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Outsourced Itinerary

By This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it | Corridor Inc. Staff Writer
Originally published September 2007

iJet, a risk management tech firm, created a system in 1999 to protect a company’s employees while they travel. This is the global control room in Annapolis. Photo by Lisa Helfert.

     Ethel Chambarlis has the ability to know where the 400 employees who actively travel with her company are at any given time.
     The corporate buyer with Ciena Corp. uses an instant notification system from Travel Destinations Management Group Inc., a travel management firm in Owings Mills. The system alerts travelers and their companies via e-mail, pagers, cell phones and handheld devices of flight and gate changes and notifies them in the event of a disaster.
     “Travel is not our forte and we don’t have the employees to do it so we are better off going outside and leaving it up to the experts,” said Chambarlis, who expects her company will see a 10 percent increase in business travel over the next year.

     For the last two years, Ciena, a Linthicum-based supplier of networking equipment, has used the travel service for everything from air fare and car rentals to hotel reservations and occasional meetings.
     As business travel continues to grow, more companies are putting their travel plans and their employees’ safety in the hands of outside firms.
     “Companies have found that they don’t want their employees spending work time for travel arrangements when you can find it all in one place,” said Sherry Darney, manager of business development for Travel Destinations. “The role of travel management companies is even more important then before because it requires more tools and experience.”
     The company gives clients 24/7 access to a travel itinerary via the Internet that features e-ticket receipts, driving directions, online maps, restaurant guides, flight departures and estimated arrival times.
     Travel Destinations has more than 300 clients — many located in the Baltimore-Washington Corridor — with annual travel budgets ranging from $10,000 to $16 million, said Darney. Last year, the company had a 12.5 percent increase in business from 2005.
     “Travel is typically the third greatest expense to an organization [next] to salary and benefits so it’s a very big piece of the budget but often put on the backburner,” she said.
     “Four or five years ago, we saw a spike in unmanaged travel but the past two years or so there’s been a tremendous shift back to a managed environment because companies weren’t able to keep track of what was being spent,” said Jay Ellenby, president of Baltimore-based Safe Harbors Travel Group, which has 300 to 400 clients a year, including 150 in the Corridor.
     More companies are outsourcing because the cost of on- site managers is steep, said Ellenby.

     Just one in five companies have a travel management department, according to a 2007 study issued by Alexandria-based AirPlus International, which provides online management tools and travel payment options to companies.
     Companies are also turning to outside firms to help keep their traveling employees safe.
     iJet, which provides risk management technology and crisis response services, created a system in 1999 to protect and monitor a company’s workers.
     “Travelers, whether business or leisure, should be aware of risks in places they are going to, whether it’s infectious diseases, terrorism or bad weather,” said Elizabeth Doubleday, vice president of marketing for the Annapolis company. “After 9-11, companies realized that disasters can happen anywhere at anytime and they had no way of tracking their employees. This system lets companies check at a moment’s notice.”
     A 24/7 emergency hotline is available to employees to address potential risk situations such as national disasters, inclement weather and terrorism alerts. The system can track in 30 different languages around the world across five continents.
     Between 2005 and 2006, iJet had a 50 percent increase in revenue and currently has 450 corporate and government agency clients, said Doubleday.
    “Sadly, as the world gets more scary and risky our services increase,” she said. “The threats people are facing wherever they are in the world continue to morph. It’s a scary world to navigate through but companies are more global than ever.” ::

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