The Challenge – With 10,000 employees across the globe, multinational financial software assistance company FD Technologies needed to simplify its corporate travel tech for an enhanced booking, monitoring and reporting experience.
The Solution – Provide the global organisation’s travel management team with an online corporate travel technology ecosystem accessible within one central hub.
Headquartered in the UK, FD Technologies has a diverse employee population throughout the world, a population that frequently travels between Ireland, the US, Singapore, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Poland, Germany and many other destinations.
When Corporate Travel Manager Chris Lehane joined the company, he found that the booking, monitoring and reporting had become too ad hoc to effectively manage the many travellers on its books.
As the company was rapidly expanding, Lehane explains how it’s crucial to manage its travel programme within one over-arching technology tool.
“My role is global so anyone who travels in the company must come through me and the travel team,” Lehane says. “Before I joined the team, employees were booking their own travel – through the airlines themselves at times – so the corporate travel team couldn’t produce any centralised reporting.”
A TMC with global reach
A TMC with global reach was essential for FD Technologies, as was an intuitive, easy-to-use online booking tool combined with exceptional customer service from its TMC.
Choosing to partner with Reed & Mackay meant Lehane and his team have access to its centralised technology suite. This exclusive technology – which had been designed and developed with clients’ needs at its heart – provides a central hub for travel managers and bookers that ensures compliance, control and security across the globe.
The platform houses trip data, travel alerts, risk information and more in one all-encompassing travel management programme. Information is updated across all platforms at the touch of a button, allowing alerts, approval requests and boarding passes to be sorted instantly.
Easy access to invoices significantly reduces administration time. While live availability and scheduled searches allow clients to fire off options to their Reed & Mackay consultant for any last-minute changes.
“It’s a really good online booking system. I use it at least 20 times a day in my role and that’s no exaggeration,” Lehane says. “I show it to other people in the business and it impresses them. Any information they ask for regarding travel, I can get it from this one central resource. This resource is essential to my role. The platform has so many different capabilities that make my job easier.”
Managing traveller security and trip data
The platform also includes an interactive world map that pinpoints the position of all travellers. It also provides critical advice tailored to their exact locations to help travel managers keep them safe.
“The traveller tracking is fantastic and really important,” Lehane says. “I’m booking for many travellers. So it’s essential I have a tool where I can quickly find out what trips have been booked for which travellers and when. I simply search for their names. Then I can easily see not only all the trips they’ve been on but their current trips too. I also have access to their invoices and travel spend.”
An online booking tool for across the business
As well as access to invoicing, clients have access to reporting functions. Lehane adds that the company’s finance team and senior leadership have used the tool. This means they can access some of its broader data reporting.
“I also encourage our travellers to use the mobile app. That’s because we’re on full billback and the app gives access to the virtual card,” he says. “The virtual card solves a lot of problems with hotel payments. And, for those travelling regularly, it stores all their hotel and flight reservations too.”
Service support for business travel management
Being provided with high-level customer service was of equal importance to Lehane and his team as the technology was.
“Initially, I needed some help from Reed & Mackay’s account management with the reporting side,” he says. “Its service can be super helpful for a start point. There’s a lot to manoeuvre and the service aspect of Reed & Mackay is unmatched in the industry.”
Next steps using the travel ecosystem
“As a business we’re looking in greater detail around duty of care and the travel experience. We’re already using the traveller tracking,” Lehane says. “Yet I think there’s so much in Reed & Mackay’s tech suite that could work really well for our business. That includes its risk reports and information on all the transport and medical aspects. This is particularly useful if our travellers are visiting a destination for the first time.
“We’ll also be looking more closely at the sustainable travel options. From the platform I can get reports showing what airline routes have cost us over the years. I can then see the trends if they’re becoming more expensive or cheaper. If our finance teams ask how much flights are over a set period, the platform provides a report. And this delivers excellent visibility.
“You need a concrete corporate travel technology tool to cope with global programmes,” Lehane concludes. “Technology has always been a focus for Reed & Mackay. And, since it became part of the Navan group, it’s become even better.”
Find out how Reed & Mackay’s corporate travel tech can simplify your travel programme.
Get in touch
Mail hello@reedmackay.com to discuss all your corporate travel and event management needs.
