CASE STUDY
A Consolidation Story: Multinational Manufacturer Streamlines from 95 TMCs to 1
Key Highlights
Global food, candy, & pet supply manufacturer
With over 95 TMCs managing the travel needs of employees distributed across 60 countries, a multinational food, candy, and pet supplies manufacturer was facing lack of global visibility into their travel programme. When they first came to FCM, they weren’t looking to consolidate...but that soon changed.
The challenge
After over 30 years with another TMC, the manufacturer changed course and partnered with FCM in the US region, along with Southeast Asia. Just one year into the partnership, the manufacturer was so impressed with FCM’s work that they decided to consolidate their global travel operations with FCM. The manufacturer’s goal was to obtain increased visibility into their programme data, more efficient workflows, and, of course, increase savings.
The approach
For a programme consolidation of this caliber, performing an effort consolidation was essential. The FCM team first sought to gain local buy-ins within all regions and assess the pre-consolidation state of their programme. Turns out that no two regions were approaching travel in the same way – some didn’t even have a travel policy in place. To remedy this, FCM helped the organisation create a global travel policy that was agile enough to adapt to different business entities’ needs. Then came the knowledge consolidation, which provided cleaner data so that better decisions could be made. Unifying the travel programs gave FCM a better picture of the company’s data in addition to stronger hotel and air negotiating power. To further streamline processes and enable data visibility, travel programme technology, from booking to mobile, was integrated into a game-changing single platform for all regions: the FCM Platform.
Bringing in FCM has been the highlight of my career.
- Travel manager at manufacturer
Visibility and savings, unlocked
So what were the results? Employee efficiency skyrocketed while costs plummeted. Within just a few months, the manufacturer achieved global savings of more than $7 million and a return on investment of 3:1. The goal of over 80% FCM Platform adoption was achieved. The best part is the manufacturer emerged from the consolidation process with more visibility into their global travel operations, which in turn better prepared them for the future.
We are delighted with the online booking tool. We also love SAM and around 90% of our travellers are now using the chatbot-based app to support them on the move.
-Travel manager at manufacturer
A global travel programme, unified at last
The challenge was massive, but through diligence, collaboration, and the dedication of a global network of FCM experts, a programme was designed that was globally uniform and agile enough to adjust to local needs. Read more of the details into this story when you download our case study.
Our FCM consultant, Katy, is very responsive and helpful. She’s enjoyable to work with and is a great source of information for us when we have questions on protocols or industry trends. She understands our current geographies and their needs very well.
- Travel manager at manufacturer