T&E Plus

The Frugal Leader’s Travel and Meeting Policy

The Frugal Leader’s Travel and Meeting Policy

An updated T&E Plus rerun and some fun as we move into Memorial Day and the summer travel season ....  enjoy the long weekend!

 

New Travel, Entertainment and Meeting Policy

1. All travel must be approved by your manager, the manager’s director, the managing director, the operations leader, the shared services vice president, the chief financial officer and the chief executive officer.  Please submit all travel requests four months in advance.  Requested travel will route through the pre-approval database which is in the cloud server on cloud 9.
   
   
   
2. All large and small meetings, events, conferences or other gatherings of 2 or more people must be registered on the portal which is located at the home page.  Click on the link called meetings/events, then click on “register meeting,” then click on “why I want to have this meeting,” then click on “the return on investment” link to ensure your meeting returns value to the company, then click on “provide business case” as to why your meeting is important, then click on the link called, “why Las Vegas cannot be your destination for your meeting,” then click on the link called “how to save money on your meeting,” then fill out the registration page.  If you have any more questions on meetings, please read numbers 10 and 11 below.
   
   
   
3. All travel must be booked by finding the lowest fare such as using the online booking tool, the airline webfares, the travel agency, your sister’s travel agency, the newspapers ads, or the online travel aggregator sites.  We recognize that this may take you three or more hours, but if you can find a fare that is cheaper, you must take the time to search in order to save money.  It is expected that you will take flights that have lengthy layovers if the price is less. 
   
   
4. Ancillary fees will not be reimbursed for baggage, special seats, advance boarding or onboard Internet connectivity.  Because we expect you to work 24/7, there is no reason why you need 3 pair of shoes, 4 suits, gym clothes, large containers of fluids or other items that would cause you to need luggage that needs to be checked. You will be in the office or meeting the entire time.
   
   
   
5. Please stay with relatives or friends to reduce your expenses.  While you’re there, please raid their refrigerator to eliminate meal expenses.  If you are traveling to a location without relatives or friends, please make new friends online using Twitter.   If that fails, please retrieve the reusable tentage from the local office.
   
   
   
6. Laundry expenses are not reimbursable. Please use your relative’s or friend’s washer and dryer.
   
   
   
7. Ground transportation must be provided by your favorite shoe manufacturer and your feet.  If your journey is more than five miles, please be sure to carry maps of the local bus or subway route with you.  You will not be reimbursed for these expenses because you should be willing to walk as our Health Benefit costs are increasing and you need to lose weight.
   
   
   
8. Allowable client entertainment includes volunteering, going to the park or taking advantage of free events. 
   
   
   
9. The T&E corporate card must be used for all reimbursable expenses.  Our company has no reimbursable expenses.   Any accrued points must be turned over to your manager, the manager’s director, the managing director or the chief financial officer so that they may use to buy valuable products, such as soap and toilet paper for our company bathrooms because we have cut all janitorial supplies from our budget.
   
   
   
10. Internal meetings and events can only be conducted by virtual mediums. The approved virtual mediums include your personal cell phones, your personal computer and webcams.
    
    
    
11. External business development meetings and events can be held at the local park.  In the case of inclement weather, please use parks with gazebos, canopies or buildings.  If you require client entertainment, please bring a deck of cards.  No gambling is allowed. If you require bug spray, please purchase at your own expense.
    
    
    
12. All audiovisual and production requirements must be supplied by using flashlights, hand shadows and drawings on the back of the napkin.
    
    
    
13. All travelers and meeting attendees must bring travel sleep sacks, pillows, blankets and energy bars on all trips because you never know when a volcano will erupt, a storm will ensue, or a crisis will occur.  Dealing with the unexpected increases your tolerance for adverse situations so that you can adapt to our working environment.All travelers should go to the local grocery store and eat from their "sample platters" to reduce food expenses.  Meeting planners should plan to have meetings in hotels that host weddings and bar/bat mitzvahs so that meeting attendees can snitch food from other guests in order to reduce food and beverage expenses.
14. All travelers should go to the local grocery store and eat from their "sample platters" to reduce food expenses.  Meeting planners should plan to have meetings in hotels that host weddings and bar/bat mitzvahs so that meeting attendees can snitch food from other guests in order to reduce food and beverage expenses.
    
    
15. IMHO, establish KPIs and SLAs to measure the success of your SMMP and your T&E program that may be managed by your TMC, MMC and DMCs. For travel, it is best to conduct audits and review prices, such as the ATP, ADR, and don't forget to look at prices in your GDS. Find out how much you are spending on your PNR pulls from your OBT.  If you are unsure if your spend is in compliance, check your GL codes through your AP and don't forget SIC and MCC spend data in your Spend Radar reports.  For meetings, be sure to always check your BEOs and F&B, and be sure to use CMPs and CMMs to plan and manage your meetings and events. If you are unsure, learn more about T&E and SMM, join GBTA, ACTE, MPI and PCMA to earn CPEs and obtain your GLP and GTP.
    
    
16. Any violations or noncompliance to this policy will be reported by our data metrics, from the ERP, the OBT, the TMC, the EMS, and the SMM technology, that we build, analyze, preview, revise, reproduce, report and validate a few times each day.
    
