Travel and Transport Launches Saasbased Travel Management

Customer Profile

Organization Travel and Transport is one of the largest travel management company in the world, with more than 1,300 employee-owners nationwide.

Travel and Transport

The Challenge Most corporate travel departments lack visibility into what employees spend on travel, with no single source of analytics that encompasses major travel purchases as well as incidental expenses. Travel and Transport Launches SaaS- The Strategy Create a big data analytics solution that Based Travel Management Solution combines travel management information, credit card data, expense data, and Information Builders Supports Big Data Initiative financial/budget information into a SaaS- based solution for monitoring, tracking, and predicting travel spending within a Big data is big business at Travel and Transport. One of the largest travel management company. companies in the world, Travel and Transport recently launched a SaaS-based travel management solution called Vantage Point, which uses big data analytics to give travel The Results More complete and timely oversight and managers unprecedented visibility into corporate travel activities. Data Visualization insight leads to more efficient purchasing Intelligence (DVI), a wholly owned subsidiary of Travel and Transport, will manage the contracts and greater compliance with endeavor going forward. corporate travel policies. Most corporate travel departments lack visibility into employee travel spending Information Builders Solution because they have no single source of truth for both major travel purchases WebFOCUS®, AppStudio, Portal and incidental expenses. According to Brian Beard, general manager of Strategic Designer, InfoAssist, iWay Data Quality Technology Initiatives for Travel and Transport and president of DVI, travel managers Suite, and Professional Services. need to track major purchases such as airfare, car rentals, and hotels as well as incidental spending on parking, taxis, baggage, meals, Internet charges, and many other items. To fill this gap, Vantage Point combines travel management information, credit card data, expense data, and financial/budget information into a big data Information Builders provides the repository that reveals an entire travel program for a company. industry’s most scalable software solutions for data management and “We needed integration tools for data aggregation and warehousing, integrity tools analytics. With one smart platform for cleansing, and data intelligence tools for mapping, reporting, analyzing, and for integration, data quality, and visualizing data,” says Beard. “We selected Information Builders because they have analytics, we help companies man- the most comprehensive suite of products. Their capture, integration, and integrity age their data, generate insights, technologies were a perfect fit for creating our solution. All of the data is loaded into take action, and deliver impact. a data warehouse for access by the WebFOCUS data visualization tools.” Beard also

WebFOCUS iWay Software Omni Customer Profile

gives Information Builders high marks for its mobile BI capabilities. “Everything works on tablets and smartphones using responsive design and HTML5,” he adds.

Capture, Integration, and Integrity “We needed integration The goal with DVI’s big data initiative is to help organizations analyze travel programs and improve tools for data aggregation negotiations with suppliers. The vision begins with capturing total travel details. Currently, Vantage and warehousing, integrity Point draws data from four primary sources: tools for cleansing, and data ■■ Booking data from a travel management system (such as Travel and Transport’s eTTek Review) intelligence tools for map- ■■ Expense data from a corporate expense system ping reporting, analyzing, ■■ and visualizing data. We Credit card data selected Information ■■ Budget/financial data Builders because they have the most comprehensive DVI stores this information in a SQL Server database that reveals an entire travel program for a suite of products.” company. The company plans to add a Hadoop database so customers can pull in additional data from weather sites, finance companies, social media networks, and other public sources. Some Brian Beard President organizations might also choose to add HR data or industry benchmark data. Data Visualization Intelligence (a subsidiary DVI uses iWay Integration Suite from Information Builders to extract, transform, and load all this of Travel and Transport) information into a common format, and iWay Data Quality Suite to ensure information integrity and consistency. DVI also uses Information Builders’ technology to create proactive alerts that help managers detect potential compliance breaches before they become problematic. “Information Builders has been very knowledgeable and supportive of this endeavor,” says Beard. “Their capture, integration, and integrity technologies were a perfect fit for creating our solution. All of the data is loaded into a data warehouse for access by the WebFOCUS data visualization tools.”

