2015 U.S.-Booked Air Volume: $130 million
Consolidated
U.S. TMC: American Express
Global Business Travel
Networking
technology giant Cisco Systems increased its 2015 U.S.-booked air volume from
2014, according to a BTN estimate.
Cisco
has developed multiyear deals with multibrand hotel companies that contain
neither marketshare targets nor room-night commitments, promising instead only
revenue in exchange for lower room rate. The initiative not only generated 25
percent savings off the company’s previous negotiated rates in its first 18
months but also helped increase hotel program compliance to more than 80 percent
of bookings. Cisco added a prompt to its online booking tool that prevents
bookings of nonpreferred properties without the approval of a senior manager.
Cisco will explore bringing this negotiating strategy to its deals with
airlines and car rental firms.
In
February 2013, the company announced a goal of reducing, by the end of its 2017
fiscal year, the greenhouse gases emitted by its business travel by 40 percent
from 2007 fiscal year levels. In its 2014 fiscal year—which ended July 26,
2014, marking the most recent available data—Cisco’s global business travel
resulted in 157,900 metric tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions. That
figure is about 21 percent lower than fiscal 2007 levels but is about 13
percent higher than fiscal 2013 emissions. The pace of Cisco’s acquisitions and
global business expansion has required increased air travel.
Key to
Cisco’s strategy of air travel reduction are its own remote conferencing tools,
including TelePresence and WebEx. The company uses the tools extensively for
internal meetings, including executive operational reviews and departmental
meetings and one-third of its annual global ISO 14001 site audits.
Revenue
for Cisco’s 2016 fiscal year, which ended July 30, increased about one-fifth of
a percentage point to $49.2 billion, on the heels of a 4 percent increase the
fiscal year prior. Net income in the 2016 fiscal year increased 20 percent; in
fiscal 2015, it increased 14 percent. Cisco had 73,700 employees on July 30,
2016, about 1,800 more than one year prior.