2019 U.S.-Booked Air Volume: $70 million
Primary Global Online Booking Tool: Concur
Primary U.S. Payment Supplier: American Express
Card Program: Individual Bill/Central Pay
Primary Global Expense Supplier: Concur
Consolidated Global TMC: Amex GBT
BTN estimates that IT service provider Cognizant's U.S.-booked air volume rose $2 million in 2019 versus 2018. The company has actively targeted T&E spend since last summer as an area where it would look to tighten financial controls. Chief financial officer Karen McLoughlin has stated numerous times in quarterly earnings reports that the company is pulling in the reins on business travel, “including significantly reduced travel for internal and other non-client-facing meetings, limiting business-class travels, relocations, etc.” The focus comes on the heels of achieving several key travel management goals. The company globally consolidated its travel agency in 2018 and has expanded its implementation of SAP Concur Travel & Expense into new markets, with high utilization rates. In 2019, Cognizant expanded its use of air and hotel price assurance tools globally and negotiated more dynamic discounts with hotels. Since Covid-19, the company has identified its own opportunity in the global rush to reduce business travel. A video posted on the company's website in September features the company's Center for the Future of Work associate vice president questioning the ethics of business travel: “I, like many others around the world, are now committed to questioning why we would fly for a meeting that could be taken online every time.”