In a cover story for Business Travel Executive entitled “Small Wonders,” Journalist Jerome Greer Chandler makes a compelling case that they do. “In travel management, it’s not size that matters. It’s flexibility, dedication and attention to detail,” states Chandler.
"Smaller firms," Chandler goes on, "aren’t just carving out niches, they’re making real inroads into heretofore mega territory - and more than holding their own against the Internet."
As the president and part-owner of what most would describe as a mid-size Travel Management Company, I have a great stake in spreading Mr. Chandler’s words throughout the business community. That being said let me tell you a little about Short’s Travel Management.
Our company was established in Iowa in 1946, purchased by the current ownership in 1979 and operated as a local, full-service travel agency until 1995. That was the year we decided to grow the company aggressively through both client development and business acquisition.
By the end of 2006, the company reported gross travel-related sales of $219 million and operated offices in Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri and New Jersey. We have two headquarters offices, one in Waterloo, IA the other in Overland Park, KS, a suburb of Kansas City.
We believe our growth and success have been the result of our ability to deliver comprehensive, client-specific travel management services faster, cheaper and with a far more personal touch than other companies. As Mr. Chandler said, “In travel management, it’s not size that matters. It’s flexibility, dedication and attention to detail,”
Business Travel News recently published a roundup of The Corporate Travel 100 ranked on total travel budgets. Among the 100 global companies the trend has been to consolidate their global travel under one travel management company. As you might expect, American Express represents 42 of the 100. What’s interesting is that the other 58 are affiliated with only 8 different TMCs, seven of which are not megas. Short’s Travel is one of those seven.
Our client roster is made up of companies with annual air spend ranging from $50,000 to $40 million. We are ranked as number 15 in the Business Travel News 2006 Annual Survey (based on ARC transactions). Our Associates are very proud of this achievement given the fact that only nine years ago we were an undiscovered $20 million company.
Our growth to $219 million can be attributed a lot of hard work and innovative problem solving for our clients. Let me give you three examples:
Automated Travel Authorization. One of our clients needed a way to streamline the process of authorizing travel and tracking travel related expenses. The client manages more than 800 meetings, conferences and events each year. Starting with a “best practice” schematic, the Short’s Travel team developed a proprietary Web portal where travelers can register, identify travel requirements, obtain a “travel authorization code,” submit travel request to the travel department, track all expenses and reconcile all expenses with credit card statement.
Meeting Registration & Management. For another client, Short’s was called upon to develop a Web-based Meeting Registration and Management tool. It had to be accessible to all employees, easy to use, very flexible in terms of the scope of elements it had to manage and precisely track inventory. It also had to provide an end-to-end solution for all phases of a meeting or event from registration through departure for home along with post-event account reconciliation.
On-line Profile Management & Synchronization. A large, global client has 12000 plus travelers each of whom has their own “procurement card” in addition to all of the other traveler-specific data-sets such as frequent traveler memberships. Our assignment was to build a Web-based system that would allow each traveler the ability to view and change his or her travel profile. On a regular basis, this database is synchronized with a feed from the clients HR department so we can update things like travelers home phone number, employment status, location code, etc. This database is linked to our GDS reservation system and also is uploaded on a scheduled basis to our On-Line booking tool.
As you can conclude from these examples, we are a technology driven organization that relishes the challenge of thinking outside the box. Short’s Travel Management integrates the industry’s leading resources (people, knowledge and technology) and delivers unsurpassed value. Rest assured, we deliver our solutions from within a high-touch and personal service culture that our corporate clients trust and respect.
In an industry full of “me-too” products and services, Short’s Travel Management is able to differentiate itself by creating world-class, travel programs for our customers - one customer at a time.
Yours truly,
David LeCompte
President
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