Talking business
There are three of you in the team, so who is the lead for
travel, and how did you get here? Jean-Marc Saint-Viteux (JMS): There is no team leader – we each come from different
The world’s attention has been on the CERN particle physics laboratory on the Swiss-French border in recent years, as it sought and found the mysterious Higgs boson. Mark Frary talks to the organisation’s travel team to find out what goes on behind the science
departments. I am deputy department head of human resources [HR]. I joined CERN in 1983 and led the implementation of the first external financial ERP [enterprise resource planning] system. In 2005, I joined the HR department as group leader of services, procedures and social groups, taking on responsibility for travel claims management. Gabriele Thiede (GT): In 2009, I was put in charge of the programme to develop an electronic official travel process, which led to running a pilot of Amadeus e-Travel Management. In 2012, my group was transferred to the director general’s unit [effectively
What does CERN travel look like? GT: Last year, the total spend was 11.5 million Swiss francs [approximately £7.71 million], which includes air, rail, car rental, subsistence and conference fees. JMS: If you look just at the travel element, we spent between 4 and 5 million Swiss francs [approximately £2.7-£3.4 million]. We handled around 10,000 transactions during the year.
Who has the CERN account and how is it serviced? JMS: We have used Carlson Wagonlit for a number of years, but we are currently in a re-tendering process. We re-tender regularly, but there is no rule that prohibits a contractor from being reselected.
There is a lot of interest in joining CERN from
non-European countries, such as India, Russia and the Ukraine, meaning more long-distance travel
CERN’s chief executive] to give it independence and neutrality, and renamed as the administrative processes unit.
Boi-Lan Lemoine (BL): I joined CERN in April 2013 after 20 years with the United Nations, managing the procurement of goods and services in construction, IT, administration and consultancy. And I now look after one of the sections in the finance, procurement and knowledge transfer department.
What is CERN, and what size is the workforce? GT: CERN was founded in 1954 to be a world-class fundamental physics research organisation
in Europe, and it now has 21 member states. We directly employ 2,400 people to build and run particle accelerators, and analyse experimental data.
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CERN is funded by public money from member states
– travelwise, what does this mean? JMS: The main principle is using the cheapest logical means of transport, and this is enshrined in the staff rules and regulations – but these do evolve over time to adapt to changing circumstances.
BL: CERN does not use European public procurement regulations but has its own rules. For a large contract worth over 200,000 Swiss francs [approximately £134,000] there is a substantive, formal procedure and we let individual member states know about opportunities, so that we don’t miss any potential supplier. GT: We have a dedicated team of travel managers based in an implant at CERN. Even if we want to push more for an online booking solution, we need to have a physical presence to deal with special requests. BL: We have been through a benchmarking exercise to see whether we should rethink the strategy on implant/outplant, and it continues to work for us. JMS: It is also worth mentioning that one of our requirements is that we won’t accept a call centre located outside the member states.
A cheapest-logical-fare policy presumably
means you use low-cost carriers extensively, and business class is not widely used... JMS: Easyjet is the biggest client of Geneva airport, and we use it if it’s the cheapest
option – which is often the case.
MARCH/APRIL 2014
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