Travel Management Company

[DCormier]

Who is everyone currently using for their Travel Management Company? What do you like or dislike about them? Also if you can provide amount of travelers you have that would be great too. Thank you!

[clayw1963]

We use World Travel out of Knoxville, TN.  Have been a great partner for us.  Any issues are addresses quickly and to our satisfaction.  Any report is generated and sent in a timely manner.  Sales rep is always in contact with us.  If you need more info just let me know.

We have about 40,000 employees in the Concur system.  Of those around 5000-6000 active users.

[DCormier]

Wow that is alot of users!! Thank you for the feedback.

[JessicaL]

We currently use Acendas (US) and BCD (EMEA). Since we're still in implementation phases, I'm not sure what we will like/dislike about them in the future. It's fair to say it's been a significant transition from our previous TMC.

[carmen]

Different styles of TMC work better with different companies. The big TMCs are great for large volumes. Other smaller agencies may give better services if you have travel spend up to $2mi/year (up 600 travelers). They are often more flexible and a great resource for training and learning about the overall subject.

Usually, TMCs cover 3 aspects:

* Traveler Services: Concur Travel for online booking, Dedicated group of Agents to your travelers, Emergency services and Duty of Care.

* Procurement: Quality Control systems and Reporting, Credit Card efficiencies and Unused ticket management

* Consulting: this is the main differentiator amongst TMCs. Smaller companies do not often get account management, yet they are the ones which need the most as they are learning about managed travel. So having an account manager is one of the services most liked 🙂 Account Managers will do RFP for vendors, run reports and analytics, and overall keep the travel program healthy while not being in your payroll.

So when you look for a TMC, first identify the place your travel spend is at, and the need for Account Management.

[Mike]

Does anybody else have more feedback on TMCs?

We're considering moving from our direct deal with Concur to a reseller agency for Concur Travel and would appleciate any feedback on EMEA TMCs in particular - thanks.

[sasrsc]

We operate as a CTD in the USA handling virtually everything in-house. For the rest of the world we use FCM with mostly local servicing. It has been going well with the usual ups and downs but we have renewed our contract. Like others have said I think you have to find the right fit for your company. We're in 60 countries so it's inevitable you'll have a few strong countries and a few weaker countries. If you're global matching up to the strong countries is important. If you're just in the USA that's irrelevent. 

In the past we've worked with BCD and Amex. Our global program has been quite the adventure (I thought I knew it all but oh how I have been humbled by the experience) by FCM has been a good partner to grow with especially as the global program is new. The CTD option, like selecting a TMC, is something worth evaluating too. Certainly the CTD model isn't for everyone. I think you just need to meet with the vendors, evaluate the options and get a feel for the personalities and see where you fit. 

If you run a flexible program then selecting someone with rigid processes may not work for you. I would say that's probably the core reason we chose FCM was because we were learning and adapting as we went along. They have been perfectly fine with that and to be fair we've BOTH learnt together as we've rolled out globally.

[RBlackwell]

may call you or you call me? I have some questions about TMC, we may need to make some changes.