The right partners are key to the success of implementing end to end expense management programmes, travel managers said.
Both Rolf Wiedenbrug, purchasing manager for SEAT in Spain and Volker Spichal, director of European affiliates for Boston Scientific in the Netherlands said the choice of their partners had been crucial.
Mr Wiedenbrug, speaking at the Association of Corporate Travel Executives' global education conference in Barcelona, said SEAT had begun implementing an automated end to end process in January 2005 working with American Express who handled training and Amadeus which built the software.
Speaking in the session on "demystifying end-to-end solutions", he said that his company had about 100 frequent flyers and made about 10,000 flights a year with an annual spend of 1.5m.
"We are getting more than 25% savings on average ticket prices which is more than we expected and the adoption rate of the self booking tool is 70-80%.
"We have saved more than 50% on the TMC fees and have reduced other costs as well. For example we have one platform now for booking and settlement of flights. The rewards are very big but you must choose the right partners and then work as a team with them," he said.
Mr Spichal said his partners were Carlson Wagonlit Travel, American Express corporate cards and KDS which built the software.
He said an end to end solution had already been implemented in the US before work started in adopting a similar process in Europe.
The benefits were having automatic approvals for trips, transaction traceability, integration with ERP, improved productivity and leverage and savings on both travel and fees.
"We had several partners, both internal and external," Mr Spichal said. "That was the key to success, having partners with expertise.
"Understanding the IT was something that took quite a bit of time but again working with partners allowed us to come up with a strong solution," he said.
Mr Spichal said the process was not finished yet and future needs were now being addressed.
These included transaction integrity, integrity challenges to reduce errors, and a pan-European rail solution.
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