BTN 2016 Travel Manager of the Year Dorian Stonie: Open to Change

SOCIAL. MOBILE. OPEN. Those three words define the Salesforce travel program strategy, and they have become a mantra for Dorian Stonie who, as senior manager of global travel, continues to take his suppliers—and anyone watching the trajectory of his program—on a journey that's crafting the future of managed travel.

But social, mobile, open wasn't always the travel management strategy for the cloud-based software-as-a-service company, which landed a spot on the Fortune 500 in 2015 after 17 years of spiking growth. Indeed, when Stonie and Ralph Colunga came to Salesforce in 2009 from HP and Oracle, respectively, the company had "midsize" travel volume with a growing global footprint. They rolled out a formulaic travel program within five months, taking Salesforce to a single travel management company, a single booking tool, a single credit card company—harnessing volume and reigning in the options.

The proven best practices were working. "It was actually very successful. We could count complaints about the program on one hand," said Stonie.

But Salesforce's own Dreamforce conference in fall 2011 sparked a transformation that would break open communication channels, technology choices and booking channels. Moreover, that transformation would expand the scope of a traditional managed travel program in a way that would increase the value of the program for both preferred suppliers and Salesforce employees.

"We came out of the show and went, 'Wow, our customers are changing, our company is changing, the industry is changing. We've got to do something different,'" Stonie said.

SOCIAL

"Salesforce was our first client to embrace the social channel," BCD Travel senior vice president and Advito managing director April Bridgeman said about Salesforce's full adoption of its own Chatter platform as the administrative foundation of its travel program.

"I was the webmaster for the travel group at the time, and I will tell you that I was skeptical," said Stonie, who took over a travel community called "Road Warriors" from a group of 50 internal users who had leveraged Chatter for an informal travel information exchange. Stonie began promoting it to all travelers with a constant stream of information.

The social channel was the right choice for Salesforce's typical employees: under 30 years old, consumer-oriented digital natives who were unlikely to search out travel policy information buried on an intranet site and even less likely to read it.

"Instead of broad campaigns that would come out once a quarter or once a year, we moved to much smaller, much more frequent messaging via the Chatter platform," said Stonie. Eventually, messaging wasn't always around travel, which turned out to be a revelation. "We found what we call the 'social secret sauce,' which is one-third corporate information, one-third traveler and industry information and one-third fun."

To that end, Stonie would run photo contests, travel policy pop quizzes and raffles with rewards as simple as tchotchkes collected from Global Business Travel Association events. "We had senior level executives participating in raffles for notebooks. People loved it. It was fun and interactive, and 'liking' a post for the chance to win a prize doesn't take a lot of time. Then you start mixing it up, with policy and information about preferred suppliers."

At first, the travel team was responsible for all the content: responding to inquiries, administering contests and devising the next raffle, all while communicating about policy and preferred suppliers. Over time, the social community has grown from 50 users to more than 6,000, and policy questions have been widely circulated and answered, allowing a many-to-many communication environment to emerge. "One of the biggest benefits is that Road Warriors help other Road Warriors," said Stonie. All travelers at Salesforce are called Road Warriors as part of the social community identity. "There are a lot of people who know the answers to basic travel program questions, and they love sharing that knowledge. In some cases, especially for our international markets, there are Road Warriors who know certain countries, regions, types of travel better than [the travel management team] ever could."

Bridgeman believes the social strategy has helped scale Salesforce's travel program in such a fast-growing environment: "Salesforce's program has never reached equilibrium; it's been so dynamic and growing so fast. Finding a comfort level with that many-to-many communication channel has actually helped them to address that challenge while keeping their employees engaged and educated."

She also said working with Salesforce helped BCD/Advito shape its strategies and practices around social enterprise technologies within the managed travel space. "[BCD/Advito] embraced enterprise social in our own company at about the same time and happened to adopt the Chatter platform," said Bridgeman. "So we started this journey together in a way and together developed a unique partnership in leveraging traveler feedback to improve the program." In addition, the partnership "helped BCD to develop our enterprise social methodologies that we now share with other customers."

MOBILE

"We realized early that we had to deliver everything where the travelers needed it. For our team, that meant mobile devices, whether phones or tablets. And many [travelers] have multiple devices, so we needed to deliver through all these channels if we wanted to reach them," said Stonie.

