CFOs embrace online travel booking: online providers eliminate the middleman for routine bookings, which can reduce processing time and travel costs substantially. That's made finance executives advocates of these systems.

• Author: McCracken, Bruce
• Position: Cost containment

With savings estimated at 52 to 76 percent for each transaction, it's hardly surprising that Klaus Stegemann, CFO for Siemens Corp., the U.S. subsidiary of Siemens AG, would be a believer in using online travel reservations instead of working with a live agent. Siemens has used online booking since 2001, and in the U.S., its employees booked more than 270,000 air transactions last year.

Larry Bennett, executive vice president of finance/CFO at the Dallas Market Center (DMC) of Dallas, a huge wholesale display center, says the DMC produces 2,600 tickets annually and has used online booking for two years, saving approximately $350,000 a year.

The online travel industry has come a long way, enabling CFOs to experiment and tailor their demand for meeting business needs while realizing cost savings. PhoCusWright, a travel research and advisory firm based in Sherman, Conn., projects U.S. online corporate travel transactions to grow from 39.4 million in 2003 to 56.4 million in 2006. During this same period, PhoCusWright expects offline agency share of business travel bookings to shrink from 62.3 percent to 47.5 percent.

Online booking is not the end of the offline agency, but a way to reduce its use when not truly necessary. "We typically find that companies save between 10 and 15 percent by booking online," says Ellen Keszler, president of Sabre Corporate Solutions for Sabre Holdings (parent of GetThere and Travelocity Business) of Southlake, Texas. "Companies can save up to 80 percent on agency service fees, as the traveler is doing a portion of the work that the agency would be doing."

For simple, routine flights that are made frequently to the same destination, booking online is virtually effortless. "At most sites, you can save repeat itineraries, so there is everything that you need and it is very quick," says Phil Guthrie, CEO of InTech Aerospace Group LLC of Dallas. InTech Aerospace has seen savings on 200 flights per year from agency booking fees and individual employee productivity. Guthrie adds, "Websites are not nearly as cumbersome and time-consuming today as some of the earlier sites were."

The travel agency still can play a valuable role, particularly when the destination involves multiple flights or foreign travel. There, the agent can analyze complicated fare rules to see if it's a good idea to break up the tickets, Keszler says.

Siemen's Stegemann agrees, saying, "We encourage all travelers to book trips online, with the...