France Telecom optimises the management of its employees’ travel with Amadeus

With a travel budget increasing each year and over 100 people working full time in travel management and invoicing, there was a clear need to rationalise, harmonise and set up online solutions at France Telecom.

The France Telecom Group is one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world. 2007 saw the company investing in new territories, by both expanding geographically and advancing its service offering to other areas of business. The group has more than 159 million clients across 5 continents and 190,000 employees worldwide. In France, the company has around 90,000 employees and 40,000 potential travellers, validating the need to automate processes and put in place a global travel policy with a single self-booking tool provider.

The birth of the project

Michel Dieleman was appointed Travel Manager of France Telecom in 2003. The travel budget was €130 million with almost 60 people dealing full time with invoicing and more than 50 working exclusively in travel management. One of many challenges was to achieve the ambitious savings objectives on the group’s global travel budget as well as putting in place a common travel policy.

The project

After Michel consulted a number of companies, evaluating solutions that could satisfy France Telecom’s requirements, it was decided that a unified travel management system was the best way forward. This bespoke system consisted of the integration of Amadeus e-Travel Management for online bookings and Ulysse Travel and Expenses from Etap-On-Line for travel order management and centralised invoicing. Carlson Wagonlit was to become the sole travel agency, Cap Gemini Consulting, the system integrator and corporate credit and lodge cards from Crédit Mutuel and MasterCard, the payment solution.

The first phase of deployment was the introduction of Amadeus e-Travel Management for bookings at Orange France and Orange UK, a brand owned by France Telecom. Phase two was a full-scale global deployment of online bookings within the fully integrated system for the 90,000 France Telecom SA employees in November 2007.

 

Ensuring the project was a success:

User guidance throughout the rollout process

Daily conference calls took place from two months prior to installation and one month after deployment of the system open to those responsible for travel as well as to travellers looking for training, with no need for face-to-face meetings.

The intranet for the France Telecom Group business travel also played a large role in ensuring the success of the project as a permanent information source including tutorials.

Strict application of the travel policy

Users were granted immediate access to the best rates (Low Cost Carriers, Low Fares etc.) via the customised configuration of Amadeus e-Travel Management. Increased online adoption was achieved through the use of an automatic switching screen to direct employees to the online booking tool or the travel agency, depending on the complexity and content of the trip.

Introduction of monitoring and control tools

A team of “savings trackers” analyse spend and travel policy compliance then communicate with the travel manager via monthly reports. A monthly travel policy deviation report is also sent to management to track France Telecom’s performance in relation to its travel budget.

Top management buy-in

Top management involvement is vital to legitimise a project. The appointment of Michel Dieleman was validated by the Executive Committee, thereby endorsing the project. Dieleman confirmed that “Obtaining support from management across all countries and from the different stakeholders was essential in order to set up such a travel policy”.

 

The next stages in the France Telecom project will be to reinforce online adoption and also to pursue deployment to other business units.

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