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BMW –
Full-scale Internal Travel Department
“The biggest difference between before implementing
SkyGate5 and now, is that the goal to finish the queues every
evening is reachable. The travellers get much better service
that way, since they receive confirmation the same day they
send a request”.
Background
The BMW Group operates its own, internal travel agency and
travel management department, the BAVARIA-LLOYD Reisebüro
GmbH. The department is a joint-venture between a BMW Group
subsidiary (with 51%), and BTI Euro Lloyd (with 49%). With
more than 80.000 yearly bookings and in excess of 8.000
travellers, BAVARIA-LLOYD Reisebüro GmbH runs a sizeable and
complex travel management operation. There are 15 people in
travel operations, and one travel manager handling the more
strategic responsibilities.
Given the magnitude of the BMW Group’s travel department, it
was imperative that there was efficiency in workflow and
operations. Up until recently, travellers made booking
requests by sending an e-mail formula to the travel
department. While the e-mail process was electronic, it was in
the travel department printed manually and physically
archived. With travel requests on print paper in boxes, the
travel employees had little overview of the priorities of
bookings and distribution of workload. Further, the business
process was very time-consuming and certainly left room for
optimization.
Choosing a workflow-oriented system for efficiency
Given these challenges, BMW Group went looking for travel
management software that would explicitly focus on and
optimize the work processes of the travel department. Equally
important, the system had to be able to accommodate the very
strict requests by the BMW Group and the special innovations
made by the travel department. Having scanned the market
extensively for options, the leader of the Business Flight
department Andrea Nossem found SkyGate International’s
systems to be best suited to meet the needs of BMW Group.
Andrea Nossem explains: “We were mainly interested in a
system that would make our workflow much more efficient. We
had very time-consuming processes, and we had to be far more
effective. So we chose the SkyGate5 product”.
Having had SkyGate5 implemented for a couple of years now, the
BMW Group travel department has taken huge strides in process
efficiency. The papers and boxes are done away with, and
everything is electronic. Now, a booking request is
automatically queued by its correct priority, according to a
range of prefixed parameters, such as time of departure,
urgency, domestic/international travel, special status of the
traveller (VIP/executive) etc. Andrea Nossem and her staff
usually handles all bookings before the end of each day -
something that was nearly impossible before the SkyGate5
implementation.
Andrea Nossem says: “The biggest difference between
before implementing SkyGate5 and now, is that the goal to
finish the queues every evening is reachable. The travellers
get much better service that way, since they receive
confirmation the same day they send a request”.
Once given a priority, the system allocates booking among
groups of travel personnel, which assures a suitable
distribution of workload. In turn, that improves the overall
effectiveness of the travel department. By making the travel
department paperless, BAVARIA-LLOYD Reisebüro GmbH has
achieved an enormous optimization of workflow and processes.
According to an analysis from 2002, the department has saved
25% of the time spent to complete a flight booking,
But the travel department – in an ever-changing environment
– is relentless in pursuing new areas of optimization. Here,
SkyGate5 also helps. Andrea Nossem continues: “With
SkyGate5 we can easily see where processes can be further
optimized. Even after having the system for 2½ years, we
still continually improve processes and workflow - and
SkyGate5 helps us identify those areas.”
As to the special requests of BMW, one was cost centre
validation. With SkyGate5, that was made possible. Once a
booking is made, the system validates that the cost center, to
which the booking expense is allocated, is active and open.
For a company the size of the BMW Group, this cost center
validation ensures quality in allocation of costs.
How BMW involves the travelers actively with SkyWeb
Another challenge for BAVARIA-LLOYD Reisebüro GmbH was to
make the booking process easier for the travelers. A booking
engine was contemplated, but none was found suitable. Here,
BMW chose to adopt the SkyGate International’s SkyWeb
system, which is a booking request formula integrated with
SkyGate5. With SkyWeb, the traveller can via an easy-to-use
interface send all booking requests to the travel department
in an automated manner.
When implementing SkyWeb, BAVARIA-LLOYD Reisebüro GmbH
properly announced it to the travelers, and the e-mail formula
was done away with swiftly – and with it, all the manual
processes. Using the SkyWeb system was made mandatory for the
travelers, and today around 70% of all bookings are requested
via the SkyWeb system. “We notified the travelers 6 weeks
ahead, and again 2 weeks ahead, and from then on they had to
use SkyWeb. We had very high adoption rates within weeks”
explains Andrea Nossem of the implementation process. She says
of the system: “With SkyWeb, it is much easier for the
traveller as well.”
Using SkyWeb, the traveller always has an overview of upcoming
trips and all other travel-relevant data. The amount of
resources spent in the travel department to service and
support travelers has been greatly reduced - without
compromising the travellers’ experience of quality and ease
of booking.
How BMW makes use of cooperation between SkyGate and Amadeus
With the SkyWeb implementation in place, BAVARIA-LLOYD Reisebüro
GmbH has now moved ahead and made full use of a unique
collaboration between SkyGate International and Amadeus. This
has resulted in an integration of the Amadeus Aergo booking
engine into SkyWeb. With this integration, all profiles and
cost centres are automatically exported into Aergo when
booking online – further saving time and resources.
Having SkyWeb first, and then expanding the system with Aergo
integration, has proved hugely advantageous. While many
companies have faced grave problems to make the travelers
actually use self-booking tools, the BMW travellers were
already familiar with the SkyWeb system and interface. When
sending a booking request, the traveler is seamlessly
transferred to Aergo, when the booking should be made online.
If the booking should not be made online, the request is sent
to the travel department, just as before. Thus, all confusion
about when to use what booking channel is removed, and the
traveler has only one profile to remember. These factors are
usually serious barriers to successful self-booking adoption,
but BAVARIA-LLOYD Reisebüro GmbH has neatly circumvented
these problems with SkyWeb.
BMW and effective, modern Corporate Travel Management
The travel management staff of BMW Group runs a large and very
complex travel operation. But the travel managers have
succeeded in developing and integrating the travel department,
in a manner that is both valuable to the travel department and
the company as a whole. This has ensured a high efficiency of
the department, thus keeping operating costs at their lowest.
At the same time, the department has taken significant steps
to make the travellers’ interface and contact with the
travel department as smooth, effective and service-oriented as
possible. With the SkyGate International systems, BMW Group
runs a state-of-the-art travel department, which is difficult
to match by any standard.
Leader of the Business Flight department Andrea Nossem
concludes: “The various SkyGate solutions give us several
advantages. Firstly, our workflow is much more efficient.
Secondly, we save much money and time by being fully
paperless. And thirdly, it gives us the opportunity to
optimize our processes continually”.
The BMW Group’s travel department is ready to take on the
future.
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BMW:
Full Scale Internal Travel Department
