The travel manager profession: no room for improvisation

" Business travel is my whole career, it's everything I love!"The enthusiasm of Céline Foglia, travel manager for nearly seven years with the engineering and technology consultancy group Akkais sure to be a real inspiration. "I hadn't thought about it when I started out as a travel agent," she says. I didn't even know the job existed, but I really enjoy it. I'm trying to promote this role, because the travel manager profession is still not sufficiently recognised.."

Indeed, the job of travel manager still suffers from a lack of visibility. Constance Huckendubler, Director of Content at ESCAETthe business school that trains tomorrow's travel managers, confirms this: "That's the ambiguity of this sector. There is a great need on the corporate side, but the sector is little-known students. They have no idea of all the careers that could be open to them. And yet it's a promising field in terms of integration and recruitment, as well as professional and intellectual fulfilment, because it's a profession that changes every year and which touches on more and more issues, very cross-cutting subjects."

Slowly but surely, the job of travel manager is gaining ground. It wasn't until April 2014 that the job of travel manager was officially created on theAPEC (Association pour l'Emploi des Cadres) thanks to the efforts of the Association française des travel managers (AFTM).

The position is defined as follows: "The travel manager's role is to manage all travel and travel-related activities of his company. He is the key point of contact both internally and with suppliers for all matters relating to business travel by company employees or guests. Its role is to budget and service manager users who need travel services (travel agencies, hotels, air and rail ticketing, car hire, taxis, visas, travel management tools, traveller security, etc.)."Immediately, Pôle Emploi has also endorsed the profession by integrating the "travel manager - business travel manager" profession and the specific activity of "carrying out activities: business travel management".

In a way, the 2008 crisis has probably helped to put the profession in the spotlight, with companies looking to rationalise costs business travel. In any case, it was at this time, five years after its creation, that the course took off within ESCAET. "Companies have realised the importance of business travel, notes Constance Huckendubler. They realised that it was often the second largest item of expenditure after salaries, and that it was therefore necessary professionalise this sectorset up toolsprocesses and people trained in this profession."

You can't improvise yourself as a travel manager

The role of travel manager seems to be intrinsically linked to the notion of 'travel management'.purchasesIn addition, there are the constraints specific to the travel industry. "Some companies entrust these tasks to the purchasing manager or human resources department, but business travel is not the only one. a very special family of purchases, emphasises Céline Foglia. It's a very complete and technical job, even if not everyone realises it. You have to be able to juggle all the offers and be relevant in your choices. My experience oftravel agent I use every day. You can't improvise yourself as a travel manager. To buy at the best price, you need to know the pricing mechanism and its logic. If you don't have a basic understanding of this subject, you won't be able to buy at the best price and make savings."

Not there for finger-pointing

It would be tempting to associate the travel manager's mission with a sort of "travel policetracking down the smallest savings opportunities with suppliers, slapping the fingers of over-expensive travellers. "This is the image that was associated with this position"confirms Sebastien MarchonCEO of Rydoobefore continuing: "This is a mistake, because the primary role of the travel manager is to making life easier for business travellersThe aim is to reduce the time travellers spend booking trips or making expense claims, so that everyone can concentrate on value-added tasks. This generates far more savings than if travellers spent an hour booking to save 30 euros. We spend a lot of time telling the travel managers we meet that it's not the travellers who have to save money. the heroes of tomorrowand for that they should be thanked."

Céline Foglia confirms the complexity of the job: "There is both a techniquewith all these pricing subtleties which can lead to significant savings, and of course one aspect relational. The aim is to encourage travellers to adopt a responsible purchasing behaviour. It's a very interesting aspect, because we're really talking to each other. We don't impose anything. We're there to support and help users. The role of the travel manager is to ensure that employees travel in the best possible conditions and at the best possible price. You have to keep this win-win logic. This relational aspect is a facet of the job that I really enjoy."

For some observers, however, the image of the travel manager is still associated with tough negotiation, sometimes to the point of excess, particularly with the business travel agencies. "They complain about the lack of quality of service, but when you pay a minimum, you can't expect the moon.complains one supplier. Travel managers and buyers can no longer negotiate agency feesI hope that the model will change, not only for the agencies but also for the traveller. I hope that the model will change, not only for the agencies, but also for the traveller. The notion of business travel is no longer limited to the price of a flight or a hotel. In this context, the role of the travel manager will be to manage an entire ecosystem."

