THE KNOWLEDGE 1 Corporate case study
Dirk Woehr, EMEA Travel Manager, Autodesk HOW TO… BUY SMARTER
Autodesk’s mature travel programme is the envy of many of its peers. Gillian Upton profiles the successes it has achieved in the EMEA region over almost a decade
up their travel programme across Europe and it hasn’t looked back since. Autodesk’s travellers are accountants, designers and sales people travelling to clinch deals to sell their cutting edge design software to software houses, design firms, car manufacturers, governments and media firms. The way they book travel today is smart and efficient. The company’s EMEA Travel Manager, Dirk
N
Woehr, based in Germany, says: “When I meet other travel managers I can be proud of Autodesk’s programme. I think we have a very solid travel programme, using one online booking tool and one travel management company globally. “Years ago it was all about training
travellers on new systems and processes but today it’s more about service and looking over the expenses and getting them to do them on time so we can reduce late payment charges from our card provider.” Nine years ago however,
Dirk Woehr, EMEA Travel Manager, Autodesk
Dirk has worked for Autodesk-CAD, a leading company in 2D and 3D design, for the last 18 years.
Since 2005 he has been EMEA Travel Manager, a role that includes car fl eet and the company’s safety and security
programme. He manages 22 EMEA offi ces and 900
travellers. Prior to joining Autodesk he held several leading positions in the
international hotel industry.
it was a very different story at Autodesk, with 11 separate TMC agreements across EMEA, 11 different TMC account managers, 11 reporting systems, 11 different agency transaction fees and minimal spend in each country. It meant that Autodesk was not being recognised for its regional purchasing power as there was minimal spend in each of its markets.
ine years ago Autodesk, a company making 3D design software for the car, construction and animation industries, shook
Read on to find out how this fragmented set-up changed significantly, with Autodesk accruing wide-ranging benefits.
STEP 1
Autodesk’s first step was to consolidate its collection of TMCs across Europe, and it appointed Chambers Travel Management in 2005 as a single agency for travellers to book through. Chambers, part of the GlobalStar network, established the EuroCentre, a multilingual team to service travellers from each of the European countries Autodesk operated in. “They work very well for us; we have a special toll-free telephone number for each country and that goes straight to the right team, and in the right language, be it Dutch, Russian or Hungarian,” explains Woehr. “Travellers think they’re talking to a native speaker in their own country. And the staff haven’t changed so much over the years, which is good for relationship building.” The consolidation process reduced average
ticket price by eight per cent, improved compliance, fulfilled a finance mandate to centralise airline payments and increased employee satisfaction metrics for good/ excellent from 48 per cent (average) with the former travel management company to 86 per cent with Chambers. Autodesk has also benefitted from the virtual IATA licences Chambers set up, in terms of accessing better local fares, eradicating currency exchange fees from sterling to Euro, and local billing which has made it easier to claim back local VAT.
STEP 2
The company already had a mandated travel programme, created in the company’s US head office in San Francisco by Director of Global Travel, Bruce Finch. Big on duty of care as well as cost reduction, Europe had to be brought into line and policy dictates booking through one online booking tool (Concur) and one agency (Chambers). Pre-trip approval is in place and the travel policy states lowest logical fare in economy
“We have no European
airline contracts anymore but we do help frequent travellers with bonus point programmes so
they can get upgrades occasionally”
class for all flights. “We have no European airline contracts anymore,” says Woehr, “but we do help frequent travellers with bonus point programmes so they can get upgrades occasionally.” The company's Lufthansa deal was dropped because it didn’t fit in with Autodesk’s city pairs, but it does have an agreement with British Airways, Air France and SAS to accrue points for travellers. Autodesk Europe can also benefit from the company’s global contract with United. The bulk of Autodesk’s intra-European flights are only three or four hours long so economy class is not a hardship for travellers. Its travellers seldom fly to Africa and long haul journeys typically take them to either the company headquarters in the United States, San Francisco, or to the Middle East and various Asia-Pacific destinations, such as Singapore. Woehr believes that the company has saved an enormous 51 per cent on the 4.5 million full-fare air tickets bought year-on-year, which used to cost US$8.7million.
6 THE BUSINESS TRAVEL MAGAZINE
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