MINNEAPOLIS -- Northwestern Travel Management here chose the
Gelco, Portable and Vinnet companies as preferred travel and
entertainment automation vendors for corporate clients.
The firm, which had been working with dozens of T&E vendors,
enlisted Deloitte & Touche to evaluate 17 T&E programs. "We
were scrambling to figure out which program would be a good fit for
each client," said Lisa Miller, Northwestern's vice president of
corporate account services. "That was getting to be such a
monumental task."
Customers looking at vendors outside the preferred three will
find Northwestern "at the table with them," as well, Miller
said.
Gelco, based in Eden Prairie, Minn., is a good fit for smaller
companies without extensive technology, Miller said. Portable,
based in Redmond, Wash., is "very extensive on the reporting side,"
targeting high volume, international companies, Miller said.
Chicago-based Vinnet, just a few years old, operates on a client
server.
All three programs feature direct-deposit payments to travelers,
automatic payment of corporate card charges and automatic general
ledger updates. Customers can implement a full-blown product or
just a piece of it, Miller said.
Business travel accounts for 70% of Northwestern Travel
Management's revenues, she said.