Results at a glance
- Global travel program consolidation across 58 countries and implementation of a single travel policy.
- Achieved savings of 35% in year one and 39% in year two on travel volume of +$50 million, through negotiating global supplier agreements.
- Visibility on 100% of travel spend via consolidated reporting with CWT and expense tools.
The challenge
The client, a global equipment, components and services provider for the oil and gas industry, had a fragmented travel program, serviced by various travel management companies (TMCs). This created a lack of clear insight into travel spend and traveler behavior, and impacted pricing when negotiating supplier deals across air and hotel.
Each division handled travel independently, which meant no overarching policy or measure of compliance. And no clear spend oversight, centralized form of payment or consolidated data and traveler location visibility.
Barriers to overcome:
- Travel spend consolidation: A lack of oversight with multiple TMCs across 58 countries and hundreds of business units, each with their own rules, policies and behaviors.
- Hotel consolidation: Each country had its own hotel program and was unable to view rates in other countries.
- Air consolidation: Multiple air agreements were in place in each country, with the need to consolidate to a smaller number of global contracts.
The solution
CWT consolidated the client’s global travel program with a global spend analysis providing a clear picture of its category spend. This enabled CWT to negotiate global supplier agreements for the client using its full travel spend to benefit from the greatest discounts.
- Air: Multiple air agreements were in place in each country. CWT helped consolidate these to 15 global contracts, as well as enabling access to its own exclusive fares program. Creating a travel program for the client meant it could benefit from CWT’s marine and offshore fares, offering flexible prices with discounts of up to 75%.
- Hotel: Through consolidation, the client reduced the number of hotels in its program, enabling room nights to be directed into strategic hotels and increase spend in those properties. CWT provided access to its global hotel database, integrating the client’s program, with rates at thousands of properties globally. This included CWT’s own program of hotels, offering a 5-15% discount off the best available rate.
To better monitor all bookings, including those made by contractors, CWT used its global profile management solution to tie each reservation to a unique traveler ID – enabling accurate traveler tracking, which strengthened the client’s traveler safety and security policy.
Systems and processes were put in place to monitor counselor performance, helping drive a high level of service, consistent across multiple locations.
The result
- A consolidated global travel program and implementation of a primary travel policy
- Savings of 35% in the first year and 39% in the second year
- Visibility on 100% of travel spend through consolidated reporting
The client now has one TMC, one visa/passport provider and two forms of payment. The company gained two critical program components: consolidated reporting and the ability to track and locate travelers in an emergency. It also discovered it was spending more on travel than estimated, and used this information to negotiate discounts, driving bottom-line savings of 35 percent in the first year and 39 percent in the second. Year over year, the client reduced hotel leakage and improved compliance.
“The client wanted to create a single, consolidated travel program but with high levels of complexity and fragmentation this was a challenge. CWT provided a clear picture of travel spend and through detailed data analysis enabled the client to negotiate better global supplier agreements, with large savings across its air and hotel program.”
Tamasine Pritchard, Client Director, Enterprise Services, CWT.