Stonie emphasized that Salesforce now requires all suppliers to meet the mobile standard, weaving the company's internal Salesforce1 mobile app, Concur Mobile, International SOS and other apps into connected platforms. "We no longer build stand-alone vertical programs. They all must be horizontally connected with cascading information downstream." That said, Concur's mobile tool kit provides a solid core for the T&E program, while the Salesforce 1 app keeps lines of communication open with mobile access to the Road Warriors social community and other company services.

Even with a strong mobile strategy, Stonie added that the company doesn't have a mobile policy. "Travelers are free to load individual supplier apps or whatever they need to support their trips," he said. With the next generation of Concur Mobile and TripLink—which integrates such major suppliers as Avis, IHG, Marriott and Starwood and soon will integrate United Airlines and American Airlines—Stonie imagines a reduced need for travelers to go outside the program for mobile tools, though he does not see a time when it would be forbidden.

Salesforce mobile and social strategies play well together. "All our communications have to pass the mobile litmus test," he said. "Short, frequent and a strong visual component [that] helps catch the eye, and then people will read deeper if it's the topic they are looking for." But even so, as travelers scan the social feed, they get continuous impressions from preferred suppliers and stories from their colleagues who are using and recommending those suppliers.

"I'm a true believer that if we have configured our travel program with the right balance between rates and service, the traveler should naturally migrate to our preferred suppliers. The [social platform] gave us an opportunity to provide that information to them, and suddenly it was like a treasure chest opened for travelers even though we were doing many of the same things we had been doing for years like negotiating discounts and getting breakfasts and free parking. Suddenly, people are going '#wow #cool, I didn't know you had these discounts.'"

OPEN

Social marketing and mobile access have been central to the success of the most controversial aspect of Salesforce's travel program: enterprisewide open booking.

Stonie and Colunga acknowledged early that open booking—originally supported by Concur's TripIt, which is now part of the overall TripLink solution—would be integral in transforming travel management for Salesforce and eventually for the industry. Stonie's former colleague, Ralph Colunga, who now manages travel for Concur, remembers the shift.

"When we were at Dreamforce, I remember hearing from [Concur CEO] Steve Singh about TripIt integrations and aggregating data irrespective of the booking source. All that data that everyone knew was missing—we could have the potential to see that. After all the years of trying to control employees … we realized that we had to evolve our thinking and sunset the notion of 'command and control' travel management."

Stonie described the evolution: "In the past, we had created corporate travel programs that were like an upside down funnel. We mandated to a small entry point at the top so the information was already focused when we picked it up on the back end," he said. "We took the approach that we want to turn the funnel right-side up to get more distribution channels at the top but then aggregate the data behind the scenes. With evolving mobile technologies, the proliferation of apps and instant access to travel content in the marketplace, at some point you have to figure out a new way."

Amy Hyatt, the BCD vice president assigned to the Salesforce account, remembered the "figuring out" day when Stonie brought together Concur, BCD and Salesforce to map the open-booking solution: "We whiteboarded the entire process to capture duty of care and reporting requirements. Salesforce needed detailed reports and hierarchies, and we needed complete data sets. Types of bookings had to be segmented, how they would flow back and how reliable the data would be. It was an incredibly collaborative process, and we always had the latitude to question whether it was really what Salesforce wanted and to question Concur."

Bridgeman added that the trio of companies continues to refine the open-booking system. "Dorian is not afraid to take measured risks. He approaches them with grit, and he is able to focus on the solutions," she said. "More than that, and one thing that I very much admire, is how willing Dorian is to share his experiences openly with suppliers and with other travel managers. His work has legitimized concepts that otherwise might only be concepts, and that's what makes him a true pioneer for our industry."

BEYOND OPEN

Asked whether open booking and the shift to aggregating data on the back end have changed Salesforce's idea of compliance, Stonie continued to talk about high compliance with preferred suppliers.

This is where Salesforce's travel management paradigms get particularly interesting. Because it's not just open booking. It goes beyond that. That Road Warriors social community? It's not a closed channel; it's open to suppliers. That managed travel program? It's not just for company travel. Loyalty programs, discounts, special supplier deals, extra points—those are all extended to employees' personal travel, as well. It's all this "openness" that actually makes the program work, according to Stonie and his preferred suppliers.

"Social, mobile and open has actually increased our compliance," Stonie said, "from the standpoint that we have better-informed travelers who want to do the right thing. They just know; they just have more information about who our preferred suppliers are."

