Travel$ense User's Guide (PDF, 139 MB) - NBAA

TRAVEL$ENSECHAPTER 15. THE IDEAS BEHIND TRAVEL$ENSETime has value. Realizing this and appreciating it is what business aviation is allabout. As that realization takes hold, companies are changing their response tothe need to maximize employee productivity and efficiency. Companies also arelearning how to accomplish more with leaner staffs, particularly at seniormanagement levels.The ideas behind Travel$ense are not new. Companies and executives havebeen making intelligent travel decisions for decades without the aid orhindrance of computers. What is new is that with Travel$ense, these ideas havebeen organized for the first time into a highly customizable computer programthat can easily and rapidly generate reports for management, increasing theamount and quality of information needed to make travel decisions.133Travel$ense is business travel productivity tracking software. The concept oftracking productivity during business travel is new and, consequently,Travel$ense represents a new product category. We formally incorporate boththe cost and value of time in the travel decision process. We track nonbusinesshours away from home, recognizing formally that they, too, have a cost, althoughit is left to you to decide what that cost is. We offer detailed and credible waysto count the amount and value of time saved via travel via business aircraft, notonly on a particular flight, but over time, cumulatively, to illustrate cost savingsand trends.All this takes place against the background of an accelerating pace of business.Performance is an evergreen priority. Productivity and efficiency are scrutinizedintensely at many companies. Right-sizing and down-sizing initiatives arepervasive. It is “The Age of Rethinking” – sometimes often – of all businessprocesses. Competition increasingly is fierce, worldwide and growing. Andcompanies are changing in response to these forces, often rapidly.As a result, corporate missions are revisited, which results in revised missionsand the excitement, confusion and angst they can bring. Company activities arerefocused to support sharpened missions. Employee travel is reassessed tosupport those activities and “best practices” analysis is applied to employeetravel. Travel methods and attitudes are redefined.Of course, all this activity is taking place against a communications revolution.Consider, however, that:• The phone didn’t replace letter-writing.• Faxing didn’t replace overnight mailings.• Video conferencing hasn’t replaced the airlines.• Voice mail and e-mail haven’t replaced personal contact.Copyright © 1999, National Business Aviation Association, Inc.