Adopting the right online booking tool can save money in both travel and management costs, Corrado Simontacchi told a forum of the Belgian Association of Travel Managers (BATM).
But Mr Simontacchi, corporate purchasing manager EMEA for the chemical company Huntsman, said the process needed detailed planning and implementation.
More than 100 members of the BATM attended the forum in Brussels which was organised jointly with ACTE.
Mr Simontacchi said the process should start with a review of a company's travel strategy.
To pick the right tool, the company must know what is on the market, what each can do and whether it would fit in the company's strategy. He advised companies planning to adopt self booking tools (SBTs) to ask around to find out how well current products worked.
Once the tool had been selected, a timetable to implement it should also be drawn up. Roll out should be done in phases with regular reviews of how it is performing. Once fully rolled out, there should be a drive to maximise adoption.
He said Huntsman's when planning to adopt its SBT, laid out what it wanted – a reliable tool which offered best content and was easy to design, set up, integrate and use and which could be deployed in all its European offices.
It also had to cost the minimum and offer a fast return on investment.
Mr Simontacchi the expected benefits were a streamlined booking process, an increased visibility of market fares, fast and easy access to content, reduced costs and higher compliance.
He said since implantation of the TQ3 Enterprise tool customised for Huntsman's use, his company which has an annual travel budget of 13m, had saved 610,000 on travel costs and 170,000 on travel management.
The adoption rate was 26% but this varied in offices across Europe from 3% to 64%.
Among the pitfalls, he warned, were insufficient training and not getting the full support of senior management.
Nora Buysschaert, president of the BATM, said SBTs were now a major topic in Belgian travel management. It was the members who had chosen the subject for the forum.
"While two years ago many corporates were including a request for SBTs in their RFPs to TMCs, only 10 % in those days really went onto implementation.
"Today this figure has changed and increased, according to TMCs, to more than over 30 %," Ms Buysschaert said.