Travel management company ATPI helped car parts manufacturer Melexis to create and implement a global travel policy that resulted in significant savings in the company’s travel budget
The company
Belgium-based Melexis makes sensors for the car industry and has 19 offices in European and Asia employing more than 1,100 people. The company is listed on the Euronext Brussels stock exchange. The company’s revenue in 2016 was €456 million and it made a net profit of €96.3 million.
The problem
Each of Melexis’ offices had been managing its own travel with no overall company policy, booking system or control mechanisms in place. Regional offices instead maintained relationships with local providers - this was particularly notable in certain locations, such as the Ukraine and parts of Asia.
Melexis approached ATPI because it wanted to maximise its travel spending through a single centralised point of contact, while also reducing costs through centralised reporting and travel procurement across all of its global locations. Initially, Melexis’ offices across Europe and Asia were reluctant to move away from their own local travel suppliers – so there was a critical need to engage with regional managers and travellers, and win their trust and buy-in.
The solution
ATPI examined the disparate way that the company had been buying its travel to identify areas where savings could be made. It also appointed a dedicated member of staff as Melexis’ single point of contact to manage the process.
Following meetings with key stakeholders, such as human resources, facility management, site management and finance; a travel policy was created for Melexis and then implemented for all business travel bookings. As part of the process, a central data reporting system was also installed to capture all pre-trip and post-trip data.
The move to a centralised travel management service was communicated to all of Melexis’s travellers with the financial savings for the company highlighted. It also quickly led to the start of a full negotiation with a preferred airline, Bulgaria Air, as well as a key hotel partner.
The result
ATPI was able to help Melexis implement a global travel policy to simplify the company’s travel management programme leading to an increase in compliance and a reduction in costs as all of Melexis’ offices were able to access preferred partner rates from hotels and airlines.
The company says it has seen savings of more than 10 per cent of total travel spend, and that it is benefitting from a more streamlined approvals process, more knowledge about the travel budget and more spend awareness among travellers.
The TMC is also helping Melexis to improve its emergency procedures and use the ATPI Employee Tracking tool to improve duty of care to staff when they are travelling.
Machteld Van Rompaey, management assistant at Melexis, said: “ATPI treated our travellers with the best care and made sure a 24/7 follow-up took place, which was of great value, especially during the attacks on Brussels airport.”