Advito expands Air and Hotel Program Management Tools

Advito, an independent consulting division of BCD Travel, has expanded its hotel and air program management services and tools for clients globally. Responding to the ever-increasing complexity of air and hotel procurement, Advito’s expanded program offering arms travel buyers with the tools to develop and manage cost-effective air and hotel programs.

“Our clients require faster, more effective decision-making tools,” said Bob Brindley, Advito vice president of Americas. “Today’s business environment is information overload moving at light-speed. At the same time, travel professionals are trying to effect strategic cost-saving actions to improve program performance, while balancing their travelers’ needs.”

For greater air program efficiency, Advito has released an enhanced Air Contract Scorecard component that will provide travel professionals with improved air program management and measurement tools. New year-over-year data metrics, combined with graphical dashboards, will deliver more effective program management and trending insights tools. The expanded Air Contract Scorecard tool reduces the amount of time needed to pour over statistical reports and provides easy-to-view trends by carrier, market, carrier savings, contract targets versus actual and QSI information. The system allows clients to make better business decisions to improve cost-savings realized throughout the life of the air program.

“In the hotel program arena, the RFP solicitation process is more complex and longer than ever before,” said Mary Ellen George, general manager of Advito. “With far more detailed questions in the negotiating process about procurement, Sarbanes-Oxley, corporate social responsibility, security and data privacy, travel buyers today find the negotiating period exhausting. Hotel costs are continuing to climb in many markets and companies must have the tools to negotiate and manage their programs effectively.”

To meet these critical market needs, Advito is introducing the RFP Decision Suite, an expanded hotel procurement and management suite designed to improve the quality and efficiency of the RFP negotiation cycle.

The RFP Decision Suite’s enhanced offering provides travel professionals with fast, accurate decision-making information, available in advanced graphical formats and executive dashboards, from the RFP and negotiation process up through day-to-day program management.

This expanded suite of tools will provide travel professionals with the power of systematic ongoing management of global hotel programs through the timely monitoring and analysis of hotel program data linked to the final selections of the RFP process. The suite’s key components include:

- Advito Mapping/Solicitation tool improves the quality of the solicitation lists developed at the start of the RFP process. Graphical displays of key data such as historical rates offered and paid, rate benchmarking, and other key property information are provided in an easy-to-view mapping format that facilitates faster analytical decisions.

- Advito RFP Decision Model helps shorten the RFP process cycle and increase hotel program savings by converting offers from hundreds of individual properties into simple, easy-to-understand accept – reject – revise recommendations based on a client-specific scoring system. The RFP Decision Model offers a unique true cost of stay calculation by the rate offered relative to a target, along with a list of amenities, converted into monetary equivalents. System recommendations conveyed through a powerful reporting interface allow easy filtering and sorting of information. Throughout the process, a note storage system captures comments by multiple decision makers regarding property offers, thereby facilitating the organization’s communication and documentation along the way.

- Savings and Compliance Reporting will provide savings, compliance and rate paid benchmarking information delivered in simple, intuitive reports through the Executive Summary Dashboard. Using program analysis by world region, country, city, state or postal code, comprehensive drill-down reports flag program problems and opportunities at the property level to allow objective decisions based on client-specific program metrics.

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