Stonie recognized early on that opening the social channel to suppliers, allowing them to market to and openly message Salesforce travelers would engage his travelers with Salesforce's preferred supplier set. "When you become a Salesforce preferred supplier, it's not just a discount and being stamped 'preferred.' That's just the first part of the journey," said Stonie. "Really, what preferred status gives you is the opportunity to build your brand among our travel community. That's what is going to make the preferred different than A, B or C brand, and through that type of relationship, we're building [stronger] partnerships. It's not just at a business-to-business level; it's at the business-to-traveler level because that traveler might take two trips annually for Salesforce but might travel four or five times a year personally, and the suppliers should want to be there for that part of the business, as well."

As it turns out, they do. And the deal gives Salesforce more power.

Colunga remembered an early conversation with a car rental company when the program was in the concept stage: "I said, 'What if we are not only going to allow you to message directly to employees but encourage that?' The senior leadership responded, 'If you did this with us, we'd make you a deal you can't get anywhere else.' We had a fairly small travel program at the time; it became immediately clear that it added to our leverage."

Karen Morrison-Perry, United Airlines sales manager working on the Salesforce business, said this type of engagement is what suppliers have wanted, but they had scant opportunities with other corporate clients. For Salesforce, United has created photo contests, given away a pair of tickets for a 'launch of summer' event and attached airline club passes to a quiz about a new United service.

Throughout, Stonie has curated the projects for short, direct messaging and for simplicity that works in a mobile moment. Where United used to see 75 hits on its promotions, it now gets more than 600, Morrison-Perry said. "People hashtag and 'like' and it creates a buzz." Those interactions are golden, she said, because United wants to target those young customers who haven't yet established travel loyalties in their personal or professional lives. "When they see the choices out there, I want them to recognize United," she said.

Dan Shuman, global account executive for Marriott International, has spearheaded Salesforce's only supplier-led travel community on the Road Warrior network. He said it's not filled only with information about Marriott but also focuses on the fun side of travel, giving recommendations, as well as promotions for local doughnuts and other "not-to-miss" experiences.

"lt's like a Facebook company page. It's a business-to-traveler social engagement, and it's the only one we have with any of our corporate customers," he said, though he notes that social engagement platforms have grown among corporate clients. But this is different. "The Salesforce travelers know me by name. The [direct access] helps us demonstrate our value and build our identity. We've seen the return on the investment. We see that Salesforce travelers prefer our brands because we've built that trust."

Asked why it still works, given Salesforce's open booking environment, Shuman is in in lockstep with Stonie. "Salesforce still has strong compliance to preferred suppliers, regardless of booking channel. When Marriott provides the right information and the right promotions, it helps the traveler do the right thing. Most people still want to book through the supported channels and utilize preferred hotels," he said, noting the loyalty goes both ways. "Salesforce has done a great job in [collaborating with] Marriott's local markets, as well. The travel team is open when local hotels want to run an initiative. Our hotels feel like they have a closer relationship to Salesforce because they feel the openness from the travel team. Because of that, they can find availability in some tough markets."

WHAT'S NEXT FROM STONIE?

Given Salesforce's presence in high-occupancy markets, sharing economy providers like Airbnb are no strangers to his program. "We're San Francisco based, so it made sense for us, particularly in our highly compressed markets. Also, our travelers were coming to us about Lyft and Uber and Airbnb and wanting to use them, so we looked into insurance, duty of care and how to handle that. They can't stay in treehouses or houseboats, but we wanted to be open to the idea."

It wasn't just travelers coming to Salesforce. New corporate suppliers themselves were inquiring for help, said Stonie. "They asked about our business requirements and what we would be looking for. We were happy to share that information with them, and so it has developed over the years where we were able to mutually benefit each other," he said.

Salesforce is getting better reporting from sharing economy suppliers and even instant notifications from Airbnb about bookings. And now that Airbnb has integrated with several TMCs, including BCD Travel, "it's going to give us an extra layer of visibility that we didn't have before."

Based on the work Stonie has done on the Salesforce program and in educating emerging suppliers about how to serve the managed travel industry, Bridgeman suggested he add a fourth pillar to his program mantra: Social. Mobile. Open. Shared.

"From the beginning, Salesforce has not been afraid to embrace a new opportunity," Bridgeman said. "Dorian has not been afraid to make these opportunities a formal a part of the program and then to share his experiences with those not already using them."