    

IF YOU and your organization need a "real" travel and meeting policy, contact me as I have many templates and examples for you.

A BIG THANK YOU to all of the meetings and travel leaders who continue to support me through the T&E blog, LinkedIn groups, client engagements and most important, your friendship.

Thank you for visiting the T&E Plus Blog on expense management, travel management, business meetings, events, incentives, strategic meetings management, entertainment, virtual meetings, tickets, hotels, airlines, ground transportation plus more...

Debi Scholar, GLP, CMM, CMP, SSGB, CTE, CTT

• Author, Strategic Meetings Management: The Strategy Quick Reference Guide (2011)
• Co-Author, Strategic Meetings Management Handbook (2011)
• Meetings Management Mover and Shaker as selected by Corporate and Incentive Travel Magazine (2010)
• Top 20 Changemaker who influenced the meetings management industry by Corporate Meetings and Incentives (2008)
• Best Meeting Practitioner as selected by Business Travel News (2007)

*Debi is proud to be a regular contributor to Business Travel Executive Magazine.
*Debi is proud to be one of only seven 2011 Editorial Board members for Hotel Business Review at http://www.hotelexecutive.com/ for Conferences & Meetings.
*Debi created two LinkedIn groups (GBTA SMM and T&E Plus) that now claim over 2,000 worldwide members combined.

Visit me at one of my upcoming speaking engagements; Topics vary per conference

Some sessions include components of SMM Bootcamp© and/or SMM Challenge© 

June 21 - EMC Webinar
July – GBTA Convention
August 23- EMC Webinar
September – Albany
October 25 - EMC Webinar
December 2 - EMC Webinar

Managing Risks in Meetings

Coming up on June 13, 2012, I will be sharing the Scholar Consulting Group "Risk Wheel" that describes the seven risk exposure areas for meetings and events.  This webinar is hosted by the Institute of Supplier Management and I am co-presenting with the sponsor, MaxVantage.  Sign up for the webinar and learn the types of questions to ask to identify risks,  how to put plans in place to mitigate the risks, and hear risk exposure stories. 

ISM / SCG / MaxVantage webinar

 

Meeting Tech Expo

Presenting a NEW session on Monday at Meetings Tech Expo - how much SHOULD you pay for meeting services? We will talk about pricing strategies used and how meeting planning companies itemize their costs.  Also, a session on the ROI of using technology.  Hope to see you in Washington DC! 

 

Response to eRFP Eruption: Online Leads Swamp Hoteliers

Response to the article, E-RFP Eruption: Shifting Meeting Sourcing Strategies as Online Leads Swamp Hoteliers.

I have a saying…"When paths ascend; Idleness descends; Momentum surpasses" which means climb your hill one step at a time to eliminate idleness. Step by step, you will build momentum to keep moving forward and upward. If you don't, you roll backward.  From where I sit, it does not appear that hotels have been practicing continuous improvement efforts to ascend the path of eRFPs.

As eRFP technology has been around since at least 1997* many hoteliers have practiced conscious incompetence in adopting eRFPs. For example, in a 2007 conversation with a prominent, large chain property in Florida, the Director of National Accounts said, "Debi, if we get two leads and one is through technology and the other is through the traditional method, I will always give first priority to the traditional RFP."  And, unfortunately, his response is echoed by hundreds of hoteliers today because they have not wanted to restructure their resources as Gaylord has so efficiently accomplished.  Granted, technology may be onerous, but improvements are being made regularly. In comparison, our first computers with floppy drives were hard to operate too; we didn't ignore them, we used them. 

In contrast, there is probably  more hope for the  unconscious incompetent hoteliers who may not be educated on eRFPs.  In a recent client interview when I asked about eRFP usage, the meeting planner responded that in some cities like Panama City it worked well but in contrast, the hotels did not recognize the email with the eRFP link in Santiago. Hotels must continue to prioritize eRFPs as more global organizations move toward automation.

If Hyatt believes that eRFPs got out of control almost overnight, then, in my opinion, they haven't been following the strategic meetings management initiatives, the GBTA conferences, the incline in technology usage, or the rising procurement influence.  Strategic Meetings Management (SMM) has been formalized since 2004.  As practitioners, we emphasize the importance of automation to increase visibility and efficiency, and reduce costs and risks. We knew this was coming for years; eRFP adoption continues to increase with improved functionality.

In addition, for Hyatt to say that with the new self-populating automaton, if the buyer submits 119 questions and the new methods will self-populate probably 70 answers, and then "if the customer is serious, they can follow up" is nonsensical.  Following procurement practices, Hyatt would be disqualified as a supplier for not answering all of the questions which may be the reason why they aren't recognizing the response results they expect. 

Planners with complex meetings can save an average of 5 hours per meeting by using eRFP technology for comparison purposes. Without automation, planners often print out the responses, lay them on the floor (because the floor has more space than their desk), and rekey all of the data into a cost analysis spreadsheet. I've benchmarked this number and it is real. If an organization has 100 complex meetings a year, an organization can save 500 hours at minimum.  Using automation, it takes about 30 seconds.  In addition, planners save an average of 5-10% on hotel pricing when they have the historic, previous meeting eRFP rates at their fingertips. Moreover, they save another 20-30 minutes per meeting without having to look through old contracts for historic rates.  I encourage clients to add technology usage clauses to their hotel master contracts as a foundational requirement.

