Six months on since QBT famously won the biggest corporate travel contract ever in Australia, I caught up with Russell Carstensen (QBT) and Tony Carter (Amadeus) to get the scoop on how they pulled it off.
It’d be fair to say that when news of the helloworld owned business QBT (Qantas Business Travel) Federal Government travel win broke in December 2014, the travel industry at large was taken aback at how a relative underdog at the time could have pulled off such a coup.
Worth a record AUD$66m over four years the massive win sent shockwaves through the industry with many leading figures voicing their emotions. And not all of them positive.
“It was amazing to see how many people were actually talking the win down whilst others wanted to know – how did we do that?”
Russell Carstensen, GM QBT
“When I came into the business three years ago I remember a certain trade publication at the time saying I’d got a hospital pass. The business hadn’t made a profit in 36 years; we’d lost a huge amount of market share, were behind the curve in technology and as a consequence were really struggling. It became part of my motivation to turn the business around. I didn’t want to be the last General Manager of QBT” Says Carstensen.
Rebuilding the business from that point on was the beginning of a long journey that led to them to winning the Federal Government account three years later.
The new look QBT…
“We essentially started again from scratch, working with the best of what we had and making technology innovation our number one focus from day one. We knew that if we didn’t do that, we’d be history”. He says.
With five other TMC’s battling for the lucrative account including HRG, Flight Centre, CWT, AMEX and CTM, the tender process itself took a year and featured arduous testing of QBT’s business infrastructure, people, technology and the certainty that QBT could handle the speed and scale of government needs.
“The process was extremely rigorous and fair. We had no idea throughout the whole process of where we were standings wise.”
Russell Carstensen, GM QBT
The tragic downing of MH17 in July 2014 became a major turning point for the Government in determining that working with one TMC was imperative to their needs. Where previously they had worked with multiple travel providers that meant varying processes, time and lag to track the whereabouts of passengers, the MH17 tragedy was a reality check to move to a single source of governance.
“It was a surprise to us that government wanted to move to one provider only given they had five TMC’s servicing their account, including us at the time. But they wanted one TMC that could handle the size and scale of their travellers needs.
Having one central source of truth, one central profile for all our travellers was our solution and point of difference to that challenge. So understanding the Governments incredibly diverse range of travellers and knowing who they are and what they need was a big tick for us.
We know who everyone is immediately when they engage with us thanks to our profiling technology and are able to service and help them in the appropriate way whichever way they connect with QBT”. He went onto say.
Andrew Scott Amadeus, Russell Carstesen QBT, Sharon Stanley Amadeus, Tony Carter Amadeus, David Katz Amadeus
QBT’s technology is driven by long-standing partner Amadeus who developed bespoke products such as AeTM (Amadeus e-Travel Manager) specifically for the Government pitch. Whilst the product is available to other TMC’s Amadeus created new functionality to meet the Governments needs for QBT.
“Our collective strategy was that we didn’t have a sales pitch. Government doesn’t listen to sales people. They listen to people who know what they’re talking about. We made sure we always matched their experts questions with the right experts across QBT and Amadeus”. Says Carstensen.
Amadeus worked extremely closely with QBT over the yearlong tender period and whilst there were ups and downs it was for Carstensen a great example of what can you do when you bring the right people together, mutually invested in each others success.
“I’m very lucky I inherited Amadeus when I walked through the door and don’t think we could have picked a better partner”. he says.
The winning technology solution Amadeus delivered included more smarts to automated ticketing and a more personalised user experience across multi devices for a more efficient process that ensures optimum duty of care for all travellers, wherever they may be.
“We firmly believe that the traveller is at the center of the eco system. From doctors to scientists, politicians and people from remote Aboriginal communities, Government travellers are an extremely diverse group of people – all of whom have different needs”.
Tony Carter, Amadeus Pacific GM
Now that the win has been achieved, QBT are looking far ahead beyond the four-month transition period in getting the four-year account up and running and bedded down by 30 June.
“We’re well on track to meet the transition deadline and the government are really happy with how it’s all tracking. We’ve delivering on everything we promised so far and will continue to continuously improve with the help of new technology products from Amadeus” Says Carstensen.
There’s a lot to smile about. Carstensen (L) and Carter (R)
“From there we want to grow the business. Transparency and agility coupled with best practice technology and value will be our formula and our plan is to take that to market locally and internationally. If you can do government well with all its complexity – you can do anything”.
“I’ve been so impressed with government, the fair tender process and their appetite for innovation.” He goes onto say.
Amadeus GM Carter echoes that sentiment by saying “Already, government are challenging us to innovate and will help Amadeus to continually develop the platform and create a benchmark for Corporate Travel. They’re actually helping us get better”.
Government benchmarking Corporate Travel and driving innovation in the private sector? Now there’s a thing.