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Astrazeneca/American Express Global Business Travel Win Best Travel Team In 2013 Business Travel Awards

Press Releases - 1st February 2013

Customer partners with TMC to optimise travel management, sourcing and traveller service

LONDON – February 1, 2013 – The AstraZeneca Travel Service – a global team with expertise from both American Express Global Business Travel and AstraZeneca – has been recognised for its exemplary teamwork by winning the Best Travel Team category in the 2013 Business Travel Awards, held in London last week.  The Business Travel Awards recognise and celebrate the achievements of the travel industry’s leading businesses, teams and individuals.Hervé Sedky, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Global Business Partnerships & Premium Services, attributed the win to the global teams’ ability to work cohesively and collaboratively.

“We partnered with AstraZeneca to create a travel programme that listens and responds to the specific needs of our client.  Working closely with them in teams across the globe, we are able to deliver a programme focused on control and visibility and in doing so, help AstraZeneca optimise their global business travel budget.  We are delighted that The AstraZeneca Travel Service has been recognised for its work.”

The AstraZeneca Travel Service was commended for its use of social media, strong marketing and ability to work with invisible boundaries.

Designed to maximise the team’s specialist resources, the programme focuses on:

  • Control and visibility – including the implementation of a revised global travel policy, an innovative travel budget calculator and the creation of individual business unit travel strategies
  • Global solution – including the consolidation of local market travel policies to a single global policy
  • Optimisation – including the implementation of a best practice supplier management program and a tailored training program for service delivery teams.

Caroline Strachan, Global Commercial Lead for Business Travel Management at AstraZeneca said: “We have partnered with American Express Global Business Travel to build a team of experts who provide the business with travel insights on a regular basis.  This has allowed us to significantly enhance our in-house capability and maximise the value we achieve from our business travel budget.  We look forward to the innovation and additional value this partnership will bring us in the future.”

According to Mr. Sedky, clients are increasingly leveraging a similar model, in which companies integrate their teams with those of their TMC to optimise their travel category spend end to end – from sourcing preferred suppliers to complete responsibility for program execution and performance management.

“Given the complexity of the travel industry, companies are looking to make the relationship with their TMC less transactional and more strategic, taking advantage of the expertise and travel management best practices offered by their TMC.”

Mr. Sedky says companies are leveraging their TMC relationship in a number of ways including: hands-on programme management and administration, communication, sourcing and supplier management, data reporting on the internal performance of a travel programme and the ability for the assigned TMC to take action if needed on behalf of the client.

“There are numerous benefits of managing business travel in this way including potential cost savings, optimisation of the most appropriate booking solutions, a consolidated supplier strategy and better travel demand management.   In AstraZeneca’s case, creating The AstraZeneca Travel Service has also led to industry recognition.”

Given the industry’s attention on this capability, American Express Global Business Travel will be pushing a best practices report on these trends shortly.  For more information, please visit https://businesstravel.americanexpress.com/advisory-services/.