The Three Pillars of Corporate Travel Program Consolidation?

A new year symbolizes a fresh, new start. And if you’re managing a corporate travel program, that may mean taking the time to create more efficiencies (and likely some savings). We’ve got one word for you: consolidation.?Travel program consolidation can have multiple triggers: data inconsistencies, inefficient processes, or even a looming merger can cause consolidation to come knocking.

However, while the benefits are clear, the word “consolidation” tends to invoke ire and not inspiration among many corporate travel professionals. To help, we have broken down travel program consolidation into three pillars, or categories, based on the consolidations we’ve conducted with various clients over the years: knowledge, effort, and organizational.??

FCM’s Three Pillars of Travel Program Consolidation?

Knowledge Consolidation: The process of streamlining your data and information flows, including reporting, analytics, traveler details, and integrations.??

Effort Consolidation: The process of optimizing workflows to avoid various inefficiencies, including booking policies, approvals, and standard operating procedures.?

Organizational Consolidation: The process of restricting and rebuilding business units due to major changes like mergers and acquisitions.?

Maybe one, or all, of these pillars struck a chord with you. Let’s break down these consolidation types one by one with a bit more detail and some real-world examples.???

Knowledge Consolidation??

“It’s a capital mistake to theorize before one has data.”??- Sherlock Holmes (Arthur Conan Doyle)??

Here is the cold, hard truth about data: if garbage goes in, then garbage comes out. One of the first things you need to do when adopting new technology or setting up new integrations is to clean house. And data doesn’t just cover your reporting metrics – it’s all your traveler profile information as well that feeds into the reporting. If John Smith has two different traveler profiles because he accidentally typed a lowercase j one time, it will lead to some reporting headaches (not to mention boarding pass issues). And in a world where your travel platform, booking tool, duty of care, sustainability, and governance may all be managed by separate apps, ensuring that data flows cleanly between each is imperative.???

Take our friends at a leading e-commerce platform.??

• Their goal: Clear, cleaner data = better decision-making.?
• The problem:?Constant issues with the Senior Vice President (SVP) field because there was not autocorrect/suggested text for misspellings. That information would not aggregate correctly under an SVP’s name.?
• The solution: Converting the free-text field to a dropdown as a failsafe so any data under incorrect SVP names would be sent directly to the booking team to correct and consolidate the data under the correct SVP. FCM also deployed a translation table to clean up historical data, or, take out the trash.??
• The result: $9 million of travel spend was correctly allocated and accounted for, and an audit one year later proved the knowledge consolidation was still working.

Effort Consolidation??

“If you define the problem correctly, you almost have the solution.”??- Steve Jobs??

It may seem beneficial to have different vendors, agreements, or even entire TMCs for various business units or even employee personas – however, this can lead to the dreaded cycle of doubling your efforts. For example, maybe your Global Sustainability Officer gives a new directive for travel programs. In a regional TMC model, you’ll need to work with each TMC individually to ensure they can create a framework to support this new sustainability policy and adjust booking workflows accordingly.

Let’s say you’re working with ten different TMCs…that’s a lot of Zoom calls. These redundant processes can also directly impact employee retention, which leads to disjointed support for your travelers. Long story short, inefficient workflows bring business to a halt.??

After completing a knowledge consolidation, our friends at Tractor Supply Company made a startling discovery.?

• Their goal: Manage unused airline tickets.
• The problem: They were netting six-figure losses due to inefficiencies with managing unused airline tickets.??
• The solution: Once they had cleaned up their data, FCM built them a tracking solution to keep tabs on unused tickets in their system. Employees were then made aware of the unused tickets and kept informed on ever-changing airline policies and ticket validity (which was especially helpful during the COVID-19 pandemic).
• The result: $55,000 of unused tickets were redeemed in 2019, with another $51,000 redeemed, or refunded, in 2020. Effort was consolidated by having employees check for unused tickets first before booking new trips. Get all the details in the full story.

Organizational Consolidation??

“Watch the little things; a small leak will sink a great ship.”??- Benjamin Franklin??

A business’ number one goal, aside from profit, is growth. A CEO’s greatest joy is to expand their company’s reach or acquire more business, either with the purchase of another company or a merger with a larger one. And when large organizational shifts occur, many new considerations pop up, one major consideration being: which TMC will you use???

And that’s the story of our organizational consolidation project with our friends at Charles River Laboratories.??

• The goal: Consolidate their entire program after acquiring a smaller biopharmaceutical company that was already using FCM’s corporate travel services. This included updating compliance policies, vendor agreements, and a renewed sustainability and risk management focus.??
• The problem: Before partnering with FCM, Charles River used a different TMC in every geographical region, resulting in high costs and booking inconsistencies.??
• The solution: Leveraging FCM’s virtual card technology to improve their payment process, eliminating the risk of fraud and the time-consuming reconciliation process. FCM reviewed Charles River’s booking patterns and secured renegotiated agreements with major airlines and hotels to drive cost savings and better visibility into their program.?
• The result: After consolidating with FCM, Charles River saved $907,000 in 2018 and $1.3 million in 2019. Discover the whole story here.?

Our Final Word on Consolidation??

Travel program consolidation is complex, but it doesn’t need to be complicated.??

Travel program consolidation is time-consuming, but it doesn’t need to waste time.??

Travel program consolidation isn’t nice-to-have, it’s essential.??

Even though we’ve described three distinct types of consolidation, that doesn’t mean you need to stick with just one. Many organizations see major benefits in completing a second type of consolidation after successfully implementing a first.???

FCM is a proven changemaker with more than 300 multinational clients for whom we consolidated more than $2 billion in travel spend.? If you’re ready to start on your consolidation journey, whether it’s for knowledge, effort, or organization (or maybe all), reach out to us !

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