data quality.” He sees the demand being stressed by all roles in the corporate travel industry, and said the expansion of global networks, improvement of agency processes, and globalization of reporting products will only ensure the continued improvement in data quality.

Whitesage also emphasized the importance of data quality in travel management. “Travel managers’ influences will increasingly depend upon the reliability of their data,” he said.