Consolidate your travel programadmin

Reduce costs, improve consistency and increase efficiency

The prospect of consolidating a travel program can seem like a daunting feat. However, managed correctly, the rewards by far outweigh the pain. Mindful of those rewards, following a successful program consolidation in the U.S. and Canada, an industry giant turned its focus to its EMEA region.

Case study: Consolidation

Industry:  Manufacturing
Annual T&E spend:  €40million globally

Results in brief:

  • Greater program participation and compliance
  • Consistent service quality
  • Simplified technology integration
  • Increased leverage on supplier negotiations
  • 14% decrease in average ticket price
  • 27% reduction in agency costs
    		•

    BCD Business Travel proposed integrating nine separate country travel programs into its multilingual Multinational Service Center (MSC) in Mechelen, Belgium. Consolidation on this scale normally takes between nine to 12 months, but in response to internal and external pressures, the client requested that the consolidation be completed in just five months.  

    Thanks to certain key success factors (see below), combined with data feeds from the client’s human resources system, the implementation was completed on schedule: all major countries now book through the MSC.

    Travelers simply dial a toll-free number to be connected to an agent speaking their local languages. As an added bonus, technology implementations were streamlined; a single implementation covered all markets.

    Key factors behind the successful consolidation included:

  • Leadership support in each country
  • Baseline measurement and process documentation
  • Implementation team members Thanks from both companies
  • Clear and timely internal communication regarding the change in travel program
  • Re-employment of best practices learned from each wave of implementation

    • Overall, the consolidation has allowed a greater spend visibility; tighter travel policy and cost control; improved vendor program management; and ultimately concrete savings. One year after the consolidation, the company saw a decrease of 14% in average ticket price and a 27% reduction in total agency costs.

    For more information on consolidating your travel program, please contact your BCD Travel account manager.

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    This entry was posted on Monday, March 16th, 2009 at 10:34 am and is filed under Corporate Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.