Case Study
Travel Admin for a technology company
The Client
Industry: Technology & Distribution
Countries consolidated with FCM: 9
2019 Travel Spend: $22.1M
2021 Travel Spend (annualized): $8.0M
Analysing the situation
This technology company was established as a spin-off from a much larger firm in 2018. The parent company retained all the travel professionals, and travel management at the new company was assigned to someone in Procurement as part of a larger roster of indirect categories.
Faced with standing-up programmes across the board, travel management quickly began eating up most of the procurement professional’s work time. Most of their say was spent on tasks including:
- Reacting and responding to questions about policy
- Expense processes
- Traveller service issues
- Generating reports
- Establishing budgets
- Vendor management
The Travel inbox was starting to overflow, leaving no time for establishing any corporate travel strategy, never mind the other categories that needed managing.
Solution
FCM Consulting, having listened to the specific needs and expectations of the client, implemented a Travel Admin resource into the team, priced at a percentage of the company’s travel volume.
It was the Travel Admin’s role to handle day-to-day activities, manage the inbox, train travellers, and handle all the high-volume, low-impact tasks. This freed up the the procurement professional’s time to consider how travel strategically supported the new company’s goals. It also meant more time to be responsive to senior management and address the other procurement categories, knowing that travel was in good hands.
Results
Outsourcing made economic sense, since the company was not in a position to hire new heads and the Travel Admin cost flexed with travel volume and effort.
Traveller and travel arranger satisfaction increased significantly because their questions were being answered promptly, professionally, and knowledgably. By eliminating traveller discontent, the entire programme began to operate more efficiently.
Finally, the procurement professional had time to rewrite the travel policy, provide real budget guidance to the business units, and strike new deals with suppliers to support the programme and generate savings.
“FCM Consulting played a vital role in establishing our strategy, policies, and overall management of our programme. Travel is just one of the many purchasing categories that I’m responsible for, so I couldn’t have done it without them.”
Procurement Manager, Technology & Distribution Company
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