[Case Study]

From "Managing Knowledge" Probst, Raub and Romhardt, Wiley, 1999 ISBN : 0-471-99768-4

Knowledge-Intensive services in the business travel sector; cost analysis using "Knows":

"Kuoni makes your holiday better." In the past this slogan reflected the company's main activity and determined its image. The picture has now changed.

In the 1990s providers of business travel services specialized rapidly and the technology that they use became more complex. Many business trips are international and there are many ways of making bookings and arrangements. This has increased the pressure on those employees who are responsible for arranging a company's business travel; they often feel overwhelmed at the prospect of organising it all themselves..

When companies seek support from travel agencies they expect high levels of organisational ability and technical competence. In addition transparency of costs may be a critical factor because of the growth in company expenditure on business trips; after salaries and IT travel is often the third major expense category.

In view of the vigorous growth of the business travel sector Kuoni decided to transform itself from a simple travel agency into a "Business Travel Information Management Company". It planned to offer its customers the kinds of information they need to improve their management of business travel. The provision of a knowledge-enriched service was a strategic success.

Kuoni now consistently publicises the knowledge-intensive components in its business travel service. In its offers to become the "trustee of the travel budget", it offers customers a comprehensive range of services, including special offers and special trips to trade fairs as well as ordinary business trips. Kuoni's computerized customer files contain all relevant data to business travel in the countries it serves. For each employee it can store class of travel, car rental category and personal preferences regarding seating or food .

At the heart of Kuoni's knowledge-oriented approach to customer support lies a recently developed software system for analysing the cost of journeys. This unique system - called Knows - which stands for Kuoni Nationally offered Worldwide Statistics - enables the company to assemble and process all data on the travel which the customer has previously arranged through Kuoni. The data package can be evaluated and presented according to customer requirements, and afford maximum transparency of travel costs. Spending on flights, hotels and car rental can be broken down according to destination, class of travel, provider and period. Since the second annual report comparison for the previous year have also been given. Management information flows direct to the customer from all important business destinations through the network of Kuoni associates in the Business Travel International (BTI) Association.

The information is provided in a convenient format which makes it easy to answer questions like which airline has attracted the greatest share of bookings, or which destination is the most expensive. 'Knows' helps the customer to monitor business travel more efficiently and also to ,locate opportunities for bulk bookings which carry discounts. This additional service helps Kuoni to retain all of a customer's business in the long term.