This model evolution has already begun. After a phase of professionalisationthe business has started to move into the diversification by integrating new categories of expenditure. Travel manager training has been adapted accordingly. "La fleet management is a subject we have been tackling for some years nowconfirms Constance Huckendubler from ESCAET. As for the MICEIn the case of business travel, we deal with the issue in parallel because, although there may be similarities, the problems are not the same."By broadening its vision of mobilitytravel managers are probably securing their future, even though some have been predicting the inevitable for many years. disappearance of the profession. Just like business travel agencies.

From travel to mobility manager

In a sense, the travel manager may well be on the way out, but from a semantic point of view. The time has now come to mobility management. "It's a profession that's been buried ten times already, says Sebastien Marchon, CEO of Rydoo.. It has often been said that business travel management is going to be totally outsourced and disappear. I believe, on the contrary, that it is a business that's here to stayand even take on a more important role in the company by covering more areas."

With this more global vision, the position of travel manager has become more transverse We've been able to do this more effectively than ever before, weaving its web with the company's various departments. Ronan Bergez, Sales Director atEgenciaconfirms the growing strength of the profession, in particular on the basis of calls for tender: "There are now six, seven or even eight departments involved in the process of choosing an agency, compared with two or three previously. As a result, the expectations placed on the travel manager are even higher, and the an increasingly valued function. When it comes to football, it is often estimated that there are 60 million coaches in France. It's much the same in business travel: in a company with 1,000 employees, there will be 1,000 travel managers! Everyone gives their opinion. As an agency, we need to provide them with the tools they need to save time, make the most of the results of their in-house work, deal with the fragmentation of certain service providers and consolidate their data.."

Céline Foglia adds: "The travel manager deals with purchasing issues, with the negotiation of service provider contracts, HR issues in the context of travel policy, accounting, management control... The travel manager of the 2000s, and even the 2010s, didn't deal with the same aspects at all. Now they are, it manages the pre-trip, trip and post-trip phases. But all the departments fall into this category. Ultimately, it's a question of simplifying internal processes and standardising them. One department can't do it alone. And this development in the job is forcing us to communicate with more departments, for example with the IT department, so that there is a logic, a consistency and a coherence. consistency in travel management."

This new relationship with the IT department is not insignificant. It reflects the new technological skills These travel experts, who don't normally have the profile of computer engineers, are now in demand...".There is now a strong technological dimension to the job, both in terms of booking tools, travel & expense and mission orders, but also in relation to technological developments in the broad sense, such as the blockchain which is about to change a lot of thingsobserves Constance Hucken-dubler from ESCAET. This does not mean that we are going to train developers, but we are educating professionals so that they understand these technologies and know how to manage a project, including the implementation of a tool.." For Julie Panadero, business travel expert at ESCAET, this knowledge should also enable you to make an informed choice between suppliers. "During the tendering and implementation phases, the travel manager needs to be in agreement with his contacts on the supplier side in order to have a fluid discussion with them on the technical level and not be naive about key issues."she explains.

A geeky side

Céline Foglia also bears witness to the need to update the profession: "The travel manager is obliged to develop his 'geek' side. On the one hand, you need to be in contact with the IT departments, and on the other, you need to be constantly on the lookout for new technologies. The digitalisation of the company is forcing us to be agile. There are major developments on the horizon, such as virtual payment, which has a bright future ahead of it, but which will require us to expand our knowledge. We learn an enormous amount every day. It's really exciting! When I started my career as a travel agent, I never imagined that I would one day have this level of technological knowledge, even though I'm not a 'geek'... Everything is evolving and that's all very well, but travel managers have to adapt to this new world. Like many other jobs, in fact.."

A skilled negotiator, an expert in travel, a technophile: the profile of the travel manager sometimes has the air of a five-legged sheep. But perhaps its greatest strength lies elsewhere. For communication is proving to be more decisive than ever, particularly with the people who are the first to be affected, the travellers. "I'm in constant contact with them," says Céline Foglia. The job of travel manager is a hands-on, contact-based job: employees come to see me. Unlike many companies, which operate on the basis of punitive rather than corrective measures, I think that in my company we have found the right method, the right balance. There is no pure blocking, only dialogue and more dialogue. Even if, of course, we can't just let travellers book anything any old how.."

leading the mobility project

For Julie Panadero, from ESCAET, "the fibre of the communication is becoming an increasingly crucial part of the travel manager's job, both for travellers and for other departments within the company. They have to communicate on all sides. The travel manager must also be more and more innovative in its modes of communication. They have to reinvent themselves to adapt to new ways of communicating with the new generations of travellers joining the company, while acting as a link between the various departments to define a project line. The job will therefore evolve towards more in-house communication, to become the leader of the mobility project."