Corporate Jet Category Procurement Intelligence Report

A changing ecosystem within the Business Travel market also affects the procurement process, cost dynamics and supplier attractiveness for the buyers of Corporate Jet. The availability of advanced technologies has prompted travel and event service suppliers to heavily invest in them to improve efficiencies and customer experience. However, most have learnt that technology alone is not a replacement for the human touch when it comes to customer service. As a result, suppliers are spending on both counts - technology and customer service staff. Till the time a formula for perfect balance between the two is discovered, buyers should expect to bear some of this increased OPEX of suppliers.

Consumer markets are underpinned with apps and websites that offer a very friendly experience for bookings and cancellations - an experience that has not yet crossed over to the corporate segments. As executives grow more accustomed to self-planning and self-booking in their personal lives, they expect similar convenience in their business lives as well. In the absence of right tools and technologies, a lot of friction can be generated between employees looking for convenience and travel departments looking to enforce rules and policies.

As costs rise, companies will be pushed towards finding better cost efficiencies in their travel and entertainment programs. Buyers are leveraging new management tools to analyze the costs using a Total cost of trip/event approach as against cost of an individual trip/event cost item. It is now also expected of suppliers to assess the cost effectiveness of any service they provide from a more holistic point of view.

Sometimes, procurement functions are unable to timely alter their practices while responding to market conditions. Industry experts acknowledge that periodically reviewing procurement best practices and adopting learnings from across procurement categories can help procurement teams respond to market needs in a more agile way. This report combines our experience of other categories with Corporate Jet procurement insights and hand picks best practices that can work for category managers delving in this market.

For example, Category buyers should invite bids from all potential service providers that have the ability to meet the overall requirements. Bids must be evaluated based on pre-defined parameters such as financial strength, reputation, service offerings, geographical presence, and track record. Buyers can use standard scorecards to evaluate service providers and provide necessary feedback to rationalize the given scores. This helps in the effective documentation of decision-making processes.

Buyers should incentivize employees that select cost-effective options by providing them with rewards at the end of the year based on the total cost-savings earned. Incentives can be in the form of free upgrades on airlines, hotels, and car rentals.

Investing in benchmarking studies help category managers enhance their knowledge about market pricing or billing rates based on job roles and functions. This allows them to not only save costs but also negotiate with suppliers. For example, while negotiating on rates of bundled services, buyers can save significantly on a single service by cross verifying the rates quoted by suppliers against industry benchmarks.

Corporate Jet procurement managers also need to proactively identify and mitigate potential risks that can arise in the supply chain or contracts for Corporate Jet procurement. Some examples include: