Case Study
Nakilat Qatar Gas Transport Company Ltd
Our background with Nakilat
Nakilat Qatar Gas Transport Company Ltd (QGTC) is a shipping company established by the State of Qatar. The company owns, operates and manages LNG vessels and provides shipping and marine related services to a range of participants within the Qatari hydrocarbon sector.
Nakilat is the largest owner of LNG carriers in the world, with a fleet comprising of over 60 LNG carriers and the parent company of the following subsidiary companies :
- Nakilat – Qatargas Transport Company
- NKOM – Nakilat Keppel Offshore Marine
- NSW- Nakilat SvitzerWijsmuller
- NAC – Nakilat Agency company
Here’s how we made it possible...
Prior to its partnership with FCM, Nakilat maintained a fragmented travel programme across the different divisions within the company. The four separate business entities owned by Nakilat were using multiple travel providers including online travel agencies to manage their substantial travel requirements. The ad-hoc approach to travel meant there was no standard or centralised policy in place to guide travel authorisation, booking, expense management or reporting.
The objectives
The company’s key objective was to consolidate it’s travel programme across all of its divisions to gain more control and insight of travel expenditure. Nakilat sought to partner with a travel management company that could not only consolidate it’s travel programme but provide insight on how to leverage their travel volume for more competitive supplier deals.
Nakilat was keen to develop company-wide travel policies and procedures, improve compliance and reporting, and achieve more bottom-line benefits.
Our solutions
The first step for FCM was to gain a thorough understanding of the company’s travel requirements and patterns. FCM undertook extensive research
and information gathering on the Nakilat operation by talking to as many stakeholders as possible.
Discussions were held with key personnel from each entity and travellers to understand their expectations, needs and issues. FCM established two implant teams in Nakilat to ensure personal and high levels of service. Over a two month period, FCM used the implant teams to establish travel process standards and to communicate the benefits of change management and taking a consolidated approach to the company’s travel programme.
To streamline and improve processes, FCM introduced:
- A new travel policy
- Travel booking and approval processes
- New procedures for payment and expense management.
FCM’s approach incorporated the following strategies:
- The introduction of dedicated account management
- Regular client review meetings
- The introduction of a uniform reporting structure across the entire business. This included two levels of travel spend analysis – one for the whole business and then individual reports for each of the entities.
- FCM provided Service Level Agreement tracking on key performance indicators such as response times, savings and policy compliance.
- Encouraging a company-wide shift in traveller behaviour to increase policy compliance.New procedures enabled FCM to track policy compliance issues arising from booking classes, use of preferred suppliers, and tracking of out of-policy bookings through exception reporting.
The results
FCM’s approach to travel management provided Nakilat with a centrally co- ordinated travel programme to garner more savings and value from their spend on travel.
To date FCM has helped Nakilat to save up to 15% on the overall cost of their travel.
Programme consolidation has helped Nakilat to achieve:
- Successful change management and traveller understanding
- Higher levels of policy compliance
- Enhanced insight on travel expenditure and patterns
- Greater negotiating power for volume-based deals with airline and hotel suppliers
- FCM was also able to deliver additional value to Nakilat by negotiating with suppliers for waivers on fees usually incurred on booking changes and cancellations. This alone achieved significant savings across the business.