CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Doubling down on the bet that many businesses are willing to replace certain trips with virtual meetings, BCD Travel and its consulting practice, Advito, have expanded their relationship with worldwide technology leader Cisco. Advito will provide the travel data and analytics that help customers define where and what Cisco collaboration product offerings a customer would need to optimize or reduce travel while still providing the best experience. This is one enhancement that has led the way for the new Demand & Behavior Management practice.
Advito will also debut both a new breakthrough savings calculator and an expanded Demand & Behavior Management practice at the 2017 Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) Convention in Boston. The calculator gives travel managers immediate insight into savings they could gain from different approaches to managing demand, behavior and category spend. With a virtual collaboration program alone, the calculator shows that most companies can reduce or redirect up to 4 percent of their total travel spend by reducing just 10 percent of internal trips.
“This savings calculator is an eye-opener, providing compelling data to spark discussions,” says Lesley O’Bryan, principal and vice president of Advito. “Our experience has revealed that successful collaboration programs have a corporate sponsor and interdepartmental teams focused on the initiative. Understanding the potential budget impact of collaborative technology gives travel managers a starting point for conversations with other departments and corporate leaders.”
Since launching the Cisco relationship in 2016, companies that have invested in a Total Collaboration Management (TCM) program with Advito have experienced a tremendous return on investment – as much as 15:1. “What’s unique about a TCM program is the quick cost take-out. Companies can achieve significant savings in months, not years like other savings opportunities,” says O’Bryan.
Virtual collaboration is gaining traction, and usage will continue to grow significantly in the next few years. With the right program and the right virtual technology, teams can collaborate from anywhere at a fraction of the cost of travel. Advito and BCD Travel’s approach to Total Collaboration Management encompasses a range of innovative technology solutions from Cisco, including meetings and cloud-based collaboration solutions. Companies have more choices and better options to help employees determine whether they should stay or go.
The expanded Demand & Behavior Management Practice will build upon the success of the Cisco relationship and Advito’s Total Collaboration Management and Traveler Engagement practices by applying unique ways for organizations to change travel demand and influence buying decisions. “We already operate on the leading edge of demand and behavior management, and have made significant investments to grow this area of the business,” says April Bridgeman, managing director, Advito, and senior vice president, BCD Travel. Consultants in this specialty help organizations change traveler behavior and win buy-in for the corporate travel program. “It’s no longer necessary for companies to use methods like travel bans to make significant cost impacts. After the ban is lifted, costs rise again. Instead, companies can use innovative techniques like Total Collaboration Management, apply budgets to beat and traveler incentives, or Traveler Engagement to fundamentally change the culture by changing why people travel. This will change the travel and expense outlay structurally and result in a more consistent approach to travel cost control. Most companies aren’t even using the current range of capabilities within their online booking tools to influence traveler buying decisions,” according to Bridgeman.
Travel managers can visit Advito at BCD Travel’s booth at GBTA (booth #1150) to access the Breakthrough Savings calculator. In addition, Cisco and Advito will demonstrate the value of the virtual collaboration experience using the Cisco Spark™ Board, an innovative collaboration tool that combines a wireless presentation screen, a digital whiteboard, and an audio and video conferencing system into a single cloud-connected device.
About Advito
Advito is the travel industry’s most progressive consultancy, enabling procurement leaders to modernize their approach to managing the travel and meetings spend category. Led by a unique team of multi-disciplinary experts and thought leaders, we work with both clients and suppliers to push the boundaries of traditional air and hotel sourcing and strategic meetings management for higher program returns. We provide advisory, procurement and outsourcing services in the area of corporate travel sourcing, expense and meetings management, along with RFP development and management; benchmarking and vendor management services. We minimize our clients’ travel spend and maximize their travel program value in a data-rich, consumer empowered world. Headquartered in Chicago, Advito operates in key business markets around the world. For more information, visit www.advito.com.
About BCD Travel
BCD Travel helps companies make the most of what they spend on travel. For travelers, this means keeping them safe and productive, and equipping them to make good choices on the road. For travel and procurement managers, it means advising them on how to grow the value of their travel program. In short, we help our clients travel smart and achieve more. We make this happen in 108 countries with almost 13,000 creative, committed and experienced people. And it’s how we maintain the industry’s most consistent client retention rate (95% over the past 10 years), with 2016 sales of US$24.6 billion. For more information, visit www.bcdtravel.com.
About BCD Group
BCD Group is a market leader in the travel industry. The privately owned company was founded in 1975 by John Fentener van Vlissingen and consists of BCD Travel (global corporate travel management), Travix (online travel: CheapTickets, Vliegwinkel, BudgetAir, Flugladen and Vayama), Park 'N Fly (off-airport parking) and joint ventures Parkmobile International (mobile parking applications) and AERTrade International (consolidating and fulfillment). BCD Group employs over 13,000 people and operates in 100+ countries with total sales of US$25.4 billion, including US$10 billion partner sales. For more information, visit www.bcdgroup.com.
