American Express Business Travel has shared that it has signed more than $1.5 billion in new sales and renewals from North America headquartered clients. The company says its 2006 business plan for North America is on track. (7/18/2006)

Through June 30, the company signed more than $1.5 billion in new sales and renewals from North America headquartered clients. This represents an increase of $418 million or 63 percent over the same period last year. Through mid-year, online penetration in the US grew to nearly 43 percent of all transactions processed, a release stated.

Andy McGraw, senior vice president and general manager, American Express Business Travel said that prospects and existing clients alike are pursuing the benefits of global consolidated and advisory services, which have powered successful mid-year results.

The company's focus on network rationalisation, client engagement and change management remains right on course, he said.

In another development, the company is pursuing a patent for its system, method and computer product for calculating savings derived from several expense categories relevant to managers of travel related services, such as online adoption, advance ticket purchase, use of non-refundable tickets, class of service, meetings, among others. The invention allows American Express Business Travel's client managers to evaluate, quantify, and present the actual savings value provided to a client during a period of time, and produce savings summary worksheets and reports to guide future spend decisions.

It also shared information about a strategic framework for the delivery of next-generation global management information (MI) data reporting in 2007. The development process will be based on client-defined needs and built upon six key criteria: global data integrity, core reporting, dash-boarding, custom reporting, benchmarking and consultative insights.

The MI solution will innovate how American Express Business Travel's clients receive and manipulate data for mining, benchmarking, analysis and reporting. The tool will employ a highly accessible graphic interface for a more beneficial user experience, according to the company.

The company's newly integrated global consulting unit, Advisory Services, is developing a range of solutions from diagnostic tools to full-on engagements ?specifically tailored to the middle market, including for example:

- Hotel RFP Management to support bid preparation and hotel program selection, and to perform rate-load audits of GDSs
- Policy Strengths & Opportunities Assessment to address critical areas of risk management and program control, and to identify savings opportunities through, for example, peer benchmarking
- Policy Design Guide, a plug-and-play travel policy builder

Middle-market travel programmes display similar characteristics as found in large and even multinational enterprises. However, middle market travel managers often lack the resources and specialized expertise that is necessary to fully manage travel spend, said Mike Streit, vice president and global leader of Advisory Services. We believe our dedicated solutions for the middle-market will help these organisations unlock more program savings and efficiencies.

More than one-third of the company's total portfolio of North America headquartered clients has adopted advisory services in addition to traditional travel booking services since 2004, it was added.