Benchmarking

Corporate Procurement Managers attempting to benchmark their business travel purchases, face an almost insurmountable problem. Benchmarking business travel is far more complex than benchmarking widgets for example, and because of this, they are unable to obtain independent data showing what other corporates of the same size or the same sector pay for the same journeys.

The corporate travel agent or Travel Management company (TMC) will usually supply benchmark data when submitting periodic savings reports or management information (M.I.). But the question needs to be asked as to how accurate or independent the TMC benchmark figures are.

Two facts are plain. Firstly there is a multitude of different fares available for each journey, and secondly the TMC needs to demonstrate to the corporate that it has made a saving. By picking a legitimate fare which best fits the figures, a TMC could show an impressive saving, whereas if a more realistic benchmark was used, it might show a reduced or even negative saving.

The Audittravel solution

Audittravel uses it’s own extensive independent database of current fares actually sold, to make comparisons and set benchmarks. It collates actual travel spend from clients and uses it to benchmark TMC's performance. Data is sorted into industry and region to give the best comparisons. When savings reports or MI are compared with this data, the true saving made is often much different.