CONSULTING

Business Focus: UK Market Leader in technology with over 50m in annual revenue.

Based out of Cambridge, serving UK wide.

Number of employees: 10,000+.

Annual travel spend: £6 million

Despite not having a dedicated Travel Manager, ITC’s head of procurement was tasked
with reducing travel spend by 20% in 18months. 

In the first six months, ITC negotiated deals with suppliers, updated their travel policy yet the
number of bookings via their TMC was less than 30% of the value shown in their expenses. And of those bookings through the TMC, 40% were non compliant.

“The biggest challenge was changing the attitude of people,” said ITC’s Procurement
Manager. “I had senior management support in terms of policy enforcement but that
didn’t always work. We needed a travel programme that allowed the employee to take
ownership of doing the right thing.”

At the end of an internal review, the company had resolved to identify which traveller
behaviours needed to change the most. They wanted employees to:

• Book through the travel management company
• Proactively engage in continuous improvement of behaviours
• Comply fully to the travel policy
• Adopt spend company like it’s your own mindset

When ITC’s Procurement Manager was made aware of Gray Dawes Consulting
department, he set up a meeting. Gray Dawes Consulting offered a travel optimisation
service which designs and delivers bespoke strategies to meet organisation’s objectives
within the timeframe set.

Gray Dawes first task was assessment. Their experts worked with ITC’s procurement manager
to collate, clean and assess data; speak to key stakeholders (top travellers, bookers and
senior management in procurement, finance and of course travel) to identify realistic saving
opportunities in a menu of nearly 28 potential key performance indicators.

After agreeing on which offered the straightest line to meet ITC’s 20% savings target, next
they mapped out baselines and reporting to allow for accurate and on going tracking.
Realising that previous attempts of change had failed to achieve compliance, Gray Dawes
Consulting developed an integrated communications plan designed to engage travellers
and influence their purchasing behaviours using all available channels. The plan had three
main components:

• Identity – Gray Dawes Consulting created a travel programme steering committee
consisting of key bookers and travellers that would create a sense of identity and allow for
proactive evolution of the programme. All the reports produced to track progress were
shared in this open forum and created a sense of competition within departments.
• Wider communication – Gray Dawes Consulting opted for measures which required
interaction. Employees were given logins to the online platform and were involved
in competitions based on finding the lowest fares. Changes in the policy were also
communicated throughout hotspots in office (using used clear, succinct wording and
colourful graphics) and all employees were quizzed online.
• Technology – lastly, Aman tailored Gray Dawes booking platforms (on and offline)
which allowed for seamless integration to the policy and push notifications were regularly
delivered to travellers and bookers.

Average purchase price on travel spend was reduced by 27%, as spend through the TMC
finally aligned with expense reports and compliance to the travel policy achieved a healthy
96%. “We knew what we needed to do but this time we developed a plan to get there
which engaged stakeholders across the business. We achieved it together. It won’t stop
there as the travel committee is already working on improvements for 2020 and beyond with
the help of further KPIs set by Gray Dawes Consulting”.