Springer Nature, a leading academic, professional and educational publisher of some of the world’s most influential journals, seized the opportunity presented by a large merger to transform its travel program. A newly released case study outlines the success.
Challenge
The merger increased the company’s size and reach and gave its travel team an opportunity to:
- Strengthen buying power with suppliers
- Improve service consistency and program performance
- Gain efficiencies through data consolidation and uniform technologies
Springer Nature sought a travel management company that could fulfill its global ambitions and still offer strong local service. It chose BCD Travel, which already served two of its European markets, as its global TMC.
“We had something that was already working in key markets, so we went with BCD’s proven solutions,” explained Charlie Thelu, head of Strategic Sourcing at Springer Nature.
Approach
BCD worked with Springer Nature to map out a global implementation that would:
- Leverage global travel purchasing volume
- Target unnecessary costs
- Boost policy compliance and duty of care
- Improve travelers’ booking and trip experiences
- Increase data-enabled visibility into spend and environmental impact
The initial implementation brought travelers in 10 markets into a consolidated program unified by Concur technology. (Springer Nature and BCD continue to bring additional markets into the global program.)
Increasing online bookings was a high priority. BCD helped Springer Nature gain traveler buy-in by crafting a comprehensive yet clear global travel policy; educating travelers about the policy and online booking; and configuring the Concur online booking tool (OBT) to simplify bookings, reduce traveler frustration and increase compliance.
The travel team expanded hotel options, including by adding proprietary BCD content, to increase traveler choice and increase hotel-to-trip-night and duty of care compliance.
Results
The global implementation was a success. The consolidation doubled travel transactions. It also drove major improvements. Between January 2015 and December 2017, Springer Nature achieved:
- 13% decrease in overall travel costs
- 69% increase in hotel-to-trip-night compliance
- 58% rise in online adoption
- 12% decrease in average air ticket price
- 9% drop in car rental average daily rate
- 6% drop in hotel average daily rate
Sammit Khandeparkar, global travel head for Springer Nature, said he appreciates how BCD helps him look for innovative ways to save money and create better traveler experiences. “BCD provides the data, insights, tools and consultative expertise that help me improve performance today and make smart decisions about where to take our program next,” he said.
Thelu said, “We have a much clearer companywide picture of costs, duty of care compliance and the environmental impact of our travel program. We can see where there’s room to improve and take action.”
Read the full case study for more details, and ask your BCD Travel account manager how going global could improve savings and performance for your travel program.
