Keller North America
LOCATION
Hanover, Maryland (headquarters London)
EMPLOYEES
2000
SPEND
$20M annually in hotel only for crew members
$4M spend in air, hotel, car for business transient
MANAGED TRAVEL PROGRAM
None
TRAVEL MANAGER
None. VP Procurement had travel as a category and hired us to learn about the indirect spend category of travel.
BEFORE
Employees booked travel independently and paid for it on a purchasing card
They did not use a Travel Management Company or an online booking tool
Client had a few contracts in place, but most travelers were not aware of the vendors and did not utilize the discounts
No company mandate or process in place to book travel or manage their travel budget
The largest spend of $20M was being booked by multiple stakeholders in the U.S. and Canada. Each project was negotiated by Project Manager or Superintendent. There was no central place to source and book the crew travel where they travel in small teams for long periods of time. The company was paying booking fees and paying for rooms that they did not use.
SCOPE OF WORK
RFP for Travel Management Company (TMC) and Online Booking Tool (OBT
Requirements for Southwest all content
Crew travel automation, sourcing and payment of crew travel
RFP for Air, Car and Hotel contracts
Expense tool review
Create company intranet page for travel for employees
Live training sessions, custom video training
Meetings and event sourcing, event management
Travel policy
Workflow analysis, built custom processes to reduce waste, reporting dashboards KPIs
Virtual payments for hotels
Product development on OBT
Source small team meetings
AFTER
TMC contracted for travel and meetings management
OBT selected that partnered with their current expense system so that travel and expense had an integration. The two systems work together and have a chat function for employee self-help.
Put hotel chain agreements in place
Negotiated car contracts for US and Canada
Built a custom workflow for crew travel and incorporated a new process for booking through one channel, the TMC
Held training webinars to introduce the preferred suppliers and show the process for sourcing for projects
Sourced negotiated meetings and events for internal meetings
Sourced large annual event, subsequently canceled and helped save all cancelation fees on meetings for 2020
Helped client source and hire a Travel Manager to continue to maintain the current program and focus on continual improvement
RESULTS
Employees now have one place to go to find their information about Travel, Meetings and Expense that is easy to navigate
There is an online booking tool for employees to book their travel that enables messaging pre, during and post trip for safety (pandemic)
The crew travel is now booked centrally by the Travel Management Company
Keller is now able to track their travel spend in real time with dashboard reporting, locate travelers affected by incidents, communicate in real time, and improve the overall safety of Keller’s employees who are traveling for business
Savings: 20% Air spend, 10-15% hotel and 15-20% car rentals
Centralizing crew/project travel process completed with TMC booking, resulting in 15-18% savings
“The category of Travel was new to the Procurement team. Get Travel Solutions helped introduce and interpret this complicated category. We were shocked at the results that Get Travel Solutions provided. In some cases, fees were waived by suppliers or we are finally able to get what we need solved. On top of it, Get Travel Solutions found us a great Travel Manager to keep the momentum going for continual improvement of the Travel program.”
Peter Weisberg
VP Finance (formerly, Keller North America)