Travel expenses are trivial, until there are 250,000 a year. Then 30 percent savings are no longer an office matter, but a line the board reads.
At an industrial group it was about 80,000 users in 16 countries and around 250,000 expense claims a year. Before, for the individual that meant several hours a month recording receipts, often on the weekend, with outdated rates in Excel and on paper. After, the travel is booked in the central portal with negotiated rates in a few clicks, approval runs passively, and around two thirds of the recording effort has simply vanished, because company account and corporate card are directly connected. The most complex part, by the way, was not the technology. It was the automatic calculation of the per-diem allowances by home country and trip duration.
Where the 30 percent came from
The savings drew on two sources. First, better rates, because the group finally had transparency about its volume with airlines, hotels and rental cars and came to the table with that bargaining power. Second, the consistent use of these rates: with few exceptions, over 90 percent of the 80,000 employees now book through the central portal. Bargaining power without usage discipline would have been only half the effect.
What was not in the price
The five-year contract had a double-digit million volume, but the decisive thing was not in the price. The maker’s delivery model was weak: no real test system, thin resources of its own, and the gap was to be filled by consultants who felt more like they had been picked at the beer table than by project references. To my question about the design timeline came the line: „We are not going to start planning the planning with you now.“ It was the first time that, after the assignment and a few tens of thousands of euros, I dismissed an entire consulting house again, because a structured approach, a solid milestone and requirements plan, were simply missing. Afterwards we won a competent implementation partner, and it ran.
When your gut rumbles with a standard product, listen. The price is negotiated before you sign. The delivery capability of the implementation partner decides afterwards whether the contract turns into a result.
