ne of the few publicly traded travel
management companies, Navigant is on the upswing. For the nine
months ended Sept. 29, the firm's operating income more than
doubled compared with last year, rising from $18.7 million in 2001
to $40.5 million in the same period this year.
Thom Nulty, president and chief operating officer, says that
transactions for existing clients remain at about 80% of the levels
in 2000, the year most companies use as a barometer for
comparison.
But despite the fact that transactions haven't come all the way
back from 2000 levels, he says Navigant is prospering because it
continues to secure new business, both domestically and
overseas.
Nulty told me the other day that he considers the Navigant sales
organization to be "first class" at attracting new clients by
demonstrating that the firm will keep their cost of travel
management in line.
Rather than rely on a single proprietary suite of technology,
Navigant is what Nulty calls a "systems integrator," pulling
together different technology products to satisfy the needs of
various clients.
Navigant also has a number of products that allow its corporate
accounts to monitor their travel via the Internet.
One of its latest tools is called AlertFLYR, a Web-based
early-warning system that informs travel managers if their company
is fulfilling its policy objectives and supplier contracts.
The tool currently is being tested in a few dozen corporations
with plans to roll it out to the rest of Navigant clients in the
next few months.
AlertFLYR uses red, yellow, and green lights to reflect the
performance of a company in relation to its specified benchmarks
for performance.
The benchmarks can relate, for example, to the percentage of
services being used for a given preferred supplier in the airline,
car rental or hotel sectors.
If a company is meeting its goals, a green light appears on the
AlertFLYR screen; if the firm is falling slightly short of its
goal, a yellow light flashes and if the firm is falling far short,
a red light appears.
Nulty said such "user-defined" tools are examples of the kinds
of mutually beneficial cooperation that can be created between the
travel management company and its corporate clients.
Based on its latest financials, Navigant's approach appears to
be working.
In these challenging times, it's refreshing to see an operating
statement from a travel company showing positive growth.