Objective

One of the UK’s largest construction providers and a member of the FTSE250. This customer specialises in delivering innovative, sustainable solutions across the entire project lifecycle.

The key objectives were:

• Streamline and enhance MI reporting
• Manage over 600,000 task codes efficiently
• Consolidation of their hotel programme
• Full visibility into VAT billbacks and reconciliation
• Improve team productivity by leveraging advanced technology solutions

Challenges

The challenges included:

• Lack of visibility into travel spend and policy adherence.
• Too many hotels (approx. 300+) making it difficult to manage.
• Difficulty in correctly assigning travellers to projects.
• Lack of reporting to update and track project allocations.

Solutions

Consolidation of hotel programmes: Through the consolidation of the client’s own hotel programme and access to the CTM’s Global Hotel Programme, the client leveraged volume with selected hotel chains, enabling the negotiation of better rates, added benefits, and improved traveller satisfaction whist delivering cost savings.

Automation of task code assignment: The implementation of an HR feed automated the assignment of project and task codes, streamlining the allocation process, reducing manual errors, and saving administrative time – improving productivity. A dynamic allocation system was also developed to ensure that travellers were correctly assigned to projects based on real-time updates.

Enhancing policy compliance through technology: CTM’s proprietary Online Booking Tool, Lightning has automated communication methods to improve compliance. Pop-up prompts are used to ‘interrupt’ the booking workflow, nudging bookers towards compliant options. When a booker selects a higher-priced option over the lowest available fare, prompts and reason codes are triggered. This visual reinforcement fosters greater compliance and cost savings.

Internal training on policy & compliance: In-person training sessions to improve compliance and reduce out-of-policy bookings. Collaboration with the client’s internal trainers helped evolve the training for a broader group of stakeholders, fostering a culture of informed decision-making when booking travel.

Reporting & dashboards: Automated reports and dashboards were developed to track travel spend and policy adherence. Ad-hoc reporting training was also provided to the client’s key stakeholders to enhance their ability to monitor and manage travel data effectively.

Improved VAT reclaim: Capabilities were developed to efficiently manage VAT reconciliation, providing a line-by-line breakdown of transactions. This approach helped the client identify and reclaim VAT more effectively, leading to additional cost savings.

Outcome

Cost Savings: Achieved a saving £228,157 on 19,830 bookings over a 2-month period – Potential annualised savings of over £1.5M at month two.

Traveller Satisfaction: Online adoption increased by 20% sitting at an overall rate of 91% through use of CTM proprietary OBT, Lightning.

Efficiency Gains: Successful automated project and task code assignments reducing administrative time by 2hrs per day.

Policy Compliance: Improved compliance rates from 67% to 98% within 3 months.