Vantage Point uses WebFOCUS data visualization tools to deliver real-time information. Customer Profile

Data Visualization, Business Analytics, and Intelligence The customer-facing components of Vantage Point are built around an analytics portal and a series of InfoApps™ created with WebFOCUS AppStudio, Portal Designer, and InfoAssist+. InfoApps are reusable analytics modules that help users at the point of decision. Unlike traditional rigid tabular summaries and columnar reports, InfoApps facilitate self-service queries with thousands of permutations.

The InfoApps within the Vantage Point analytics portal allow users to analyze spending in various categories. For example, one InfoApp deals with airline spending, another with travelers, and a third with compliance. Users filter expense data by cost center and other variables to identify big spenders, as well as to see if purchases comply with corporate travel policies.

InfoApps also empower managers to answer specific questions. For example, they might want to know who is spending the most money on travel or how many trips somebody took the year before. They might also want to determine if travel expenses are reasonable in comparison with revenue.

DVI considered Tableau, Microsoft, MicroStrategy, and Cognos, but they preferred Information Builders’ robust technology and comprehensive platform.

“Travel management departments generally don’t have a budget that allows them to purchase “Having a BI vendor that also major software applications, so we had to create something affordable and functional,” says handles data quality and Beard. “We selected Information Builders for its superior integration tools for data aggregation integration is important to and warehousing, integrity tools for cleansing, and data intelligence tools for mapping, reporting, us. We have a strong working analyzing, and visualizing data. relationship that allows us to participate in Information “Having a BI vendor that also handles data quality and integration is important to us,” Beard Builders’ product cycles continues. “We considered using multiple vendors for various tasks, but using one vendor for and gain an understanding everything makes it so much easier. We have a strong working relationship that allows us to of how their technology participate in Information Builders’ product cycles and gain an understanding of how their impacts what we are doing, technology impacts what we are doing, now and in the future.” now and in the future.” New Technology for Monitoring Costs Brian Beard President Vantage Point is useful for companies that want to improve compliance with travel management Data Visualization policies and reduce overall travel costs. For example, employees might be required to book travel Intelligence (a subsidiary two weeks in advance to lock in the best fares. They may also be restricted to certain classes of of Travel and Transport) service. Vantage Point enforces these corporate policies and encourages consistent purchasing. This, in turn, allows companies to negotiate better pricing contracts and make sure employees use preferred vendors.

At many companies, some employees don’t submit their expense reports until weeks or even months after they complete their travel. However, because Vantage Point also consumes credit card data, the app reveals where employees are spending their travel money as soon as transactions are executed. This allows travel managers and line-of-business managers to determine how much they are spending by employee, category, location, and other variables – day to day and week to Customer Profile

week – and to make sure employees comply with corporate travel policies. Color coding reveals whether they are above or below expectations so they can see at a glance how their overall travel management programs are progressing. The system issues alerts if predefined thresholds are exceeded, so they can catch excessive spending before it impacts their travel budgets.

A travel policy might state that 80 percent of all booked travel must be done using an online travel management tool to ensure that corporate agreements are enforced. Vantage Point makes it easy to see how many employees adhere to this policy. “We can track and measure what percentage of employees are booking travel in various ways, along with which areas customers need to address to improve compliance,” Beard explains. “All of the data is visual and dynamic so it’s easy to understand. Instead of running standard reports, live charts reveal measures and monitors.”

DVI used WebFOCUS mapping tools to display location intelligence and geographic factors such as origin and destination information. “Information Builders has excellent mapping tools that allow us to look globally or regionally into certain areas, using bubbles and heat maps on top of geographic displays,” Beard adds.

For example, managers can look at a map that shows average daily spending to determine which travel destinations are most cost-effective. By auditing costs over time they can calculate the financial impact of various travel decisions. Beard believes these functions will enable customers to cut their travel expenses by between three and seven percent during the first couple years of using the application. “Visibility leads to better negotiations and better leverage,” he states. “And that means a direct ROI.”

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