Chad Lemon:
Hello everyone. Welcome back to Connections. I'm Chad Lemon. On this Connections Success Story episode, we're highlighting how a global agricultural company worked with BCD to save over US$3.6 million. And my guest today is Tara Volpintesta, the global program manager who works closely with this account. Welcome to the show.
Tara Volpintesta:
Thanks for having me, Chad.
Chad Lemon:
Yeah, of course. So this client has a global footprint and had a need for better technology solutions, resources, and some enhanced services to help identify savings with its travel program, right?
Tara Volpintesta:
Yeah, that's right. And thankfully at BCD, we don't do a one-size-fits-all and we look forward to being creative in what we offer our clients. So we had a team of about 50 leaders that got together and we immediately went to work consulting on about 30 different topics. And then in three months we were able to develop a plan and present a new travel program to the customer.
Chad Lemon:
I mean, to me that that's fast and those are some impressive numbers as well. And I love that you highlighted the power of multiple leaders and colleagues within the team.
Tara Volpintesta:
Well, we're big at thinking outside the box and taking the broad approach to all the travel solutions. And so here's an interesting number for you. We had more than 400 calls that we held with the company and we set up its program and encouraged the efficient usage. So over the next four months, the new travel program was implemented across 30 countries.
Chad Lemon:
Wow, okay. Well, when you say the new travel program was implemented, can you give me some examples of what some of those changes were?
Tara Volpintesta:
Yeah, sure. So with the health of Advito who did the traveler engagement and they were amazing, we engaged those travelers in many different ways, which reduced the company cost. And we did that through multiple trainings and they were local country trainings and the communication through the new booking tool, the preferred hotels being booked, which help prevent the leakage. And then we optimized the air advanced booking, and that helps secure those lower rates.
Chad Lemon:
I love the Advito Engage team. I think what they do is so innovative and so helpful to programs. And I know we have some powerful flagship technologies. Any of those help in this multimillion dollar savings?
Tara Volpintesta:
They really did absolutely our trip management platform, TripSource. And then we had other key solutions and features like the virtual payment automation. We were able to put in the credit card reconciliation, our expiring ticket recycle program, and we also had the powerful air price assurance and also the hotel price assurance involved as well.
Chad Lemon:
Yeah, I love both the price assurance options. We've talked about them on the podcast before. They are just wonderful at saving programs money with literally zero effort. Okay. Last question for you. Can you do a quick rundown of some of the success highlights?
Tara Volpintesta:
Yeah. Well, I think this is impressive. So we had about 63,000 transactions within the first six months, and just to highlight a few things off of that, we upgraded the data feed so it was cleaner, had more accurate and secure data, and that was a huge.
Chad Lemon:
Super important.
Tara Volpintesta:
Huge win for the customer. And then we had the company branded online booking tool, which again, the Advito traveler engagement came in with that. This helped increase the online adoption, and we upgraded the hotel management and lower hotel rates. We engaged the Stay group, we streamlined the communication and training sessions with the employees, and we had the lower airfares through the increased advanced booking, and we had the really amazing reporting and analytics, which blew their minds that we have. And then we improved the internal processes. So all in all, at the end, it really was around 4 million in savings.
Chad Lemon:
Wow. Just hyper impressive numbers of what you and the team were able to accomplish. It's quite amazing what can happen when a company fully engages their TMC and partners to optimize their travel program. Like I said, an incredibly impressive success story. Thanks so much for sharing, Tara.
Tara Volpintesta:
My pleasure. Thanks for having me.
