Paris – Considering EF Education First's average
employee is 29 years old, travel manager for Europe Johanna Wigg said she
wanted something “more innovative” for her travelers when it came time to look
for a new booking tool.
“When we saw KDS Neo for the first time, we thought, ‘This
is something that our employees would like.’ ” she said. “Our employees are
pretty young minded, and they like [a tool] that’s innovative, easy to use,
fast and accessible wherever they are, as we do travel a lot.”
Headquartered in Switzerland, EF provides education, language
and au pair travel programs for children and adults. Each of its 18 education
programs has its own team responsible for booking participants’ travel. EF has IATA-certified offices in
Boston, Toronto, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Lucerne, Switzerland, Wigg said. “We
try to spread it all over the world to be there for our travelers 24/7.”
But she's responsible for booking the staff's travel. She considered
her existing tool, Amadeus e-Travel Management, and looked into Sabre's
GetThere, as well as Concur. “Neo felt like we were like-minded when it came to
efficiency and moving faster,” Wigg explained. EF implemented KDS Neo nine
months ago in Europe and the United States, making it one of KDS’s first U.S. Neo
clients. And six weeks ago, the company launched the tool in Asia, its first
booking tool for the region.
“Now we have better overview for the whole company because
we didn’t have Amadeus launched in Asia,” Wigg said. “That’s something KDS made
possible for us.” Adoption rates also have improved, she added. EF has active
Neo users in 50 countries.
Wigg is fond of the tool's ability to predict expenses
before a trip is booked, including meals and taxes. “We use a few consultants [who]
want to know the total cost before they book,” she said.
Neo’s automated approval process flags noncompliant bookings,
triggering a manager’s approval. Wigg said some employees have had to resubmit
twice before managers approved the trips, which has saved the company money.
Multidestination trips are still challenging in KDS, however,
she said. “The function works, and you can pick flights, but at the end, the
pricing may not be as great if you were to, for example, pick pure Air France
flights. That’s a function I wish they would develop further.”
KDS declined to provide the exact number of U.S. clients but
claimed 366 Neo Travel customers at the end of the company’s fiscal year,
which ended March 31. North America accounted for 18 percent of new customer
revenue, and KDS expects it to account for 25 percent by the end of fiscal year
2016.
Correction, July 2: An earlier version of this report stated that all EF Education First agents are International Air Transport Association certified. Rather, each office has an IATA certificate.