Kudos to Gaylord who appears to have taken the lead two years ago and restructured their lead-managing process.   While the technology companies continue to improve their functionality, we expect that hoteliers will educate their staff, improve their processes, and take the top down approach to ensure that their Directors of National Accounts, or any other staff member, recognize the importance of technology automation.

 

 

*From Scholar's SMM History whitepaper:  During 1997 with technology advancements in a race, other companies raced to offer meeting automation to planners. The San Francisco Miyako Hotel offered the first online request-for-proposal system (built by Cardinal Communications).

A BIG THANK YOU to all of the meetings and travel leaders who continue to support me through the T&E blog, LinkedIn groups, client engagements and most important, your friendship.

Thank you for visiting the T&E Plus Blog on expense management, travel management, business meetings, events, incentives, strategic meetings management, entertainment, virtual meetings, tickets, hotels, airlines, ground transportation plus more...

Debi Scholar, GLP, CMM, CMP, SSGB, CTE, CTT

• Author, Strategic Meetings Management: The Strategy Quick Reference Guide (2011)
• Co-Author, Strategic Meetings Management Handbook (2011)
• Meetings Management Mover and Shaker as selected by Corporate and Incentive Travel Magazine (2010)
• Top 20 Changemaker who influenced the meetings management industry by Corporate Meetings and Incentives (2008)
• Best Meeting Practitioner as selected by Business Travel News (2007)

*Debi is proud to be a regular contributor to Business Travel Executive Magazine.
*Debi is proud to be one of only seven 2011 Editorial Board members for Hotel Business Review at http://www.hotelexecutive.com/ for Conferences & Meetings.
*Debi created two LinkedIn groups (GBTA SMM and T&E Plus) that now claim over 2,000 worldwide members combined.

Visit me at one of my upcoming speaking engagements; Topics vary per conference

Some sessions include components of SMM Bootcamp© and/or SMM Challenge© 

May 16-17 – FIMP Chairperson - Boston
May 21 - Meetings Tech Expo - Washington DC
June 21 - EMC Webinar
August 23- EMC Webinar
October 25 - EMC Webinar
December 2 - EMC Webinar

Finding FCPA Violations in Employee Expense Reports

From the Compliance Week article that I contributed to this week, "The areas of meetings and event planning have become bigger risks for T&E abuse, including FCPA infractions, in recent years, says Debi Scholar, an independent T&E consultant. When an individual travels for business, they may have expenses tied to four or five areas, she says, such as hotel, transportation, and meals. But individuals who host corporate events spend far more and those costs fall in to far more categories. “There may be more than 40 different codes or ways to spend money,” she says. “That makes it a lot easier to hide and misuse funds.” She tells companies to use the strategic meeting management process endorsed by the Global Business Travel Association as a way to better track meeting spending and spot potential abuse."

A little out of context as I provided much more about how the GBTA Groups & Meetings Committee created SMM, and the 40 SIC Codes that meeting/event expenses reside in ...yet it is still wonderful to see that Compliance Week added this information to the article this week!  Thanks, Compliance Week.

Here is a link to the whole article:  Finding FCPA Violations in Employee Expense Reports

Note...Compliance Week subscription can be FREE for 10 days so that you can read the whole article.

Debi

A BIG THANK YOU to all of the meetings and travel leaders who continue to support me through the T&E blog, LinkedIn groups, client engagements and most important, your friendship.

Thank you for visiting the T&E Plus Blog on expense management, travel management, business meetings, events, incentives, strategic meetings management, entertainment, virtual meetings, tickets, hotels, airlines, ground transportation plus more...

Debi Scholar, GLP, CMM, CMP, SSGB, CTE, CTT

•           Author, Strategic Meetings Management: The Strategy Quick Reference Guide (2011)
•          Co-Author, Strategic Meetings Management Handbook (2011)
•           Meetings Management Mover and Shaker as selected by Corporate and Incentive Travel Magazine (2010)
•           Top 20 Changemaker who influenced the meetings management industry by Corporate Meetings and Incentives (2008)
•           Best Meeting Practitioner as selected by Business Travel News (2007)

*Debi is proud to be a regular contributor to Business Travel Executive Magazine.
*Debi is proud to be one of only seven 2011 Editorial Board members for Hotel Business Review at http://www.hotelexecutive.com/ for Conferences & Meetings.
*Debi created two LinkedIn groups (GBTA SMM and T&E Plus) that now claim over 2,000 worldwide members combined.

Visit me at one of my upcoming speaking engagements; Topics vary per conference

Some sessions include components of SMM Bootcamp© and/or SMM Challenge© 

May 16-17 – FIMP Chairperson - Boston
May 21 - Meetings Tech Expo - Washington DC
June 21 - EMC Webinar
August 23- EMC Webinar
October 25 - EMC Webinar
December 2 - EMC Webinar