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

180CHAPTER 16. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONSConceptual QuestionsWHY HAS NBAA DEVELOPED THIS PROGRAM?TRAVEL$ENSEEncouraged by the work of Dennis Keith, then director of aviation for Frito-Lay,NBAA began research on productivity tracking tools for business aviation atthe end of 1994. Full-time development of Travel$ense started in the late springof 1995, inspired by an automated spreadsheet developed by Brad Vineyard,chief pilot for Amoco/Houston. Subsequent work on the program has beenboth conceptually and technically challenging and costs have been substantial.The program was sponsored by the NBAA Board of Directors since nocomparable program was or is known to exist. The financial investmentrequired to develop the program, as well as the technical and conceptualinnovation necessary to offer it to the NBAA Membership, necessitated asizable commitment few organizations were prepared to make. If it were easy, itwould have been available long ago.NBAA has not developed Travel$ense to get rich, and in fact the program pricedoes not fully cover its development costs. The Association is keenly interestedin illustrating the value business aircraft can provide so that companies canmake rational business travel decisions.Additionally, we have, almost in retrospect, discovered a cottage industry in thefield, as these travel analyses are being performed with calculators and yellowlegal pads every day. These analyses are, however, tedious, time consuming andstatistically limited.Very little in Travel$ense is new; what is revolutionary is that many old issuesare brought together in one place and rapidly considered in a sophisticated wayfor the first time.Finally, the computer technologies to produce standalone Windows applicationsand automate the airline interface have only become economically practical inthe last several years. In addition and as mentioned, conceptually, technically andfinancially, Travel$ense has been a challenge to develop, and continues to be.IS TRAVEL$ENSE IMPORTANT FOR MY COMPANY?It depends on your situation. If your flight department is completely secure;appreciated company-wide, including by stockholders, customers and lowerlevelstaff; utilization is high and consistent; and your management will notchange, you may wish to use Travel$ense simply to check your more commontrips out of curiosity.Copyright © 1999, National Business Aviation Association, Inc.