How MI Can Add Value to Rail Procurement

It's fairly well understood - though not always practiced - that buying corporate travel in a policy-controlled environment will deliver significant financial benefits.

For example, recent analysis produced by Evolvi, the online corporate rail booking and fulfilment specialist, shows that a return trip from London to York booked in advance could yield savings of £142.10* against a standard fare bought on the day of travel.

It's a trend mirrored on just about every business route. A return ticket bought on the day of departure from London to Norwich would cost £93.10, compared to the £22.00 it's possible to pay when buying in advance. That's a staggering difference of 76.37% on a standard class journey, and the financial gains on first class travel are likely to be even greater...for example a saving of up to £228 on the London-York route.

However, the benefits of a managed travel environment go far beyond stretching travel budgets when organisations enlist the support of travel management companies (TMC) that use Evolvi for their online rail booking and fulfillment.

Evolvi's Management Information enables managers to understand not just how much is being spent on rail journeys - and when and by whom - but to use the data to shape travel policy that underpins the business objectives of the organisation concerned.  

"Critically, MI enables procurement departments to take tighter control of expenditure and to use the data available to create valuable spend profiles and make more accurate budgetary assumptions," says Jon Reeve, Trade Relations Director at Evolvi. "And because it is possible to mandate compulsory ticket purchase through the TMC structure, operational efficiency is improved and there is much greater transaction security for all concerned."

Here is a flavour of the Evolvi MI functionality:  

• Trip cost attribution - Organisations can create thousands of individual expenditure codes, to which specified transactions can automatically be posted, enabling efficient scrutiny of spend.

• Travel Policy Compliance - A managed travel environment enables the rules of travel to be established for every member of staff - collectively or individually - and to indentify exceptions.

• Fare Exception Reporting and benchmarking - The system will identify lowest possible fares that could have been booked and can either reject the transaction or allow progression upon selection of an exception reason. Booked fares are also benchmarked against "Anytime" walk up fares.

• Environmental emissions reporting - The MI suite includes a multi-modal comparison covering rail, air and road, providing government-validated data on CO2 emissions.

• Dealt fare take up reporting - Where an organisation has concluded a corporate discount with a particular Train Operating Company (TOC), the discounted fare and take-up is highlighted in the timetable and pricing matrix displayed to the booker.

• Attribution of trip - Over and above the attribution of transactions to expenditure codes, the system allows the option of trip costs to be set and analysed against a particular business unit

• Duration of trip reporting - The journey time of each trip booked is reported in minutes,  enabling first class travel to be restricted based on specific journey duration.

• Fulfilment reports - Different cost bases apply to each fulfilment method, so this data can ensure the monitoring and selection of the most cost effective channel..

• City pair flows - Data on the most frequently travelled routes helps optimise supplier negotiations for discounted fares.

• Payment method reporting - Payment method analysis is an important facet of payment process optimisation. 

• Booking horizon reporting - The average booking horizon is an important indicator of access to lower priced Advance Fares.

• Uncollected TOD - Statistically some 7% of journeys do not take place - this functionality monitors uncollected tickets, enabling refunds to be claimed.  

 *Fare comparisons based on January 6, 2011 analysis for journeys on January 20.

 Media enquiries to: Philip Colley, Harvest. Tel: 023 9244 9655/ 07785b 306378