20 travel programme questions to ask during a TMC merger
When your travel management company (TMC) is going through an acquisition or merger, you’ll naturally have a lot of questions about the future of your corporate travel programme.
To support you through this transition, and drawing from our experience of onboarding multi-national corporations, we've compiled 20 essential questions to ask your TMC and consider internally. The answer to these will help you understand what the change means for you and your organisation, and how to adapt.
Cost and service impact
1. How might prices change because of the merger?
Understanding potential price fluctuations helps in business travel budgeting and assessing if the TMC will remain cost-effective post-merger. It may be worth speaking to your preferred airlines, hotels and other travel providers to understand their view too.
2. What costs should we anticipate if we switch providers or systems?
Knowing the financial impact of transitioning can help in evaluating whether staying with the TMC or moving elsewhere is feasible. For example, check your current TMC contract terms and clauses for early termination. Ask your TMC if your terms and prices will change when you move to the merged TMC and assess whether you might need to renegotiate any deals.
3. How might service levels change?
It's crucial to gauge whether the merger will affect quality of service, which directly impacts employee satisfaction and business travel efficiency. Ask your current TMC if they can maintain expected service level agreements during and post-merger, and whether the merger means any changes to your service model and teams.
4. Will the merger affect our existing personal relationships with your team?
Continuous, trusted relationships are key for smooth travel management, from your consultant team to account managers and leadership. A merger might disrupt these dynamics. Ask your TMC if you will keep the same account manager and travel consultants, or whether your team will change when the merger is completed.
5. Are there any process changes we should prepare for?
Identifying potential change early helps you to understand if they will fit your needs. Consider if communication will change, whether approval processes need to adapt, or whether any new workflows will be introduced that differ from what you’re used to. This will allow you to better prepare, negotiate services that better match your requirements, or kick off a new TMC search.
Technology migration
6. Will platforms be consolidated or operated separately post-merger?
Understanding what’s in the pipeline for technology will help you address concerns about usability and consistency. Ask your TMC what’s expected at various phases, will you be forced to use a system in the future? How will innovation work during the merging period and post-merger?
7. Is this acquisition primarily focused on a better booking tool or back-end automation?
Clarifying the focus helps you anticipate changes in workflow management and the TMC’s booking experience. This ties into the questions around processes and what the benefit of this merger is; you need to understand what might change, and how. For example, will there be better automation, or will something become clunkier?
8. How do you plan to align the technology stacks of both companies?
Understanding technology integration plans means you can prepare for changes that might affect user experience and programme efficiency. If both the merging TMCs have an online booking tool, they may decide to press ahead with one or continue to use both. Some features might be introduced to each tool or left exclusive. Or it might be a good time to reevaluate your requirements and if you can get what you need post-merger.
9. Will we need to transition to new technology platforms?
If yes, you need to fully understand what technology is coming your way, and how it all fits together in your stack. Evaluate what features this new technology has, and whether it matches up to what you had, or creates more gaps. If you decide to go ahead, you'll need a change management plan covering items like training, onboarding, and potential disruptions. If no, what does that mean for your current technology and future innovation? Are you content with what you have currently?
10. Will our custom workflows be preserved or altered?
Multi-national travel programmes require lots of flexibility and workarounds. You’ll have no doubt created customised processes and workflows in partnership with your TMC that work for your organisation alone. With two companies merging, are you able to maintain that flexibility and the workflows you’d put in place? How might they have to change? Protecting existing workflows is key if you want to maintain specialist processes that are unique to your travel programme.
Strategic rationale
11. What synergies are expected from this deal?
Do not just read the press; ask your TMC what the strategic advantages are. Try to get as much detail as possible about what synergies are expected from the merger and crucially, how they will benefit you and your travel programme. This will help you understand what new opportunities or services you can leverage, or if you think there might still be gaps following the merger.
12. How will the acquisition enhance the value of our travel programme?
With so much focus on value, return on investment and costs, this is a big one. Ask your TMC account manager what the benefits and advantages are of the merger for your travel programme specifically – how it's adding value, what you’ll have that you didn’t before, what will be free vs an additional cost. Obtaining these answers from your TMC will help you then value that partnership. You can use this information to also justify the merger's value internally and align it with strategic goals.
13. Post-merger, will there be more opportunities to customise our services and product offerings?
Whether you currently have flexibility in your travel programme or not, you will want to know more about future offerings and what can be tweaked. Explore with the merged TMC what flexibility and customisation are available – some may come out while integrating technology or switching services. Ensuring customisation is important for meeting your organisation's specific goals and enhancing employee experiences, especially if it’s due to change.
14. What is the expected timeline and process for the transition?
A clear timeline and understanding of change are essential for planning and minimising disruption during the transition period. Obtain as detailed a timeline as possible, outlining various stages such as any system migrations, technology migrations, changes in communication or when to expect synergies and enhancements to come into play. You will not only want this for you and your team, but to share internally as well so preparations can be made.
15. How might the merger impact your TMC's culture and how it interacts with clients?
This question has two benefits. Firstly, cultural shifts can affect service quality and your TMC relationships. Initially it will be impossible to know what these changes mean for you, but it will help you understand your level of acceptance for this big change. Secondly, you need to identify if the post-merger culture will align with your organisation’s own. You may have history with not choosing the incoming TMC in a previous RFP, which could make things awkward from the start.
How to move forward internally
16. Which internal departments can assist in understanding the merger's effects on budget and operations?
Management, HR, Finance, Security and IT may be among the stakeholders you need to speak to about the merger and the impact it’ll have internally. At its minimum, it puts this potentially large project on their radar, so collectively the organisation can think about the impact and next steps. Engaging the right stakeholders also ensures comprehensive analysis and strategic adjustments
across the organisation. They were likely involved in the TMC selection process, so it’s only fair they understand if a merger is on the cards.
17. Is there the potential for our programme to advance more quickly with an alternative TMC provider?
Given the ever-evolving nature of the business travel world, you’ll have dreams and ambitions or your travel programme, some that you might want to action sooner rather than later. Are you comfortable you can make those changes quick enough in this new environment? Or is it time to find a new TMC partner to deliver on your expectations?
Start to compare your current and promised offering from your current TMC with alternatives in the market. They may have better-suited solutions that could improve your travel programme’s savings, efficiency and experiences, and can get to it quicker.
18. How will the merger affect competitiveness in the TMC market?
Assess market impact and the wider implications of this merger on the TMC market. Gaining insights from your networks and peers is a good idea generally but can be especially useful when there’s a merger. By understanding the broader industry landscape, you can negotiate better terms and be clued up if anyone internally asks about your assessment of events.
19. What resources and costs are required for transitioning to the merged entity?
From the conversations with stakeholders, you will collectively start to understand how the merger will impact your organisation. Which means that people and money will need to be allocated if it becomes a large project such as a technology migration. This is also where the timeline is so important, as you can share with your internal stakeholders to plan for any immediate, short-term or long-term challenges. Planning, especially with other departments, will (hopefully!) soften the transition.
20. Should we remain with our current TMC or consider other options?
The big one! There is an argument that if you’re going through change anyway, there’s an opportunity to make a bigger, better change, by switching TMC. This decision is one that your organisation can collectively make together based on analysing benefits of the merger and assessing all your options. Then it's time to make the decision of whether to change within your current set-up, or change with a new travel management partner/s.
Navigating changes in a TMC merger?
These questions will help you determine your next steps, ensuring they are aligned with corporate priorities, operational needs and your company’s unique requirements.
Here are some further resources to help you during this transition.
