2011 WINNER - Best Use of Technology in a Travel Programme

Siri Persson,

Travel Manager
Logica

Siri didn't just implement a SBT she developed a complete integrated online strategy which has saved her employer and its travellers both time and money.

A background in IT and project management trained Siri Perrson how to look at issues strategically. So when she restructured travel at Logica, she didn’t merely implement an online tool. Siri developed a complete integrated online strategy which has saved her employer and its travellers both time and money.

 

“The biggest thing is not introducing an online tool but to change behaviour and that doesn’t happen overnight,” says the travel and business meetings manager for Logica in Sweden.

 

When Siri first took on this role in 2005 travel was a fragmented process. Although there was an appointed travel management company and agreements, many ignored it and booked their own travel directly on the internet. Expenses were being reimbursed through a system of excel spreadsheets.

 

After obtaining a Masters in Business Meetings Management, Siri set out in 2008 to create a streamlined, end-to-end process from the decision to travel through to reconciliation and payment. She moved the system from one that just reacted to individual behaviour by reimbursing what the traveller chose to do to one that supported a consistent company policy. This resulted in employees’ adapting their behaviour to adhere to a single process which has saved Logica both time and money.

 

Her online strategy included sourcing a suitable online booking tool as well as an expense reporting system. Logica already had a company card which worked with her to implement the new system and suppliers.

 

Logica’s travellers now begin the process of planning any business trip by logging into a travel portal on the company intranet. This portal is actually connected to the expense reporting system, eBuilder, which holds the traveller profile. The traveller must log onto this portal with a project code (as a business and technology services company providing consultancy and outsourcing services, Logica does much project work which means that travel is recharged to the client) before they are then allowed, via eBuilder, to log in to the online booking tool, CWT Arktis. The information recorded will ultimately be used to reconcile booking with invoice, enable payment and reimbursement of expenses. The money transaction behind the booking will have been sent via the company card, First Card, to the travel expense report.

 

Siri’s system clearly saves much admin time. There is now only one travel invoice per business per week – a total of 400 for the company last year in contrast to more than 7,000 previously (one for each traveller per travel). That one invoice, however, enables each traveller to extract their specific spend information and submit expenses for approval before being automatically reimbursed.

 

The savings don’t stop there. Greater adoption of the online tool has meant not only lower transaction fees but lower travel costs because the inventory in the online tool reflects Suri’s travel sourcing and agreements. “If hotels are too expensive or not in the right location, they’re not in here,” she says proudly. “Greater volumes with our preferred suppliers mean the cost is going down all the time, and it’s easier to get good agreements that we didn’t have before.”

 

The online tool adoption rate is on the way to 80% which is exactly where Siri wants it. “I go by the 80/20 rule. Do the simple 80% online and for the 20% that’s more complicated, use the agent. It [online] shouldn’t take more time. It should always be easier and take the silly work away from people and leave them time to do their own core business.”

 

Siri’s next step will be to address integrating the meeting portal with the travel portal. “We have 35 offices in Sweden and it’s costly to travel between them.” She’s looking at the use of telephone, web and video and how to tackle the choice of how to have the meeting. “We need to discuss that at the beginning,” she says.

 

Siri Persson has achieved the travel manager’s holy grail of an end-to-end, booking to reconciliation, procure-to-pay system but she always acts in the interests of her travellers.

 

“We’re putting in a new online tool on a new platform and that will make things even easier,” she says.

 

Siri is a member of the European Travel Buyer Awards LinkedIn community: JOIN THE DISCUSSION TODAY