PepsiCo - Leading F&B brand

The Objectives

Prior to commencing trade with FCM, PepsiCo had a fragmented program spanning 20 countries using up to 10 different travel agents, multiple reporting systems, global distribution systems (GDS) and no single, clear lead for the travel program.

With anticipated annual travel spend above USD40 million, the team at FCM had their work cut out for them, creating a single consolidated travel program adhering to local iterations of a global travel policy for more than 5,000 travellers and contractors.

The Challenges

As with any global implementation of this size and scope there were a number of challenges which the global FCM team had to overcome:

• Policies – FCM identified during the implementation process a total of 14 differing and sometimes contradictory travel policies across the markets.
• Suppliers – approximately 150 additional preferred hotels across APAC and MEA were identified that did not exist within the PepsiCo global hotel program. Further to this, more than 100 global hotels were not aware they had been selected as a PepsiCo preferred hotel – this is significant as this meant the previous travel agency had not confirmed the hotel’s selection and rates were not loaded correctly into the GDS.
• Form of payment – differed across markets with company credit cards not available to all travellers as FOP in some countries; an invoice account with credit terms was delivered to rectify this.
• PepsiCo Thailand – after implementation it was uncovered that travel volumes in Thailand were 100% higher than forecast. FCM were able to immediately up-staff the total headcount by a further two travel consultants and one dedicated visa processing resource to meet demand.
• Travel administrators – many PepsiCo employees responsible for booking travel were resistant to change as they felt job security might be threatened as a result of the end-to-end service model. FCM was able to deliver a full and complete travel booking support for travellers and reduced the administration work in the booking process for these staff.

Solutions provided

Led by the highly experienced FCM Global Account Manager, a global account management team comprising two regional account managers and in-country national account managers in each market; each country followed a tailored change management and communication plan to drive consistent program architecture and deployment utilising the client handbook developed specifically for PepsiCo.

The team worked to deliver:

• consistent implementation plans and delivery in each location
• implant services in Dubai and India with a central service solution in Dubai servicing Saudi Arabia and Bahrain
• removal of implant services in Egypt and Jordan
• FCM Portal implemented as single point of entry into the FCM technology eco-system across all countries
• roadshow presentations in every market to travellers and travel bookers, including local language where required
• preferred airline rates audited and loaded into booking system with more than 21 preferred airlines over 72 points of sale and more than 1,400 client nett fares
• preferred hotel rates across 3 GDS audited and loaded into booking system with more than 7,500 rate audits completed in 40 days
• traveller handbooks delivered in all markets detailing “how to” of PepsiCo’s travel program, provided in English and local language where required
• end to end travel booking process launched including air, hotel, car, visa and leisure services