A tender changes yoursupplier. It does notfix your programme.
Nine months, six departments, hundreds of questions. And every problem that was yours rather than theirs is still there afterwards. I find out which is which before you go to market, and if you are going, what you should be asking for.
Exhibit A · Programme diagnostics
The problem is almost never where it looks
| Ref | What you think it is | What it usually is | Conf. |
|---|---|---|---|
| A.01 | Travellers ignoring the hotel programme | Rates never loaded, or beaten by the chain's own app | HIGH |
| A.02 | Poor online adoption | A tool that handles the booking well and the trip badly | HIGH |
| A.03 | A TMC that has stopped caring | A service model priced for a different pattern of demand | MED |
| A.04 | Savings that never reach the P&L | A discount measured against a fare nobody pays | HIGH |
| A.05 | A programme nobody can report on | Three systems that were never reconciled | HIGH |
Change the supplier and every one of these moves house with you. A tender is the most expensive way to find out. It is not the only one.
What a new supplier will not fix
Some of what is wrong with a travel programme belongs to the TMC. Some of it belongs to Treasury, or Finance, or a business unit that books outside the system for reasons nobody has written down. The second kind survives a change of supplier, and it is still there in year two under a new logo.
Knowing which is which is the difference between a tender that fixes something and a tender that moves the problem.
Take fifteen per cent out of the fee and it does not come out of profit. It comes out of the team that answers your phone: fewer experienced agents, more travellers per head, the dedicated desk quietly folded into a shared one.
Three ways to work with ME
01Travel programme reviewsWhat is actually wrong, which problems a new supplier will not fix, and what to ask for if you are going to market.Open →02Interim & project supportOne to three days a week, or a defined project. Includes running a tender you have already decided to run.Open →03For travel suppliersBid strategy and proposition work, from someone who built the system your bids went through.Open →
Who is telling you this
I made tendering faster. Faster was never the problem.
I'm Karen McKenna. I spent a decade selling for three of the largest travel management companies in the world, all three now part of American Express Global Business Travel.
In 2004 I founded ETABID, the industry's first online sourcing platform. Siemens, PwC, Morgan Stanley and Adidas ran their tenders through it. The world's ten largest travel management companies responded through it. Buyers liked it, the TMCs liked it, and it was acquired in 2006.
What came after was broader. A consultancy, sold in 2010. Workshops on bid management, travel technology and programme design, run for buyers and suppliers alike. Years training agency owners for IATA across five continents. An e-learning platform for the industry, certified by the Business Travel Association.
Which is the useful part. I have taught most of this programme to most of the people in it: sourcing, technology, policy, supplier strategy, risk, service models. It is why I can usually tell when the hotel problem is actually a payment problem.
Before you launch your next RFP, talk to me.
Speak to Karen →